I was right about shorting IBM and buying SGOL (gold).
I was wrong about BX — so far. But its yield of 8.55% is nice for the moment.
I’m generally wary. And “wary” means I have cash.
We’re into earnings season. Most are not brilliant. And I’m wary.
Verizon is up a little on earnings that beat expectations by a a couple of cents.
What Verizon needs is just a little excitement. There are a thousand new products and services it could offer… Don’t get me started.
I sense a certain desperation in the markets with the new excitement over ultra-leveraged ETFs and CDOs.
Watch out for salesmen bearing gifts, also called sure things.
Favorite story:
Deutsche Bank had a “fat finger” error. Deutsche Bank mistakenly paid $6 billion to a hedge fund, according to the Financial Times. The error was the result of a “fat finger,” or mistake made using a computer, and not an actual trading loss. The money was retrieved the following day.
It would have been funny if the money had disappeared.
Medical bills are way out of control. Before I turned 65 and went on Medicare, my bill for cleaning wax out of my ears — a three minute procedure — was $70.
The latest bill — sent to Medicare — was a staggering $910. It included $500 of charges for an “examination” of my nose and throat which was not done. Totally fictional.
Why doesn’t someone from Medicare call me and check that the services it is being billed for were actually done? Is that too difficult to ask? They don’t have auditors in Medicare?
My doctor does a superlative job removing my wax. But this theft of taxpayer money have even pricked my tiny conscience.
Need some nice new digs? The building is up. When I eye it from Central Park, it looks like it will break in half in the first storm.
This is your new living room.
Register on their web site . With luck, they may call you. They haven’t called me. The building is 1428 feet tall, nearly 200 feet taller than the Empire State Building. Must be fun to watch water slosh in your toilet when it’s windy. Full floors start at $16 million. I have no idea what the top ones cost.
Imagine if the electricity went down and you had to walk up the stairs to get to your apartment? I once had to walk down 32 floors on Park Avenue in an airless stairwell. Not fun.
Favorite New Yorker cartoons:
Trudeau won Canada. I know one thing about Canada:
What’s the difference between a Canadian and a canoe?
Answer: The canoe tips.
Harry Newton who can’t buy Heinz Ketchup at Whole Foods. What sort of snobbism is that? It’s the only ketchup worth buying:
Are you listening Whole Foods? Now you know why my Whole Foods short is working.
Meantime, BRKA is finally picking up.
Maybe its huge ownership of IBM will depress the stock today and make it a good buy? Here’s hoping.
Just another shill for the bloated tech industry and its pie-in-the-sky valuations based on future results that never happen.
What’s next Harry? Going to urge everyone to load up on Netflix and its 248 P/E?
“Why doesn’t someone from Medicare call me and check that the services it is being billed for were actually done? Is that too difficult to ask? They don’t have auditors in Medicare?”
Why? Because that will increase thier administrative costs dramatically and will make them look like a gready insurance company. Wasn’t that liberal’s main talking point against insurance companies? That they are gready and don’t want to pay all the claims and their administrative costs are whoooping 10% while medicare is only 1%.
You can’t have it both ways. Works only in liberal lalaland.
“Why doesn’t someone from Medicare call me and check that the services it is being billed for were actually done? Is that too difficult to ask? They don’t have auditors in Medicare?”
Indeed. My wife is (like you) one of the few people who READS the “Explanation of Benefits”. It drove her crazy. She called Medicare to report bogus visits and allergy shots that never happened and got nuthin.
I came to understand that it doesn’t matter to those administrators. The money is “free” and (most importantly) it’s all in the spirit of the “redistribution of wealth” that a certain candidate touted to “Joe the Plumber” in 2008.
It’s the “Stimulus Program” continued under different signage.
No, that “redistribution” isn’t quite what that candidate wanted Joe and the rest of the rubes to think, but it’s working exactly they way they planned.
It’s nothing to do with politics. It’s to do with the fact that no one is managing it. You and I could change the thing in a week and save billions of dollars. My God, there are no words that ask the patient to check that he received all the treatments, services and procedures which Medicare got billed for.
step 1: cut funds to government institutions
step 2: complain when government institutions don’t work well because of overwork/understaffing
step 3: privatize government institution
step 4: Get rich!!! does this prick the tiny conscience? maybe when medicare isn’t there for your kids it will.
It’s bad management. Lousy oversight. No auditing. You could save billions by cutting out the fraud…
Check out the stock ANFI, Harry. They were crushed by short-sellers that manipulated the stock price. Here is an article that details the sage – http://seekingalpha.com/article/3570206-amira-nature-foods-big-divergence-between-the-stock-and-the-business.
Nice blog today. But I didn’t get the Canadian – canoe joke?
no disrespect Harry, but the 365 brand of tomato ketchup is the only one I buy now from whole foods. Vastly superior to Heinz of any other name brand product. Try it. It’s awe inspiring.
I’ll try it on your recommendation.
I believe it is up to the individual to report Medicare Fraud as they probably have little way of knowing whether individual cases are authentic or not…you could earn up to $1000.00 reward as a Medicare Whistle Blower…check it out here…
https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/report-fraud-and-abuse/report-fraud/reporting-fraud.html
Harry’s statement is not clear. Harry, are you accusing the doctor of fraud? Literally? Or just to be dramatic?
Same doctor who one day was charging $70, the day after turning 65, skyrocketed his charges?
The day after you, not him turned 65 😉
Am I accusing him of fraud? Well, he did charge me for a procedure he didn’t do…
Report to NY state medical board
http://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/doctors/conduct/
Harry -you should be reporting him and also asking the same questions at his office.