Back in New York. The endless drone of the Fiscal Cliff nonsense and a computer that won’t find things correctly, For reasons I don’t understand. Databases are weird animals. They get corrupted. Then you have to waste time figuring what’s corrupted and fix it. It’s clear little baby laptops are not mainframes. But they work so well — until they suddenly don’t. Fixing is time-consuming, and boring. Important to have lots of backups you can go back to one. Older ones. One will work. Pray.
Maybe the message is getting out that the Fiscal Cliff will be as benign as the Y2 problem? And the market is picking itself up.
This business of buying when blood is flowing is not easy. But recently I have bought ED, COST, WEN, TWO, AGNC and NLY and they’re all up a little. ‘ll nibble away more this morning. But not at Apple. That one I can’t figure.
Latest on the boiler. The original diagnosis was the boiler crapped out (to the tune of $3,600) because it got hit by a lightning strike. Latest thinking is that it may have been hit by surge when the grid electricity shut down and my emergency generator kicked in. Anyway, the boss of my local boiler shop, Dell’s Plumbing and Heating, tells me Viessman engineers (from Germany) have lectured American dealers incessantly about how bad commercial electricity is in the U.S. How it fluctuates all over the place, spikes, surges and then drops. Viessman engineers say American power gives disgusting a whole new meaning. Of course, knowing all this, you wonder why they never automatically included a Furman power conditioner along with every boiler they sold in the United States? I mean not doing so gives horrible customer service a whole meaning.
I didn’t choose our Viessman boiler. Our contractor recommended it. I was told it was the best. It clearly isn’t.
Anyway, it’s up and running now, thanks to Dell’s. And protected by a Furman. Your boiler should also be protected.
Race against the machine. More research shows the jobs aren’t coming back — like they did in previous recessions. This is an interesting presentation on how software is taking over jobs. Click here.
Another reason running is not good for you. From Scotland, a wonderful Toyota ad. Click here.
Super good news. I thought I would never see these again.
.
I started to make bad puns about a snowball’s chance in hell about ever seeing these indulgences again. But suddenly they appeared at my local gas station. What joy! They even taste better than the originals. I ate both last night. My life is made.
Silly, but fun.
MONA LISA’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“After all that money your father and I spent on braces, that’s the biggest smile you can give us?”
COLUMBUS’ JEWISH MOTHER:
“I don’t care what you’ve discovered, you still could have written!”
MICHELANGELO’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“Can’t you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that junk off the
ceiling?”
NAPOLEON’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“All right, if you aren’t hiding your report card inside your jacket, take your hand out of there and show me.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“Again with the hat? Can’t you just wear a normal baseball cap like the other kids?”
THOMAS EDISON’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“Of course I’m proud you invented the electric light bulb. Now turn it off and get to bed!”
PAUL REVERE’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“I don’t care where you think you have to go, young man, midnight is past your curfew.”
ALBERT EINSTEIN’S JEWISH MOTHER:
“But it’s your senior picture. Couldn’t you do something about your hair?”
MOSES’ JEWISH MOTHER:
“That’s a nice story. Now tell me where you have really been for the last 40 years.”
Harry Newton whose tummy hurts this morning. I wonder why.
Harry- for the life of me I do not understand your investment inconsistencies. You implore us to avoid and even short the stocks (companies) that disappoint you as a consumer. You also refer to companies that have problems as “cockroach” stocks. Today I read that you recently bought Con Edison (ED). After their horrible and pathetic performance during and post superstorm Sandy how in good conscience can you buy ED? I lost power for 12 days largely because of their incompetence in dispatching crews , organizing crews, staffing and communications. EVERYTHING about Con Ed’s performance and response was incompetent and reprehensible. You hate Microsoft and Radio Shack but you own ED? Please explain…………..
This is similar to the argument Harry made for shorting JP Morgan. It’s up something like 40% since. Ditto Arch Coal, which is up an astounding 60% since Newton shorted it.
There’s clearly an investment strategy here. If Newton’s says Short,” buy it. That won’t work all the time. It didn’t work with Radio Shack, which is down big time. Nothing in the column is cast in stone. I highlight the stocks. You make your own decision. Don’t blame me for being stupid. I’m guessing you bought JPM and ACI. And you’re making lots of money as a result. Hence you owe me a thank you. Maybe a bottle of wine. Meantime Arch Coal is not up an “astounding 60%.” Even if you bought at its 52-week low, it would be only up 51%. But still handsome.
You are correct. I’m up about 50% in Arch, not 60%. I do owe you a bottle of wine. And not just any wine, probably something aged from France or Napa for those anti-Harry picks. But it must wait, I’m off to buy some Radio Shack.
So, send the wine. What are you waiting for? You don’t pay to read my column. You don’t offer any of your own suggestions. It looks like one-way street here. Whatever happened to Thank you?
Since you, I believe, are a Teetotaler I suggest you provide Fiscal Cliff with my address for shipping the wine!!
Harry – you didnt answer the question. WHy Con Ed after thier horrible, miserable, incompetent performance and possible fins, lawsuits etc that will ensue?????
I also wanted to say “Thank You!” for your daily efforts on this blog of yours.
I find it interesting as well as entertaining at times.
You do a great job of putting in words the trials and tribulations many of us have experienced with our journey in investments.
Keep up the good work!
Ironically your tummy ache may have something to do with the “Best if Used by” date on that package of Snowballs.
The Doubly irony is that the name Mrs. Freshley’s implies freshness when the product is supposed to be good for another 3 weeks…. And who knows how long it was sitting on the shelf…
Einstein was right. It is all relative…
But they sure taste good for junk food addicts, like me.
The moaning of the Germans about US power is too generalized to be valid. All of Germany is 138,000 sq mi… the US is about 3.7 million sq miles. You can’t generalize. In my part of the Florida
Keys we have beautiful sweet power 24/7. How do I know? … the same way you could know.. pay a few bucks for an APC “Smart UPS”, install the monitoring software in your PC, and get nice historical charts of every tweek and burble for as far back as you want to go.
I just have to ask you why you are in love with power conditioning products from a UK company when one of the greatest American success stories, American Power Conversion, is just down the coast from you and widely available? APC is a company that every American Entrepreneur could only hope to emulate.
The moaning of the Germans about US power is too generalized to be valid. All of Germany is 138,000 sq mi… the US is about 3.7 million sq miles. You can’t generalize. In my part of the Florida
Keys we have beautiful sweet power 24/7. How do I know? … the same way you could know.. pay a few bucks for an APC “Smart UPS”, install the monitoring software in your PC, and get nice historical charts of every tweek and burble for as far back as you want to go.