Friday 29 August 2008

Is Senator Obama MLK2?


Today I heard Senator Obama's address to the Democratic National Caucus in acceptance of his parties Presidential Nomination. It was truly an impressive venue, and he is a great speaker. But I was not convinced that - despite his conviction - he has a plan any different from his Vice Presidential running-mate and reluctantly I do not accept him as the man to lead.

It is the 45th Anniversary of the famous "I had a Dream" speech of Dr. Martin Luther KING Jr. during a the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" on August 28, 1963. May he rest in peace for he was a great man.

On the other hand, if 40 years 7 months and 28 days after the martyrdom of Dr. Martin Luther KING, Senator Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States of America on November 4, 2008, I will not deny him that right and will pray that Reverend KING shall smile down on us all.


(Image courtesy http://wordle.net was composed from text of speech.)

Thursday 28 August 2008

Obama-Mia

my my - how can we resist you >:[



I always liked that scene in the Ten Commandments.

Saturday 23 August 2008

Sins of Commissions or Omissions

Today Aug 23 (tomorrow is the last day of the Beijing Olympics) is the 1st Anniversary of the Asset Backed Commercial Paper (ABCP) meltdown in Canada. And it looks like the end is finally in sight as most retail holders voted and approved the bailout package. Only Corporate (such as Robert Friedland's First Dynasty Mines, is a holdout as $200+ million in proceeds from an equity financing were placed in ABCP prior to project approval - but there is no sympathy for the devil) and large Institutions remains as holders.

Soon after this story broke I found myself wondering how some of these retail investors could sleep with themselves at night. In the old days, before the new cyber-sins were invented, sins fell into two categories; Sins of Commission - things you did but shouldn't have and Sins of Omission - things you didn't do but should have.

Yet, in every market cycle Financial Advisor's learn the wages of these sins the hard way.

Clients are often disappointed to learn that they can't get unlimited returns without undertaking higher risks. But for those truthful enough to reveal the truth are often fired for doing so or replaced by someone else who tells the client what he wants to hear.

There is lots of blame to go round when individual investors claim - as I have read in the past year - that 1) a retail investor placed 100% of his widowed father's home sale proceeds because ABCP had higher much yields that comparable GIC's or TBill's. This fellow acknowledged going against his advisors advice but still wants to be compensated!

HELLO! What was he thinking!

Thursday 21 August 2008

Redux Ross Perot

It has been some time since Ross Perot uttered that famous "great sucking sound" quote about the effect of the U.S/Canada Free Trade Agreement during his ill-fated run for the White House in 1992. In alot of ways he reminds me of the great Yogi Berra.

What brought him out of active retirement was probably pronouncements of support for another Texan, T. Boone Pickens’ and his public proposals for wind-based energy policy. But no matter, from a different perspective here is ZDNet's take on Mr. Perot's recent activities.

Magna Charta: Welcome Back, Ross Perot by ZDNet's Tom Steinert-Threlkeld -- So, EDS is gone (again), subsumed by HP. But, lo and behold, H. Ross Perot is back, just in time for the presidential elections. Now, you can view his slides about the dangers of the federal deficit and debt online, any time you want. Or, hear him posit that the only silver lining [...]

To exert some influence over the upcoming US election is the most obvious, and who can dispute that US Federal Debt is now $9.4 trillion (versus $4 trillion when Perot railed against it in 1992) or that the US Federal Debt is now accumulating at the rate of $1 billion per day (and the FNMA/FMAC bailout have not yet been finalized!). I predict his next famous quote will be:
It’s one thing to promise me free candy forever, but where are you going to get it?
Also nothing beats Ross Perot reciting the Pioneers Creed:
The cowards never started, the weak died on the way and only the strong survived.
Perot is correct when he says that Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility will handcuff the next president by limiting his options. On July 28, 2008 the WhiteHouse Office of Management and Budget stated that it had revised the budget deficit projected for fiscal year 2009 to a record $482 billion from only 6 months earlier.

p.s In order to comprehend these VERY LARGE numbers I refer you to this post - a "visual aid" to help my daughter understand the "Age of Earth". Make that last "square" a "cube" (by adding a third "100 cell" dimension - with each cell representing a 1 million cell cube) and THIS NEW SUPER-CUBE equals 1 Trillon! The U.S Federal Debt is therefore represented by almost 10 SUPER-CUBES. Sobering, n'est pas?

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Apture