That Time of Year

Ah yes it is upon us once again. That magic marvelous time of the year. Over the turnpike and through the six mile long security line to grandmother’s house we go. Today and tomorrow are the two biggest travel days of the year and highways, airports and choo-choo trains will be packed to the absolute gills with happy travelers heading home for Thanksgiving. Nothing says the holidays like being stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike or DC Beltway with a car full of kids and their twerping, beeping electronic devices and loud arguments over battery chargers and seat space. Nothing, and I mean nothing, invokes the Holiday spirit like inhaling the delicious seasonal odor of exhaust fumes tempered with McDonalds and full diaper from the nether reaches of the back of the minivan. A body scan and a strip search get the holidays started off the right way. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.


But it is worth to gather with loved ones and make memories that last a lifetime. Remember last year when Aunt Ethel got shit canned on Gin gimlets and wondered constantly throughout dinner why Cousin Mary, a Lesbian rights activist, had not found some nice boy and settled down? Or the year Uncle Frank, reeking of burnt hemp and stopping only to shovel in the Fritos, insisted on telling the little ones all about his ear collecting adventures in The Republic of Viet God-damned Nam? Maybe your younger brother can show up in an Armani Suit and new 5 series Mercedes again this year and the whole family can go batshit crazy comparing all his great achievements to your piddling efforts. If you are real lucky he will also once again pull you aside later and ask to borrow a few grand until his next deal settles. No big deal, just needs to get the credit card companies off his back for a bit. Perhaps you will once again wonder how in the hell your Mom can cook such an incredible dinner when she starts drinking white wine about five minutes after the first guests show up and stays in the kitchen in order to avoid the madness as long as possible?

We here at Chez Melvin decided long ago that we were not traveling ANYHWERE over the Thanksgiving Holiday and we have a tightly controlled guest list. All are welcome until you screw up. This policy makes for the type of fun, loud, laughter filled Holidays we prefer. Thanksgiving is my slam dunk, winner by a wide margin, favorite Holiday. There is plenty of food, lots of booze, great wines and of course pie. Lots of Pie. There is football to watch, stories to tell and I do not have to buy one single damn gift for a soul. No bow, no ribbons, no bells. Just food, drink and good times. I get to spend a couple of days cooking and prepping and no one will complain too much about the mess I make in the kitchen. Did I mention Pie?

In the midst of all this we really should stop and take time to give thanks. Even if you have had a shitty year and are a victim of the non-recession we are experiencing, there is a lot to be thankful for. Look around the table . If you are surrounded by friends and loved ones enjoying the day you still have a lot of good things in your life. If you are at a Dennys by yourself with the Turkey Platter (and yes I have done exactly that) special, you are still alive and at least they were open. Even when it sucks, life can be like a poker tournament. As long as you have a chip and a chair you still have a shot. If you have the basics it is time to be grateful. Most of us have far, far more than that and should be extremely grateful for all we have. This year has not gone as planned but when I look around the table at my wife on our second Thanksgiving together and all the kids, family and friends gathered there I will be blinking away silent tears of gratitude for just how spectacular life can really be.

Every year at this time I give thanks for the country in which we live. Most of the time we have a sort of semi democratic capitalist society, that in spite of the best attempts of those with good intentions, can still offer us the opportunity to chase and reach our dreams. They will tax you, regulate and discourage you every step of the way but they have not yet figure out how to take away the chance or dim, much less extinguish, the brightness with which a dream can burn. The United States is not perfect and may appear to be less so every day but it is still the land opportunity and if you squint and peer deeply into the fabric of America you can still see the outline of the bright shining city on the hill that we are still capable of becoming.

On cannot be grateful for the land in which we dwell without expressing our thanks for those who have defended her and kept her free to stumble towards that which was intended by the founding father. Every man and woman who has put on the uniform of the United States of America from Valley Forge to Fallujah deserves our gratitude. Our peaceful dinner gathering is won for us by hard men and women willing to commit extreme violence on our behalf. I do not always agree with the reasoning the half brained self-proclaimed genius fuckwads inside the beltway use to send our best and brightest into harm’s way but I am grateful that they are there and willing to defend the hard earned freedoms we enjoy in this country.

I am grateful for books. They teach, inspire, educate, entertain, inform, relax, inform, inflame. My love of reading has been responsible for any measure of success I have enjoyed in this life. I love great books, bad books, technical books, funny books, sad books, whimsical books and lyrical books. Every book you read from the thickest text book to the basest novel contains some kernel of information and knowledge. Books make my life better. I learned to invest, to write, to cook, to drink, to be a better father, to not kill the puppy, to value a company, to laugh at my own humanity, all from books. To everyone who ever stuck a pen to paper or finger to keyboard and bled their thoughts, knowledge laughter and tears onto a page, I am grateful.

There is so much in today’s world for which to be grateful. Car Seats that warm your ass cheeks on a January morning. Cable TV Channels with 24-7 baseball coverage even in the offseason. The world of information available at your fingertips. Wireless technology that allows me…oops I mean You, to pretend to be at work when you are really on the beach. Cell Phones that allow you to be in touch around the clock. The off button on cell phones. Libraries. A world of music on a little box that fits in your shirt pocket. Microwave ovens. Wine. Pennant races. Flat screen TV’s for less than a decent radio used to cost. E Readers. Look around you and this amazing world we live in and you have to take a second or two to be grateful for it all.

Most to fall of course I am grateful for my family. My daughter who has through sheer determination and will overcome the difficulties of health problems and constant setbacks to fight her way towards her dreams. One semester left and she will joined the ranks of the chronically over worked and underpaid and become a teacher. She tells me she wants to keep going and eventually be a professor of literature. I know she will achieve it, talking too loud and laughing too much all the way. My son the businessman and well on his way to executive son. He has a drive and determination to succeed that never fails to impress me. The little shit refuses to read but he soaks up knowledge like a sponge. He has turned into such a great young man I am glad I didn’t beat him to death all those times in his teens when I was sorely tempted. My hyper intelligent stepdaughter with her runaway imagination and creative spirit absent mindedly stepping along the path out of childhood and into, dear god and sweet Jesus protect us all, the next stage of girlhood. She is 8 going on 19 and has an extraordinary future ahead of her. My wife, my partner, my best friend. I never expected to find a partner especially one like Erin who is just the perfect fit for my life. She is my other half and makes me believe in things I never did before. I never knew how much I missed having someone who makes my life whole until I found her.

I am not an idiot. There is a lot about life that sucks right now. Bailing out dishonest bankers . Now it looks like we will use the IMF to bail out Europes dishonest bankers in an act of sheer stupendous stupidity. Taxing away productivity. Shitty little misguided wars in stupid little countries we should just bomb into fucking oblivion and forget about or ignore. Democrats. Republicans. Hangovers. The Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Steelers. Traffic jams. BCS Rankings. Foreign aid when we are technically broke. High frequency trading. Hybrid cars with bigger carbon footprints than conventional cars. A reliance on political dogma instead of common sense. Peter Angelos still owns the Orioles.

Heres the truth of it all. There has always been a lot wrong in the world at any given point in time. However there is usually far more right than there is wrong. No matter what time period in which one lives the thing to be most grateful for is life itself. Be it a divine plan or accidental biological collision of groins that produced you, you are alive. You are here for however long to taste the tears, feel the kisses, breathe the air, read the books, hear the music. No matter what else you are hear and alive with a chance to succeed, to fail, to make love, to get your heart broken, to fall in love to walk in the rain and sit in the shade. We are alive and there are people who love us, people who like us and we get to share this with them, this being alive. Sometimes it is glorious and sometimes it hurts like hell but we are alive. For that and that alone we should be grateful. The rest is a huge bonus.

On Thursday I will lift my glass and give thanks for being alive, being with the ones I love and who love me , or at least tolerate me most of the time, for all the adventures, for the laughter, the kisses, the books, the music and the opportunity to be . And for Pie.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

Diminished Circumstances

Diminished circumstances. A fine turn of a phrase that means I fucked up big. Just once I would like to get carried out of the building covered in piss and blood while long 137 car loads of S&Ps while the market crashes; or stuffed up to my ears with a short bond position on POMO day collapsing in a beaten battered heap screaming Viva la Revolucion! Something dramatic and gritty that will make the autobiography more interesting. This is not my lot in life. The markets have been good to me and I expect them to continue to be for some time to come. This type of financial market weirdness is in my wheelhouse and I am not leveraged so I get no grand and glorious ending worthy of a late night CNBC special. A huge cut in compensation from my largest free lance deal and a few nasty grams from the scum sucking bottom feeding government tit sucking bastards at the IRS and here we are. Diminished circumstances.

It has not been a lot of fun but it is really not all that bad. We moved off the island and now live in the close in Baltimore burbs so it’s more of a return to my roots than anything else. At least that’s how I am selling it. I hated leaving the Island but it may have been past due. I have contemplated leaving several times in the past but I had more palm trees and less late night sirens involved but thems the breaks. The memories and friendships developed over the past 15 years will be with me always. I am sorry for all the bartenders who will now have to struggle to pay for their kids college education and Cadillac payments but we all have our difficulties in life. I swear I heard my liver sigh in relief when I crossed the bridge for the last time.

To its dismay there are plenty of bars and liquor stores here as Baltimorons are the drunkest prayingest people in the world according to my late father. Every few blocks has a bar, a liquor store and a church. I am not much on church but the other two may come in handy. I have already talked one understanding liquor store operator close by into stocking my brands of wine and cigarettes so all in all the move is survivable. I hate taking the hit in this manner but I still have my books, my wine and people who love me. My wife has been a rock through it all and made the circumstances far less diminished than they would have been otherwise. My kids have been understanding, albeit sick of helping dad move shit between the house and storage facilities we have spread out all over Northern Anne Arundel County.

I am not going to sit here and blame the evil government or satanic bastards at the IRS for my DC (diminished Circumstance) issues. The government in its current form is evil and the IRS is indeed the devils tool but the truth is all fault lies in the mirror. If you are aggressive enough that the IRS calls you to task, you made a bet and you lost. Even if you do not want to pay them or think that you do not really owe the money they have the laws and the guns to take it. To avoid them entirely means allowing the government to take far too much of your money over your lifetime. I made what I thought was the right decision. They humbly and with all the legal tools at their disposal  disagreed. I picked a fight I couldn’t win. My bad.

I should have had a more diversified revenue base and built up the money management operations sooner to avoid reliance on one contract. I should have developed my own web presence and newsletter service some time ago. The money was coming in, waiting until manana was the easiest path. Godot may not ever show, but tomorrow always does. I can regret that but the truth is I had a grand life for years. I am paying for all the boat rides, ball games , late nights, stiff drinks and long trips at the moment but I am not sure I would not do it exactly the same again. I view it as living like Travis McGee and taking my retirement in chunks while I am young enough to enjoy it.

I do not want to down play it all. I took some good hard shots and have to do some serious rebuilding. My family has been through a tough month of downsizing our dwelling and lifestyle. As with anytime you experience DC I have lost some friends. There is probably some bitterness among some acquaintances for deals that collapsed when I could no longer afford to play the game for now. I regret it that but I sure as hell can’t change it. I have been left holding the short end when others had bumps along the road and chalked it up to the business of life. That’s the case here.

In the grand scheme of things I do not feel like my circumstances are really all that diminished. I go to sleep each night and wake up each morning next to my best friend and partner. My wife has been a rock and a joy during this past month. All the things that make life wonderful , the books, the friends, the wine, the music, my incredible children, are all still here. I will be able to regroup and rebuild rather quickly and as I do the reduced expense load will allow us to stockpile cash to take advantages of the opportunities offered by the current economy and stock market. Not one ounce of the knowledge or wisdom I have gained over the years has been lost. I have merely added to my list of stories for when I am a grouchy curmudgeon telling stories at my combination bar and book store on a southern beach.

Let’s move along. Not much to see here anyway. Looking at the stock market I see some incredible long term opportunities. Right now I am trying to focus on those areas where if they do not make me rich the world will have totally absolutely once and for all collapsed and it won’t matter very much. Banks and real estate certainly would seem to fit that definition. They trade at valuations that are fractions of what they are worth in better times. If we ever see boom times again in the next decade (and history tells us we will) many of these stocks will be minimum ten baggers. If they do not improve to more normal times at some point over the next ten years, our money would be far better off in bullets and canned food and I am still more optimistic about the future that that .

When I look at real estate I see that some of the premier operators once again fetch premium valuations. However when I look at smaller operators I see bargains. Hotel operators like Sunstone (SHO),Felcor Lodging (FCH) and Red Lion (RLH) trade are ridiculously low valuations. Quality shopping center operators like Cedar Shopping Centers (CDR) and Kite Realty (KRG) not only pay fat dividends the share price is far less than any reasonable estimate of their real value. Suburban consumers are wounded but unless the Walking Dead (GREAT TV SERIES!) becomes a true story and zombies eat up the entire customer base these REITs will see much better performance and much higher share prices over the next five to ten years. Commonwealth (CWH) has some management conflict issues and has issued too much stock in the past two years but the shift from suburban office properties to urban center high grade offices should pay off brilliantly. If the stock just trades to book value you double your money and the 10% dividend yield pays you for your time waiting. Real estate, especially among lower tier REITS and real property in your local marketplace is just cheap if you have a long term perspective and can handle some volatility.

Banks are in the same boat for all the same reasons. In reality the weakness in real estate is responsible for the weakness in smaller community and regional banks. I am starting work on a new project ot produce a book outlining all the ideas for the trade of the decade so I won’t name nay new bank names as I expect you all to pay for them when I am done. However I still like the private equity infused banks like Central Pacific (CPF) United Communities (UCBI), Sun Bancorp (SBNC), and even Hampton Roads (HMPR) . Hudson City (HCBK) is still a quality high yielding bank name that I like quite a bit. Among larger regionals Key Corp (KEY), Fifth Third (FITB) and even Huntington Bancorp (HBNK) are worth buying on declines. First Interstate (FIBK) and Renasant (RNST) are worth consideration. If you are not looking into smaller banks in your region and talking ot the community bank executives in your town you are making a huge mistake and leaving huge dollars on the table. The book will be out shortly and I will disclose all the names and possible strategies for the Trade of the Decade.

The other either works or we are all good and truly fucked investment area is infrastructure. We have delayed spending the money as municipal finances are strained and federal money disappears into bureaucratic black holes but we better figure out how to raise it and spend it soon. The electrical grid is a mess especially in the northeast. It seems a vigorous wind is all it takes to knock out power for days at a time. Water systems all over the country are years behind in repairs and updates. Roads and bridge repairs have been delayed to the point of being dangerous in many areas of the country. I favor turning most of this over to private hands and let them raise and spend the money but I am not naive enough to think any government official in the nation is that smart so we may have to wait for the economy and tax revenues to improve but if we wish to avoid slipping further towards third world infrastructure this has to be done soon.

Infrastructure stocks should be in your portfolio and on your watch list. I think you can but stocks like Muller Water (MWA), Gencor (GENC) and Pike Electric (PIKE) right now. Others like LB Foster (FSTR), Flour (FLR), Foster Wheeler (FWLT) Granite Construction (GVA) and Sterling Construction (STRL) should be on your list of stocks to buy in a broad based decline that makes valuations more attractive. This is if not when money. I think that at some point in the next decade these stocks will be a boom sector of the market and I want to own them before this happens rather than chase them.

Moving along the Orioles have hired a new GM. Peter Angelos’ deal with the devil is firmly in place as the only one who would take his offer has been out of the game for almost a decade. Still, I am an optimistic idiot when it comes to baseball and the guy did build a winner in Boston falling just short of the World Series before the trend Follower fired him and replaced him with a certified fucking genius in Theo Epstein. Epstein has moved onto the Cubs and after he finds the appropriate sacrifice (Soriano burnt at a stake at home plate?) to appease the goat I think the Cubs will head for the series sooner rather than later under the new GM. Can Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter combine to work the same sort of magic for the Orioles? We shall see but just in case I am keeping a Cubs jersey in the back of the closet if they fail and I need to find a less desperate team to call my own next year.

I keep saying I will write here more frequently and almost never follow through on the threat. I am going to have a book to promote endlessly and am keeping an eye open for new money management clients and writing opportunities so perhaps this time I will follow through. I might, although I find that I have many books to read and write, many moments to spend enjoying the company of my wife, large blocks of time scheduled to annoy my kids as well as to talk baseball, college hoops, markets and swap tall tales with friends all over the country. I shall do my best.

Birds and Markets

The major question today is which fetid stinking pile of crap I want to examine first. The markets are confusing, Europe is on the constant verge of collapse, the political situation in the US would be laughable if I could just stop crying, unemployment is high and real estate just refuses to get better. But I have put it off long enough. I have to begin this time with a review of the Baltimore Orioles and the season that sucked worse than last. I had high hopes coming this year. I say that every year but with a new manager and some new bats I thought, I hoped and prayed that a .500 season was in the cards. Once again the Gods of baseball laughed at my pretensions and answered my prayers with a sound and resounding “fuck off little man.”


Painful as it is let’s take a look at the team. I cannot lay any of this on Buck Showalter. The guy is a proven winner if you give him some talent to work with. That makes Andy McPhail a fail, much as it pains me to say. We never made the moves or got the players we need to have a chance to win. Rumor has it he will move on at years end and the next victim of the Angelos curse will move into the warehouse as GM. I think you could put Bill Beane and Brain Cashman’s love child in that office and they will fail. We are cursed. Angelos traded not his soul but the Orioles hopes to satanic forces in return for the riches of asbestos and tobacco settlements. There is no other rational expectation.

On the field one of the biggest problems is that Brian Roberts again spent most of the year off the field. Robert Andino did a more than adequate job of filling in for him but he is not the driving force and team leader that Roberts has been over his years. I have doubts that Roberts can ever again be the straw that stirs the drink in Baltimore but no replacement for him has stood up this year. We need that sparkplug leader on this team and right now we just do not have it.

Offensively the Orioles are not that bad. We were 6th in the AL in terms of team batting average. We have four players with more than 20 home runs, a claim only premier teams like the Yankees and a few others can also make this year. We average about 4 runs a game which should be enough to win more than 59 games we have through last night. The problem once again is pitching. Its horrible. It’s not even a good triple AAA staff. It is the worst pitching staff in all of the major leagues. You have to have pitching to be competitive. We do not.

The worst part is that one of the most reliable pitchers we have had here in the past few years is poor damn Jeremy Guthrie. The guys has good enough stuff he would be a third of fourth starter and win 10 to 15 games a year anywhere else in the majors. Instead he is on track to lose 20 games. When trade rumors were swirling at the deadline he had to be secretly hoping they traded him anywhere for anything to get the hell out of Baltimore. He will give 200 innings again this year but he is snakebite in this town. It would be an act of mercy to trade him at this point. The rest of the staff has been a circus of flash in the pans and almost theres. Some of these young guys have to live up to their potential if we are ever going to have a chance to win.

On the field it was nice to have Vlad Guerrero here. He did okay hitting .286 but that’s not why we got him. 12 home runs and 54 RBI is not why you sign a one and done guy. I love Derrick Lee but was glad to see him go. Signing old guys in hopes of a year of resurrection has never worked for Baltimore. Stop doing it. It is a waste of money. This is Baltimore. There are no miracles in Camden Yards. Find and sign younger talent that can be here a few years and make a difference

It can be done. One of McPhails greatest achievements is going to be the long term signing of JJ Hardy. Give me 9 players like him and I’ll make the playoffs every year. He is gritty no nonsense ball player who shows up to work every day. 26 home runs and reliable defense from the shortstop position does not suck. I like this guy and am glad we signed him to a contract extension.

Nick Markakis had another decent year hitting in the .280+ area. He is an outstanding right fielder and has one of the best arms in the game. When he first gam up I thought he would be a genuine super star but he has never developed the power I anticipated. Still he is a solid reliable everyday player an if he ever had real lineup support we might see that power and RBI potential show up one season.

Adam Jones has also had another good year and is on the verge of being a great ball player. Right now he is very, very good and it is a short leap to the next level. He can easily be a steady .300 and 30 guy in my opinion.

Matt Weiters is the best defensive catcher in baseball. Once again this year he has started to show power in September. We need that to make an appearance in July sometime. He can hit better than .260 and needs to settle in and hit to his potential and he will be one of the greatest catchers in the game. My guess is that will happen when his contract expires and he goes to New York or Chicago in a few years.

Move Mark Reynolds to first base or DH and keep him. If he hits 30 or more home runs every year he is a keeper no matter how often he strikes out. The man has 108 hits this year and 68 of them are two bases or more. If we could runners on ahead of him he would have a 100 RBI’s. Whatever you do get him off third base.

We need power on the corners and we need pitching. Pitching than can go out day in, day out throw at least seven innings and keep the team in the game. Of course we have needed that for 14 years now and have been unable to get it. The bright side is that once again we get decent draft picks again this year. High draft order has not worked as a strategy yet but I am always hopeful. For Now it’s back to rooting for ABB (anybody but Boston).

Now let’s address the markets for a moment. We are in some seriously uncharted waters. We have zero interest rates and ZIRP will be a reality for some time to come it appears. Europe is just a train wreck and that’s not helping any sort of global economic recovery. China is gleefully buying up the world’s debt at pennies on the dollar and I just cannot think that’s good for anyone but China in the long run. Job creation is non-existent in real terms and real estate just keeps getting worse, albeit not as fast as before. Given all the uncertainty if anyone tells you they know where the market is going and give you a high confidence prediction of stock market movement the rest of the year you can pretty well figure they are idiots and move on. One can have hopes for the market and a scenario they think may play out but there is no certainty in this market at all.

Stocks, especially financials, appear cheap but now we have to see what happens as the FED moves to push down the long end of the bond market. The steep yield curve was allowing banks to arb their way back into decent shape by borrowing short and lending long in a risk free transaction. Now the decline in long yields is supposed to force them to lend. The problem is that collateral values are still declining and most bankers are very reluctant to take on risk here. I can’t blame them given the state of the economy and the ass whipping they took in 2008 and 2009.

John Templeton got his own island by having the courage to buy at the point of maximum pessimism. I think that applies to European financials right now. I like Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Aegon (AEG) here as the European financial stocks most likely to survive and thrive at some point. I can make you a hell of a case for owning Bank of Ireland (IRE) as an undated call option in Europe as well. Buy it here around buck and forget about if for the next decade. You will either lose the money or make a ton. Ireland will be the first to get it together among the troubled PIIG nations and I think making a ton is a good bet. I still think Japanese banks are a buy as well for similar reasons and reaming long Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU) and Mizhou Financial (MGF)._

The trade of the decade keeps shaping up here as well. It may take banks awhile to dig through all this but owning names like Key Corp (KEY), Fifth Third (FITB) and Capital Federal Financial (CFFN) among the larger regionals will be incredibly rewarding over the next 10 years. I also have high hopes for my little portfolio of private equity infused banks. Hampton Roads (HMPR), United Community Bank, Flagstar (FBC) and Sun Bancorp (SNBC) all have issues and at least one of them will probably go bust. Anyone that actually executes a successful turnaround with the assistance of private equity and distressed investors will make me enough money to more than offset the losers in the long run.

Be smart whatever you are doing in the market. There is no need to go all in or over leverage here. That’s a great way to leave the arena on your shield. Financial stocks are so cheap that you can take your time and scale into positions. When volatility spikes it makes sense to sell puts and back into some of these stocks as well. Time and uncertainty are on our side. Be patient and be smart.

I am not going to touch politics this time around. Why should I? I am in a good mood right now. I will address my views on the current clusterfuck of politics the next time I have a shit eating beard burning stomach churning hangover to talk about it. That’s about the right mood for what I see happening right now. Moving on.

It’s a great time to be alive. There is football, both college and pros. The Ravens crushed the Steelers and this is always a happy event. Navy looks good and Maryland is off to a good start going into the big test game against West Virginia this weekend. There are some interesting pennant races going on and playoffs are right around the corner. A lot of good books have come out and the fall release season is almost upon us. My wife and I just celebrated out first anniversary and as proof that she loves me she has not killed me in my sleep yet. I am married to one incredible woman and our family is doing well. Hell, I even have a damn puppy. We have wine, we have music, we have books and incredible friends and family to share them. It’s a good life.

Tea Parties and Stock Markets

All weekend I keep hearing how this is the Tea Party Default. Those vile wicked tea partiers forced S&P to downgrade the US debt by digging in their heels on the idea of new taxes in the budget and debt ceiling argument. I am pretty sure they did exactly what their constituents asked them to do and dug in their heels on taxes and spending. I have no problem with what the tea party did in the negotiations. In fact I wish they had dug in harder,. The compromise bill is joke and the spending cuts will never happen. I love that “spending cuts” in DC speak means increase by less than we originally planned. There will be no cuts forthcoming from the magic compromise committee. Next year is an election year and both sides will bluster and posture for political purposes.

The fact is we need a viable third party. The ultimate solution would be no parties and perhaps people would once again think for themselves instead of just pulling a level.Absent that the national discussion has to be broadened beyond partisan lines. A third party of sufficient size would help accomplish that. The two party system is a disaster. We are falling behind in education, science, culture, life span, children’s health and just about every other social measurementyou can imagine. Thanks to the two party system we are engaged in two wars and one military action. We have troops scattered all over the globe at enormous cost to the taxpayer. We have entitlement programs that have swelled far beyond what even their creators could have ever imagined and under no scenario are viable on the long run. We see corporations exert far more influence that they should be in our day to day life and they seem to just be able to elect who they wish to direct the proper benefits in their direction. Our tax code is ridiculously complex and has more to do with controlling the behavior of the population than balancing the budget. The simple truth is that a 20% income tax on individuals and corporations as well as 15% VAT would balance the budget. There is no power in such a structure so we don’t have one.

I do not care if you are a liberal or conservative, if you step back and are objective both parties have lost their way. We spend more time worrying about who is doing what with whose groin and who gets what based on skin color and gender than we do on the very serious questions that face our aging republic. The great head fake of misdirection by throwing out boogey men and benefits while they plunder our rights and pocket books has been in play for some time now. People laughed at Eisenhower when he warned of the military industrial complex consuming the nation but it has happened almost exactly as predicted.

“Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.”

We were warned. In the name of saving the globe and providing benefits we could not afford in order to secure votes by the two parties we have arrived in the very place we were told we must avoid. We need a viable third party to help us reassess our goals and purpose as a nation. The “tea party downgrade” needs to become a starting point for open discussion of solutions to the problems we face as a nation and what are role in the world should be. My fear is that is just becomes an excuse to dig the heels deeper into the sands of partisan politics.

My own thoughts on what it takes to return to being the land of the free and home of the brave are pretty well known. We need to stop being the worlds policeman, bring troops home and let the world know we will act with fierceness and totality to protect our interests. No more politically correct wars, police actions or interventions. We want peace and trade but if you harm us we will DESTROY you. We cannot protect the children of Somalia or the women of Afghanistan and from the reaction of the world they do not really want us to try. So just stop. The goals are seemingly noble but notattainable and ,of greatest importance, the problems are not ours to solve.

We need an immigration policy that makes a lot more sense than what we have now. We refuse the poorer immigrants so they sneak in. Then we give them drivers licenses and social benefits while they pay no taxes. Give us your hungry , your tired and your huddled masses indeed. Let’s find a way to let them come here, pay taxes and be productive members of society. Then any that are here illegally right now should be given a choice. Serve in the military or social services for two years and you can stay. Otherwise go the fuck home and thank you for playing. Your ability to breed inside our borders does not grant you or your offspring citizenship. Your benefits end here unless you are willing to become a useful, productive, legal member of our society.

Stop punishing the successful. The idea that doing well means you should pay a higher percentage is not only stupid it is evil. If I make more I pay more anyway. If we are all in this together then let’s all pay the same percentage. No more asinine deductions for certain behaviors, no more exemptions for being productive at giving birth, or incentives to buy cars or use certain energy sources. One rate across the board and we all have more in our pockets at the day.

Capital creates jobs. Quit taxing it. That’s idiotic. Make capital gains on asset held more than five years nontaxable and less that that ordinary income, and not only do you create businesses and jobs galore, you stabilize your capital market by encouraging long term investment. Do you think we would have had a real estate crisis if you had to pay full tax on housing gains on properties held less than five years? Would investors cash out their mutual funds every time Bernanke farts if long term investments escaped taxation? Don’t tax long term capital investment.

Quit teaching ot the lowest common denominator in the classroom and teach to the highest. To help the lower level kids catch up fire half the administrators and replace them with teachers to reduce class size. We do to need the level of administration to reach our education goals, We need teaches who give a shit about the kids and have a passion for teaching, smaller class sizes and parents with the balls to turn the television off.

Now let’s move onto other subjects. The current turmoil in the markets is creating some opportunities. Any type of corporate disappointments is leading to a steep and drastic sell off. Right now foreign banks are god-awful, point of maximum pessimism cheap. I like two of the larger Japanese banks, Mitsubishi UFJ (MTU) and Mizhou (MFG). Both sell at a fraction of tangible book value and for an investor with a time horizon of five years or more should be very profitable. The same is true for Royal Bank Of Scotland (RBS). The stock is at 40% of tangible book and management has a solid plan to de-risk the balance sheet and return to profitability. As a final foreign excursion the shares of Dutch insurer Aegon (AEG) are also very, very cheap. They have repaid the Dutch government for the emergency funding and should pay a dividend again starting next year.

Here at Home Hudson City Bancshares (HCBK) have sold off sharply. After the reorganization of the balance sheet the bank should do very well going forward and at a discount from tangible book and yield of 4.40% it’s an attractive long term investment. First Bancorp (FBNC) is also cheap and replacing the TARP funding with Treasury Small Business program funding will be an enormous boost to the bottom line. Locally Shore Bancshares(SHBI) has been a severe disappointment as loan losses have continued to mount. I am going to hold that name and add Severn Savings (SVBI) at this price. I have a lot of faith in the Hyatt families’ strong desire not to lose the millions they have invested in the bank. Insiders have been buying so it’s worth a shot at one third of book value.

Force Protection (FRPT) missed earnings and is now trading at very cheap prices. This company should have sold out last year and now I think it is just a matter of time. They have a decent business but will function better as a division of a larger defense contractor. LB Foster has decent earnings but there is a product liability claim with Union Pacific involving 1.6 million rail road ties. The question becomes is that worth the 50% of market cap the stock shed? They will be a huge winner when we finally get all this crap behind us and pour economy is once again growing to the point that infrastructure spending resumes. Demand for computers and other tech products may be slow but it will come back when the economy does. That makes Micron Technology (MU) a screaming long term buy at 75% of book value in my opinion.
I like the idea of buying a small package of mortgage REITS here.

I would buy a little Anally (NLY) and a little Invesco Mortgage (IVR) here with the idea of building the position over an extended period of time. You are likely to get a chance to buy lower based on conditions and volatility in the bond markets going forward. However they are cheap and the yields of 15 and 20% respectively make them worth a shot here.

It is confusing challenging time. We are seeing inventory created for value investors but as we have seen recently it always pays to keep some powder dry. Cash may not earn much right now but it aint losing anything either. I would move slow and stay small but start to build potions in very cheap stocks.

I thought about including a season to date update in the Oriole here but it is just too early to start drinking.

Independence, Liberty and Justice For All

So once again that grandest and greatest of American Holidays is upon us, The Fourth of July beckons, complete with a three day weekend thanks to a fortuitous calendar this year. I am traveling out of town this Fourth but already the locals are planning the boat trips and dock bar excursions over the course of what looks to be a glorious sun soaked Independence weekend here in the Mid Atlantic. When I ran errands this morning I could see that the good folks at Red Eyes were up and about stocking the bar with all the necessities for a great time in the sunshine, and boat traffic was heading out the narrows already. With my usual exquisite sense of timing I am off to South Texas to enjoy the holiday with relatives. I understand there has been a cool wave down there and we are going to actually enjoy sub triple digit temperatures for a day to two while we are there.

It is one of the grandest of American traditions. In a letter to his wife shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed John Adams said “It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.” In this we have not failed Mr. Adams.

There will be parades all over America and veterans will struggle to see if that somewhat expanded waistline can still fit into the old uniform. Squads of Vietnam veterans in small towns and cities will march proudly as, finally, the old divisions have healed and they finally receive the long overdue welcome and thank you for their friends and neighbors. Small town bands will pay out of tune and march out of step as parents proudly snap fuzzy photos. Politicians and beauty queens will float down Main Street in vintage convertibles that appear only on this day for this specific purpose. Flags will fly from every house and store, as well as sprout from the clenched fist of small children as the parade of independence passes by.

We will barbecue and the grill smoke of PETA (people eating tasty animals) will waft in an unbroken cloud of charcoals goodness from sea to shining sea. The bays and rivers will be covered in flag draped boats. There will be swimmers, tubers and skiers as far as the eye can see. From Seattle to Miami the sound of freedom will ring as countless beer cans are popped open and raised in a toast to our freedom, our nation, our home. It will indeed be a grand holiday, this celebration of independence.

As night draws nye, we will begin to really act like Americans. We are going to blow some shit up! From the breathtaking spectacles that light New York harbor and the Grand Dame of liberty herself to the smallest of boys with a brick of purloined black cats the fireworks will boom and light up the night skies, as well as fill our nation’s emergency rooms. Nothing says freedom like a man with a 30 back of Bud and a mortar tube! There will be bells bonfires, guns and illuminations that would make Mr. Adams swell with pride form the depths of his most patriotic chest.

As we celebrate the day, pop our beers, light the night sky, march down Main Street praying the buttons hold for just two more blocks, grill up the best nature has to offer, dance on the dock or however we celebrate this day, please take time to remember something. Today, this day of celebrating the birth of our nation and realization of our founder’s dreams of liberty ,was paid for by all the generations before you. Many men and women have toiled in the service of liberty, of commerce, of the United States of America and all that means and holds, so that you could have this three day weekend of patriotism and fun. They paid with their blood, their work, their dreams, their very being so this nation could exist at this moment in time.

There were soldiers. My god, there were soldiers. Citizen soldiers with hopes of liberty and weary of oppression sitting behind the trenches of Bunker Hill. Frozen, dejected soldiers in the little handmade huts of Valley Forge. They were frozen, they were despondent but they held firm to one desperate dream. A free nation of free men and women, a land where your opportunities came not from your lineage or place of birth but form your hands, you back, your brains, your efforts, your dreams. They held on to that desperate desire and gave us that nation.

There were soldiers in the great tragedy of our Civil War. They fought against cousins, against neighbors and yes even against brothers each side struggling for their concept of freedom. They fought to right great wrongs and other fought to preserve their flawed way of life. The changing tide of history overwhelmed the South’s distorted view of the world but not before many brave men on both sides burned to death in the wilderness, or lay in the field of battle, thirsty alone and dying of brutal wounds. They died by the hundreds, nay, by the thousands in places like the bloody fields of Antietam and Gettysburg. In the end freedom was preserved for most, obtained for others, and the great Union was preserved.

In two great world wars there were American Soldiers. They died in the trenches of France in 1918. In 1945 they charged out of landing craft onto the beaches of Normandy. Those that fell lie buried from the majestic cemetery in France to unmarked, never to be found graves on shitty little islands all over the pacific. They lie from under the monument in Pearl Harbor to the bottom of the pacific in ships sunk decades ago that have never been, nor will be found. Freedom was threatened and soldiers answered the call.

They have continued to answer the call and soldiers have responded from the frozen reaches of Korea to the sweat soaked jungles of Vietnam. They still do from the sands of Iraq to the treacherous bloody mountains of Afghanistan. They fight for our freedom and often for the freedom of those they do not know and whose language they do not speak. Their nation calls and bravely fighting off the rising gorge of fear and vomit, soldiers have answered the call. My god, there have been and still are soldiers. We owe them a toast, frosty glass raised to the sky and voices raised still higher to thank and praise the American soldier. The made us free, the keep us free and they have paid in sacrifice, in their very youth and innocence and in their blood for our celebration this Fourth of July.

What about the great leaders who have helped to build and sustain this nation, this “shining city on the hill.” Not so much the shit bags that occupy DC today but those true leaders who like John Adam studied the science of politics and war so there sons and daughter could study mathematics and literature. The names and resonate and echo down the halls of history. Jefferson, Madison, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Reagan, Kennedy, Jackson, Truman, and yes, Adams. They made the decisions, the choices and sacrifices that have paid for today’s beer soaked joyous rituals.

There have been the builders, the creators, innovators whose dreams and achievements have powered our economy and our nation forward. Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, The Rockefellers, Bill Gates, Andrew Carnegie, Ted Turner, Walt Disney, the DuPonts, ray Kroc, Steve Jobs. This list could run on for pages of men and women who built industries, create jobs, improved our lives and built the fabric of our nation’s economic might. Their dreams, their creativity and their hard work also paid for today s holiday festivities.

Thank the poets, singers, dreamers and writers have made our culture so unique and wonderful raise that sweaty martini glass to Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Satchmo and the Duke (Ellington and Wayne). Give a tip of that bourbon glass to Twain, Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Raise your beer glass to Mencken, Brando, Newman and Mitchum. Raise your frosty cocktail to Frost, Whitman and Warhol. Give a tip of the bong to Hendrix, Joplin, Kerouac and the Allman Brothers. We have this crazy weird mixed up mish mash of people who have created some words, music and dreams that has produced art of the highest order.

Yes be sure to thank them all, Thank all the men and women who got up, went to work, paid the bills, raised the kids and made our nation work. Thank the teachers who have sat up all night grading papers and planning lessons. Thank the bankers who have made the loans that build our home, our factories and out nation. Above all thank those underpaid folks we have dubbed first responders. Thank the generations of Police officers who have put their life on the line every day to keep our nations safe and free. Thank the fire fighters who have rushed into hundreds of years of burning buildings to rescue those in danger and preserve our property. Thank them all, each and every America who made today, this moment with family, friends, music, friendship, love and frosty beverages ,possible.

Now wait my friend, now that you have toasted all those who made today possible, wait just a minute Don’t put that dog on the grill, turn the engine off, put the beer down and listen up. Your forefathers accept your thanks. Those Americans, those immigrants and Indians, sinners and saints, leaders and laborers, warriors and poets have a message for you. They are grateful for your thanks and they would do it all again. Pay the same price, conquer the same obstacles and face the same fears as they did it in the name of liberty and the cause of freedom. They lived, toiled dreamed and lived to better their own lives, their children’s and the lives of all those who have followed them. They have a charge for you, yes you, and for all of us. It is our turn.

They issue their charge to you in the words of Thomas Paine.” Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Supporting freedom means practicing freedom and preserving liberty .It is our turn and frankly we are doing a shitty job of it. In the name of security and maximizing our personal benefits form the trough of government we risk the freedom that was given to us. We did not earn it; we did nothing but be born to enjoy it. We must preserve it for those who follow us as did those who came before us.

Practicing freedom is not always easy. It takes the courage to say I am going to follow my dreams and struggle each day to make the world better for me and mine. I will ask nothing of any man but his friendship and his trust. It means not turning to the government or society for your subsidence or for your luxuries. Freedom means you accept the responsibilities that come with it and are willing to shoulder your load, and even to help those around you with theirs. Not by the insistence of the authorities but out of the kindness of spirit and greatness that are the hallmark of your humanity.

Freedom means acceptance. Again Paine says it best.” He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach him.” Freedom has to mean the same to the family with 2.5 kids and a picket fence as it does to the gay couple who are willing to adopt, love and raise a child. Freedom has to be the same for the new (legal) immigrant with nothing but dreams and a willingness to work hard as it does to the man born here. The same freedoms extended to the folks at a posh uptown cocktail party must be extended ot the downtown folks who prefer to toke up. For your freedoms to exist you have to be willing to share it with those who do not look like you, think like you, love like you or live like you. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness must apply however we chose to live that life or seek that happiness.

Freedom has been gifted to you. Preserve it, fight for it, practice it. You owe it those who gave it to you and to those who follow.

Now, fire up that grill. Open the bar, crank up the tunes and let’s get in going American style. Let’s get loud. Let’s get rowdy and blow the doors off this joint. Kiss the ones you love and do something to piss off the neighbors. Buy a soldier a drink..ah hell get him drunk .Take a coke to the cop on the corner, Drop some ribs by the firehouse.Toast the past as well as the future of our nation and the greatness of our people.

It is the Fourth of July. Let us go forth and blow some shit up. Mr. Adams demands it.

High Finance and a Low Down Dirty Shame

Its summer on Kent Island at long last. We have had a couple of 90 degree plus days and I can feel summer creeping into my veins. It is a more subdued roar these days as my life situation has changed in the past year. It is not so much the firing of growling engines and popping of many beers as it is the firing of the grill and the sipping of cocktails by the pool this year. Truth be told I am getting to old for those 48 hour blasts of depravity that marked summers past so this is all a good thing. Coupled with the fact that the slowdown is accompanies by the perfect combination of lover friend and wife and it’s all good. Summers here and the good times will roll. I ll probably slip in a few wild nights along the way but this time I ll have a partner in crime.

Moving on I find that I took some shit about my last posting here. At least one old friend appears to have stopped talking to me. Let’s review. Earlier this year I said:

My second piece of advice that I can share at this point in my life is do not go into the financial business, especially investing. It’s too fucking hard for most and the plain simple truth is that those of us who do this for a living do not really add much to the world. We may help a few clients do better with their money over the years but for the most part the more honest among us will admit we do not add shit to the world we live in.

I really did not mean that as a criticism of the brokers I have worked alongside for decades. It was really meant more at those who journey to Wall Street to be rocket scientists finding new ways to slice and dice securities. Use your degree for something more useful that creating reverse convertibles or auction rate preferred stocks. The world does not need a new way to slice and dice a damn mortgage. I really had in mind the math major who wants to open the worlds next stat arb fund or be the king of the world at Goldman Sachs. It’s a lot fucking harder than you think it is and it really doesn’t add much to the world.

My friend and a few others took it as a slap at brokers. He also pointed out the business had been good to me and it was not right for me to cast aspersions on the profession. I wasn’t but as long as the subject has come up lets talk about it. I entered the brokerage business back in the 1980s. We sold stocks and bonds, maybe a few mutual funds to investors. A few of the braver souls traded options and futures. I loved it. If you worked real hard and learned how to make some money for your clients you got more clients and built a business. You could specialize in municipal bonds and cold call your way into a six figure income. Many of the firms were still partnerships and there was a lot more caution when it came to risk taking and product invention. It was the best job in the whole damn world as far as I was concerned.

When I left I was a dinosaur. The firms were all public companies and the emphasis was on asset gathering and fee generation. Brokers were taught not to be stock pickers but to gather money for “professionals” to manage. Product wholesalers would wander though the office and with a straight face look you in the eye and tell you a variable annuity with a 7% commission was a good deal for a customer’s IRA. After all it had benefits. They forgot to mention that the client paid for the benefits and had to fucking die to collect them. They would tell you it was far too risky to sell puts for your clients but then push a reverse convertible note. Hey guys, read the term sheet..its the same thing! Brokers were urged to “allocate clients assets” according to some model without ever mentioning that everything in the portfolio was highly correlated, The only time the idea of non-correlated assets comes up these days is when someone wants to sell a futures fund with ongoing fees streams and commissions that have rarely delivered solid returns. It is not the business I entered all those years ago and I am less than convinced the changes have been for the better.

There are a lot of great folks in the financial services business. The fact is there just too many of them. There are almost 8000 mutual funds in the US. There are 9400 hedge funds. There are over half a million registered representatives. Close to 6 million people are employed in financial services including brokerages asset managers and other investment related professions. Goldman Sachs alone has more than 38,000 employees.

Of course some people will go into the business. If you have a passion for it you should. I don’t mean just a passion for making a shit ton of money but a deep and lasting passion for the markets and all that entails. Are you willing to do the homework to really learn the markets? It’s a steep learning curve. Don’t tell me you passed the exam and took your CE classes so you’re qualified. That’s a lot like your doctor telling you he passed the entrance exam to Med School and remembered to wipe his ass this morning so he’s ready to do your surgery. You have some self study ahead of you and it aint gonna be easy.

First this is a sales business at the end of the day. You have to convince people to do business with you. With that in mind you need to read Nick Murray, Leroy gross and Tom Dorsey on how to manage and grow your practice. You need to learn how to make a presentation and tell your story. If you can’t do that it is going to be a very tough road. Once you know how to tell the story let’s make sure you have a good one to tell.

A good portion of your life and your business will be in and around the stock market. You need a deep in depth knowledge of markets whether you are selling individual stock, managed accounts or mutual funds. You have to read them all I am afraid. It does not matter if you favor growth value or a technical approach to the markets. The other schools of thought are active participants in the market and will have an impact on prices. You need to read Ben Graham, Joel Greenblatt and Marty Whitman’s value investing books. You also have to read and learn the great growth stock pickers like Navellier, Phil Fischer, Mitch Zacks and William O’Neil. You also need to read Steve Nisson, Larry Williams and John Murphy on the basics of technical trading of stocks. Trend traders have a huge effect on stock prices at times so Michael Covel s books on the subjects are on your reading list as well. Counter trend traders play a part in this mix so add Victor Niederhoffer to the list as well.

That’s a good start. Now let’s add Damodoran on valuation and investment fables. Probably better read all the editions of Jack Schwagers market wizards as well to gather different viewpoints. You really need to understand as many different market viewpoints as possible Guy Wyser Prattes Risk Arbitrage is also necessary homework.

You need to understand the workings of fixed income and interest rates as well. Start with James Grant for the history of interest rate markets. When you are done that move on to Frank Fabozzis fixed income handbook. You also need to read Calamos on convertibles in my opinion to really get a grip on taxable fixed income. Back to Fabozzi again now for the handbook of municipal bonds as they will most likely be an important part of your business if you deal with individual clients. Jim Lebenthal on munis also makes a lot of sense if they will be a big part of your repertoire.

Now we have to put all this together. You should read Peter Bernstein on capital markets and Risk. David Darst on asset allocation is absolutely mandatory . You need to learn how to diversify and allocate portfolios and not just use an out of the box software package provided by your firm. To take it ot the next level read Phil McDonnell on optimizing portfolios.

You also better read Van Tharp and Steenbarger on the psychology of being a trader and investor. This is as much to help you as your clients. Some nights you will be euphoric and other as a friend of mine once put it you will want to” stop in the middle of the fucking bridge and just jump.”

If you plan to trade options and have not studied McMillan, Euan Sinclair, Taleb or the like on options pricing I think you are criminally negligent. Every time you enter an options trade keep in mind that in all likelihood the firm buying or selling that option from you has had to install special air conditioning units to cool the supercomputers they are using to make prices.

That is a bare minimum fucking start in my opinion. Not only should you read them I think you should have a passion for this stuff deep enough that you want to read them. A lot of this can now be gained though the excellent little books of investing put out by Wiley and Sons but some of it you just have to work your way through. If you decide to adopt a specific style of investing you have to go still deeper into the subject. Most of all you have to keep reading and educating yourself all the time. On top of that you have to measure your success by your client’s success and not your paycheck If you do that the paycheck will always be there.

If we cut the number of brokers in half and only kept those who have the attitude and desire to be the best and what they do and learn all they need to know to master the markets somewhat, brokersand clients alike would happier and richer.

Just one mans opinion of course.

I wonder who will stop talking to me this time?

Ruminations on turning fifty

So it seems I am turning fifty tomorrow. How the fresh hell that happened I have no idea. I never thought I d make it this far for one thing and for another I do not feel 50. Somewhere in my mind I’m still 30 years old and ready for anything. I have had grey in my hair since my twenties so it’s not like that was a warning sign. I am successfully able to ignore the various creaks and cracks my bones may put on during the course of the day as a unique and committed form of denial of the aging process. I can recall turning 18 and thinking that I might be lucky to see the turn of the century as I calculated I would be the old age of 39 when that happened. That has come and gone and much to my surprise as well as that of many others I am still here. It has been one hell of a journey and I have picked a few lessons and observations along the way. Naturally being somewhat verbose in nature I find it necessary to share them here.

First and foremost my over riding thought on life is that it is simply too short to be miserable or unhappy. I am no Pollyanna I am fully aware that from time to time shitty stuff will happen to all of us. We will lose people we love. We will lose money, jobs, friends and many other things and people along the journey. Sometimes the world will just simply take a huge shit right on your head. Some of it will be of our own making and fault. Some of it will not. No matter of whose making it is just going to happen. If you play hard and live right you are gonna get some boo-boos. I guarantee it. When it does happen, deal with it and move on. Or as we used to say get drunk, get over it and get on with your life.

There is also a lot of nasty shit in the world. Wars, famine, genocide, poverty, taxes, The Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Steelers come readily to mind. Some of these you may be able to help change. Most of them you simply cannot. If you fixate on all that is wrong with the world and with life you will miss all that is right. And mark my words the vast majority of life has much that is right


There are so many moments of life that can offer varying degrees of rightness. To sit with someone you love and watch the sunset can be one of life’s more pleasant moments. You can listen to the majestic symphonies of a Beethoven, Bach or Handel and have your soul inspired to new heights. You can throw on George Thorogood and just celebrate the growling good time that is life and rock and roll. Throw Coltrane or Miles on and get lost in the complexity and twists of sound and thoughts. Delve deeply into the poetry of ee cummings, Yeats, Whitman and Frost to rediscover your sense of romance and thepossibilities that life can offer you. Read the works of the great writers and thinkers to learn the story and rhythms of life. Read the great storytellers to be entertained and escape and sometimes even be educated.

Who can list all that is right about life? Think about it all and it is overwhelming. Books, music , family friends. Shakespeare, Plato, Darwin, Galton, Vivaldi, The Beatles, Sunsets, sunrises, thunderstorms, babies laughter, three run homers ,deep long kisses, Robert Parker, Randy Wayne White, long nights with good friends, good wine, dock bars, rainy Sunday mornings, The Grateful Dead, Broadway Plays, road trips, holding hands, squeeze bunts, Oscar Peterson, Harry Potter, beaches , average wine, Waylon Jennings, Hemingway, clean sheets, kickoff returns, Graham, Clancy novels, adult children, a loving spouse, Louie Armstrong, fast boats, slow boats (but no blow boats) Bogart and Bacall, WEB Griffin, Mozart, Mark Twain, Slow dancing, wild sex, making love, Disney movies, weeping willow trees, dandelions, hard rock, soft jazz, rockfish, thick steaks, tears laughter love. And I have just scratched the surface. Yes life will have it bumps but there is so much more that is good and right about the world we live in and the possibilities that life grants us.

My second piece of advice that I can share at this point in my life is do not go into the financial business, especially investing. It’s too fucking hard for most and the plain simple truth is that those of us who do this for a living do not really add much to the world. We may help a few clients do better with their money over the years but for the most part the more honest among us will admit we do not add shit to the world we live in. If you are going to take on this type of risk and commitment of capital and time open a business. One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received and not taken came from legendary trader Larry Williams. He said to own businesses that provided cash flow if you wanted to trade. Investing should be a companion to your real business activities for most people. If I was young today after reviewing different options I think the best choices for a career would be to own a liquor store, an auto repair shop or owning school buses. I know or am related to at least half a dozen people in these businesses and they have all done very well. If you don’t want to do that find a business you do love be it building houses, making widgets or programming computers to do useful stuff. You will have success and add a lot more to the world than those of us chasing red and green digits across a fucking screen. Use the cash flow from your business endeavors to trade and invest and I think you will have a more productive life. We are at a point in the world where I thing that learning a trade and having some business sense will take you a lot further than an MBA in Finance. But never under any circumstances do what so many have done in the past two years and open a damn cupcake store. That’s just stupid.

Be kind. A lot of people you run across in the world are going to be grumpy, surly and downright assholes. Try not to be one of them. Show some compassion as you go through life when you can. Yu are going to have ups and downs along the way and so does everyone else. You have no idea why the store clerk is in a bad mood. Don’t take their mood on your shoulders or add to their load if you can help it. That brusque waitress may be at the end of a second shift at her second job of the day to support two kids and a sick mother. You don’t know so be kind when you can. Which brings me to another thing. Don’t just tip, over tip. The extra buck or two means very little to you but could mean a lot to the server. Every once in a blue moon when you are a little flush give a bum twenty bucks. Of course he’s going to spend it on booze or drugs! What the fuck do you care? Your life is good at the moment and you ll never notice the cost but to him it’s another escape from what has to be a pretty shitty life. Be kind as often as you can.


Sometimes you will meet someone that is such an asshole kindness and compassion is just impossible. A hearty fuck you and move on is the best advice I have. Some people just can’t be in your life for whatever reason. Fuck em. Life really is too short.

Don’t be afraid. You are going to make mistakes and sometimes in spite of your best efforts you will lose. Guess what? Sometimes you are going win and winning makes up for losing by some very asymmetrical factor. Take risks in your life. In things like business, reaching your dreams and love you only need to win one time for it be permanent Don’t be afraid. Write the book, start the company, take the job, and sing the song. You might fail and that would suck for a little while. You might succeed and that will last a lifetime. Especially don’t be afraid of love. Being afraid of love is the saddest thing that can happen to a person. If you are even close to my age you will have had lumps, bumps and bruises from relationships. There are relationships that didn’t go where you thought they would, relationships where you knew it would end badly but took the ride anyway and relationships that died before they could be born. We all have them. I have had a few fuckups and scotch soaked nights wondering what the hell just happened in my life. If I had been afraid of love I would not be so happily married to so wonderful a woman right now. You only have to win once. At 49 I finally did and it was worth every loss that came before.

Know math. I don’t give a shit who you are math is going to dictate and control much of your life. From making change at the drive up to calculating the probability of success in a venture you need to have some clue about numbers and how they work. I am not saying you have to be a math geek although in hindsight I wish I had been. But know math. Probability, reversion to the mean, compounding, physics and the rule of 72 will all play a role in your life. A lot of equations will be important to know for each of us. So far mine have included some really cool ones like (.50xtb),B to the third power and the all important 1+1=1. Yours will be different than mine but equations of all sorts will be a part of your life.

Measure your success in life not by what you have and what you doubt by who loves you. This is far more important at the end of the day. Don’t tell me how great you are. I don’t give a shit what you have done if your achievements did not lead to having a circle of family and friends who love you. The greatest monument in the world to anyone one of us is not monuments or estates. It is those who love us as family, children, lover, and friends. You may think differently. You are wrong.

To have friends be a friend. Don’t expect a whole bunch of people to show up to help you move if you never toted a buddy’s couch up three flights of stairs. Don’t expect anyone to listen to your drunken ass whining about your life if you never took their midnight phone call. Don’t expect anyone to share their achievements and success with you if you never celebrated yours with them. Put others first sometimes and there is a good chance they will do the same for you when you need them.

It has been a long and interesting journey so far. Perhaps I ll write the whole story some day but I have seen jail cells, penthouses in the city and most stops in between in my time. I have been way up and way down and many stops in between. There’s lot of of stories involving cars, ditches, snowstorms, pissed off dogs, long walks in the desert in a three piece suit, filled straights, busted flushes and all kinds of other interesting happenings. I made some stupid mistakes, some silly mistakes and a few hilarious mistakes. Along the way I occasionally got a few things right.I look forward to more as I enter what will be the second half of the story. I have happy children who are doing well in life. I have friends all over the country with whom I have shared much laughter, a few tears and great knowledge has been exchanged. I have a wife I am head over heels in love with as I enter the next fifty years.

It’s a good place to be.

Where we are now

As usual I have taken entirely too long to come back and update this space. I always seem to have the best of intentions but after doing the daily writing and various investing and household activities I just do not seem to get as much time as I think I have. We are moving into spring here in the Mid Atlantic and the warmer weather beckons on the occasional teaser day we have experienced so far this year. Baseball season has started with the usual high expectations and low delivery for the Orioles but we will touch on that later in this epistle.

I will start with the markets. The most powerful lesson learned is that o interest rates trump everything. Never fight the fed when your opponent pulls out a bazooka. Low interest rates mean more than troubled real estate markets, stagnant economies, high unemployment, geopolitical turmoil and natural disaster. There have been literally dozens of valid reasons to worry about the stock market. There has only been one to be bullish. The bulls have won a resounding victory so far. Money has been literally, and by the Feds admission, forced into stock the stock market. Much smarter traders than I have recognized this and used valuation neutral ETFs and black box trading to lift offers in the market and create a self feeding frenzy pushing prices still higher.

The other thing that the last two years have proven true is my philosophy of always buying stocks that are too cheap not to own regardless of my macro views. I was literally forced to be a buyer of cheap stocks back in 2008 and 2009 and it has paid off with some big winners. The Forest City debentures (FCY) have gone up six fold over that time. Hardinge has doubled as has West Marine. Capital Source and Tech Data has doubled in value as have a whole host of hotel REITS that were picked up at the height of the panic. Had I relied on my world view instead of valuation I might have hid in a closet sucking on a bottle of scotch but the “too cheap not to won” concept carried the day. A usual my stock picking is a hell of a lot better than my macro thinking.

With that thought in mind I am pretty much going to ignore the current macro environment. If you own a TV or read my RealMoney column (please subscribe btw) you know what’s going on out there. I have no idea when the zero rate policy stops forcing the mass asset allocation trade. Some say it will be when QE2 ends in June. It’s a pretty safe bet that so many expect that result that it is almost impossible for it to be the case. Perhaps today’s downgrade of US government debt to negative status will be the straw. I do not know and I suspect on one else really does either. I do know there a few cheap stocks around worthy of our attention.

Hilltop Holdings (HTH) has been on the cheap stock list for some time now. I have no idea when Gerry Ford will make an investment or strategic move to unlock the value of this company. I see that he just did a deal for an ownership stake in SWS Securities at a favorable price so that may be the catalyst. I do know that the $50 million he invested does not even put a dent in the almost $650 million cash stockpile he has available. I also know the stock remains not only cheap but safe trading below net cash levels. TSR (TSRI) is still trading for less than cash and receivables. The business has struggled but it is still profitable and has been for 10 years. It is just an okay business in a crappy industry. But it is safe and cheap and management is a big owner and will have to monetize their interest in the company at some point. Heavy machinery and as[halt plant manufacturer Gencor (GENC) will someday see a huge surge in business from infrastructure spending. That day is not today and the company trades for less than cash on the balance sheet.

I have a toe or toe in the mortgage backed securities market as well. I think that aggressive investors can own some of the high yielding mortgage back REITS right now. I favor Invesco Mortgage(IVR) and Chimera CIM with 19% and 14% yields respectively. I also like the public partnership Ellington Financial with its hedged fund approach and 22% dividend yield. The caveat here is that there is a lot money getting ready to move into this market. A bunch of companies including giants like TCW and PIMCO are planning IPOs of mortgage backed funds. Several companies including Invesco are doing secondary offerings to take advantage of the messy pricing in this market. This could push prices higher between now and the end of the year and its going to be necessary to exit a pop in these things. Too much money in a sector is always bad news. The good news is that when they push it too high the weak ends will get flushed when the market cracks and we can do this all over again.

We continue to move into the small bank trade as well. Here I am playing a barbell approach. I like the higer quality banks like mutual conversions like Capital Financial (CFFFN ) and FoxChase Bancorp (FXCB). I still like Shore Bancshares here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I am also taking the long shot picks in the industry. I am trying to invest alongside the private equity money going into the industry. Hampton Roads Bancshares (HMPR)), Sun Bancorp of New Jersey (SNBC) and United Community Banks (UCBI) are among the names on this list. I am also mining the recent filings by noted bank activist like Lawrence Siedman and Joseph Stillwell for potential big return troubled bank stocks. There is a long list of stocks like Renasant (RNST) in the South and First Interstate (FIBK) in the Upper Midwest that I want to buy when the market finally does stage a decent pullback. They have great balance sheets and pay decent dividends. Now we just need an acceptable discount to tangible book value.

Now onto baseball at last. We added bats that are not hitting. Out team average and home run count can be generously said to suck like a hungry hoover. One would hope that changes soon. On the plus side the young arms seem to be doing about what they were expected to do. They are not great but they have great moments and don’t get blown out too early. They have however developed a disturbing tendency to give up the long ball and fall behind hitters. This has to improve or it will be another long losing year. Matt Wieters is starting to drive the ball with authority but not enough are falling in or clearing the fences yet. He is one of the best defensive catchers in the game. I just hope his bat gets as great as it can be before his contract is up and he is out of here. On the plus side the Red Sox look like crap and that is always a happy thought. It is a long season so here’s hoping they stay awful and we get better as the weather warms.

I have to stay away from the politics this time around. I am so sick of the twisted corrupt assholes on both sides of the aisle I want to puke. I don’t have time to spend an hour or tow vomiting away the sour taste of stolen dreams and leveraged futures. My wife will take it badly if I kick the cat in frustration at budgets, taxes, lies and empty statements. So this time around I ll skip discussing those twisted souls and thieving minds that have conspired to push our nation into a morass of political and monetary bullshit. Don’t worry. It wont be long before one of these $1000 suit wearing corrupted mentally frigid assholes pisses me into a rant of Thompsonesque proportions. But for today we will skip it

Summer is indeed just off the horizon. Every once in awhile you catch one of those gusts of heated air that smells of boat engines, barbecue pits and suntan oil. If you strain in the evening you can almost hear the crash of the surf and the band at the dock bar. It was not a bad winter around these parts just a long one. Now the days are just a little longer, the air is a little warmer and its almost time to get excited about all that summer has to offer on the island. Not yet, but almost. Life is good.Unlike years past I have someone to share the goodness with and that makes it even better than I had imagined it could be. And I have a good imagination!

Ramble On

I meant to write a variation of this rambling for some time now but just have not had the time or inspiration necessary to sit down at the keyboard for what was sure to be a long ramble. Fueled with new thoughts and periods of demented musings it will now be an even longer one. Now that I am back from Key West and ahead of the day on Monday I will endeavor to get all this down in as coherent a fashion as I am capable of doing. As I have not written in this space in a bit I will eventually get to important stuff like baseball and markets but for now let’s tell the story that has been in the back of the brain for a few weeks now.

It all starts in the kitchen with a glass of wine. That’s where almost all my stories that don’t start at Red Eyes begin so that not unusual. I was cleaning up after one of our family dinner gatherings and talking with the sister in law while my wife put the little one to bed. I forget what the subject matter was but at one point I commented that I just did to worry about this kind of thing. She paused for a moment and said “I get the impression you do not worry about much.” I thought about that for a second and realized that I really do not. Worrying is a waste of time in my opinion. I am all too well aware that bad shit can happen but to sit awake at night or waste one minute of one day stressing over it is a waste of life and time.

To those who know me only as an investor that may seem to be a contradiction. I enter every investment by asking what can go wrong? Once I have the answer to that I begin to calculate the upside potential. If I like both answers only then do I enter into the proposition or security. This allows me to sleep at night and hopefully earn enough profit to keep chugging along. I approach a lot of life like that as well. What can go wrong? Can I handle that? What’s the upside? I think it is the second question that screws most people up. They badly underestimate what they can handle in my opinion.

I think fear keeps many of us from being who we could be and living the life we should. I know people who sit awake worrying about shit that may or may not happen and crap that probably will never happen. Bad shit can happen I know that. You could lose your job; your business could go under. If it does the sun will rise the next morning and it will be time to start over. It might not be the most fun you ever had but you can do it. I know far too many of trader friends who went bust, drank it off and went back to raising a stake or rebuilding their bankroll. It has happened to me before in the aftermath of a divorce and a market collapse. I could barely afford my bar bill. It was not a hell of a lot of fun but I rebuilt, survived and thrived. It did not kill me, make me uglier or shorter and I moved on. Bring broke did not make music, books, sunsets friends or anything of the other things that make life so spectacular go away. They were still there.

There is all sorts of stuff to worry about if you choose to do so. The economy still sucks and job growth is so anemic it makes a snail look like Richard Petty in the backstretch at Daytona. The Middle East is in full revolt and we may get a democracy or two but that’s not the way to bet it. It started out that way but there’s a whole bunch of well-armed nuts over there so the outcome is very much in doubt. Gas prices are rising. We have mortgaged our future and it seems to me that we have done so for all the wrong reasons in all the wrong ways. Our two major political parties strike me as institutionalized insanity at this point. The tax code is absofuckinglutlely ridiculous and unfair to anyone with an ounce of ambition or thrift. The list goes on and on into an infinity of worries. You can work yourself into a right good frenzy of worry if you so choose just on geopolitical and big picture stuff if you want.

Then there’s the personal stuff. Things did not go so well at work today ,this week, this month this year. Business is slow and my customers are not buying what I sell. My son/daughter/cat/fish is not behaving the way I want. I owe too much money (um..this one’s easy. Quit fucking borrowing money). My parents/siblings are crazy .I need a new transmission. I hate my job. My pinky toe hurts. My 401k is down. I weigh too much. I weigh too little. I have a pimple. My kids might not get into the college I want them to attend. My house is worth less than I paid. All of these may be legitimate concerns but they are not worth worry or stress. Nothing that does not involve the imminent death of a loved one or yourself is worth worry in my opinion.

Stress kills. It kills faster than anything else on earth. Faster than drinking, smoking or any other of a host of bad habits. I think you can literally worry yourself to death. The very worst part is that you can worry yourself to death years before your body has the common sense to join you in death. Worry and stress can take every last millisecond of enjoyment out of life and that my friends is a tragedy. There is far too much beautiful and wonderful about life to ruin it with destructive worry and soul sapping stress.

Here is how to handle sorry and stress. Look at the situation that is a worry. What can you do to change it? Go do that. Is there any way to protect myself and the ones I love from this? Go do that. Can I profit from it in some way? If there is a way, Go do that. Once you have taken the steps that you can take relax. Go put some Coltrane on the stereo, pour a libation, read a book, play with your kids, kiss your wife. Live your life. What happens happens but you have done what needs to be done and you can handle the consequences.

The other best method for eliminating stress is to eliminate the ridiculous comparisons. Sam made more money than me. So what? Are your bills paid and do you have what you need? Jill has a nicer car. Who cares? She probably has a bigger car payment as well. I was not the best trader/salesman/mime this month or year. Again so what? Are your customers and clients happy? If not apply the questions above and make them happy. As any gunfighter or gambler can tell you there is always somebody better. Be as good as you can be and that’s more than enough.

None of this should be taken to mean that bad shit will not happen. You will stumble bumble and fall. You will make some mistakes that in hindsight will be stunningly stupid. You will lose money at some point. You will get your heart broken. All that and more will happen to us along the way. That danger of loss is more than offset by the good stuff that can happen. You can fall in love and find forever. You can find that dream job. The good stuff far outweighs the bad in this twisted little journey of life. Keep in mind that no one gets out of here alive. This is a one way trip to the best of our knowledge. Experience it all, live it all, love it all. Quit worrying, buy the ticket and take the ride.

My friend James Altucher recently wrote a nice piece on stress and reduction that I enjoyed (by the way if you are not reading his blog, Altucher Confidential, you should be. Entertaining useful and funny.) In one area we disagree. He suggested no alcohol to reduce stress. I disgagree.100% of all experts named Tim Melvin agree than wine reduces stress. Orange crushes at sunset reduce stress. Fruity rum drinks on the beach reduce stress. Cold beers with a two run lead in the seventh reduce stress. You can look it up.

I find myself in agreement with Baudelaire on this one. Be drunk. Be drunk on wine, virtue, poetry, love, sunshine, laughter. Be drunk on anything and everything. Drink deeply and sloppily of life, deep thirsty draughts of your children, your partner your friends, music, books, starlight, thunderstorms, fast boats, slow kisses, rainy mornings and sun drenched afternoons. Quit worrying and start drinking of life.

Now on to recent travels and adventures. We recently took a delayed honeymoon voyage to the Keys. We flew into Miami ,rented a car and drove down the Overseas Highway. If you have never done it, book the trip now. It is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful drives in the country. You can feel the tropics seep into your soul with each passing of a mile marker. If you get a chance stay overnight in one of the little resorts (no hotels o motels in the Keys, just resorts) in the Upper Keys. We stayed at the Drop Anchor in Islamorada one night and loved the place. The door opened right onto the beach and the ocean. Just a spectacular little place to spend a night or a lifetime. Furthermore if you can stay stressed strolling down Front Street with a drink in your hand and the sun in your eyes you need an extended stay in the Maynard G. Krebs Reality Rehab and Finishing School.

My next observation is that Jimmy Buffett should be horsewhipped. Don’t get me wrong. I like his music and used to organize bus trips to his shows in my younger days. He has some great tunes and I love the lifestyle he espouses. But the corporatization of the whole things he has done is just distasteful. We were on Duvall Street watching the upper middle aged sunburned set standing in line to get into Margaritaville with overpriced cheeseburgers and other standard Mid America fare. Two doors away Jakes was almost empty and we dined on conch ceviche and shrimp that was wonderful at an almost empty bar (note to Key West and the rest of the south. Quit boiling the damn shrimp. Buy a steamer). The whole concept of Parrot head clubs who think they are pirates for drinking three coronas while wearing loud shirts at Harrys Caribbean bar in Milwaukee is silly. There is no such thing as an organized casual lifestyle. Hippies, pirates, roustabouts, layabouts, dreamers, outlaws and drinkers of rum do not have an elected board of directors or a federal tax ID number. While we are on the subject if you insist on having such a club quit giving money to Jimmy charities and spend a little money and effort in your own backyard. I am pretty sure there are hungry or illiterate people in your little town that need the money far more than whatever corporate cause Jimmy advocates these days. Jimmy has lots of money to give his causes. Find your own and give deeply and often. Also Listen to some different music. Buffett’s okay but check out some Solomon Burke, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lyle Lovett, the Drifters and such.

Of course books will make an appearance in these ramblings .I stumbled across a book call Life Lessons of a Legend by Brad Manard and Captain Tony Tarracino. First I will say I liked it and you should buy it. Furthermore you should buy it at Voltaire Books on the corner of Simonton and Eaton in Key West. It is a great little book store whose owners went out of their way to be helpful when my wife was looking for a particular book to bring home to the small blonde child. Having said that the author is a member of a Midwestern Parrotheads Club and also looks at Tony through glasses of a deep rose color totally ignoring what Tony himself called his inner bastard. It is understandable I suppose. The last Brad from the Midwest we run across in culture was last seen wrapped up in a sexual embrace with a transsexual transvestite in a fright wig and fishnets. Manard spent some time with Captain Tony in the last years of the legendary Key West icons life and he came away with some pretty good stuff that makes for a good read.

One thing that is mentioned frequently in the book is Captain Tonys advice to look for the jewel within. Translated this means to look for the good in all. This is great advice for reducing stress. I have a lot of friends many others think are asshats, assclowns or simply assholes of the highest nature. I myself am frequently told I am like whiskey, an acquired taste. A lot of people have wrappers that have nothing to do with who they really are. Insecurities fear, and a whole host of other entirely human factors lead them to put a shell that is not entirely pleasant. If you see through the bullshit there is usually a pretty good person within. While it is true that there some folks who fit in the WOS (waste of Sperm) classification most people I meet are actually pretty decent humans just trying to figure it all out. Look for the jewel within is pretty damn good advice and the concept is pretty well presented in the book.

The other lesson Brad from Iowa gets from the gambler, hustler and saloon keeper is that compassion is the most important word in the dictionary. This is something that those of us who call ourselves libertarians fuck up beyond belief. While I deeply believe that government redistribution of wealth, uneven taxation and handouts is wrong this does not mean that there should be no compassion. Believing in myself and taking responsibility does not excuse me from giving a shit about those with whom I share the planet. I should not have an obligation to give my money to anyone I do not want to. However I should want to help some of those who have struggled along the way. If life has smiled on you why not help those who feel frowned upon right now.

Why not give money to help spread literacy? We have far too many people in our own country who never learned to read. What contribution might they make to the world or their own life if we open that door for them? Is giving the mentally handicapped the chance for a job or the ability to take some measure of direction over their life a handout or a hand up? Do you know what horrible circumstances led that mother and child to be homeless? Are you so perfect you get to judge? The five bucks you give her might go to the crack pipe, that’s true. It might go to feed the child for a day. Since you tip more than that for an overcooked burger and a beer at the Parrothead meeting why do you give a shit? The chance she feeds the baby is worth taking the risk in my feeble mind. You are right. I do not owe it to anyone to help them. I owe it to myself.

I have one last observation from Key West. This is one of the more diverse little towns you will ever find. You will not hear the word diversity there very much. No one seems togives a shit if you are red, black white yellow or any other shade. No one asks which flavor of groin you favor or what religion you choose to practice. The real question is did you show up for your shift on time and do your job? You do what you want and be who you and be sure to tip your waiters and waitresses. I will do the same. I love that attitude. Let’s do away with societies and association to advance fill in the blank people. Let’s start to new one called the Society for the Advancement of People. As long as we still use the word diversity or request special treatment based on skin color, religion, groin preference or some other feature or habit racism and discrimination will survive. You be you, I’ll be me and none of the rest really matters all that much.

Cleary I lied. Baseball and markets will have to wait for another day