I’m 69. I’m healthy. But many of my friends aren’t. Worse, all my friends think they’re invincible. They don’t visit a doctor when things go awry — like they feel “tired,” or have a constant cough. They don’t visit a dermatologist to check their skin. One friend neglected a mole for two years. By the time he visited the skin doctor, it was too late. He was dead nine months later.
Many of my friends assume doctors actually know what they’re doing and hand over their life, with no research. Like buying a stock because the neighbor who seems rich told you about it. Some sit in hospital and let all and sundry prod, poke, inject and IV drip into them whatever they feel like. One friend has lymphoma (blood cancer). Her treatment was for chemotherapy — powerful drugs dropped into her through an IV bottle. One night the young doctor gave her too much. Within minutes she couldn’t breath. She was convinced she was dying. The upshot? The late night intern damaged my friend’s lungs. She’s now fighting her way back. But the intern sapped her energy. Now she can barely move. Why wasn’t her husband by her side, monitoring everything they (the doctors and nurses) do?
Death visits all of us. But we can postpone it by doing obvious things — exercising, eating well, avoiding stress, getting our checkups, keeping out of the sun and staying thin. Studies show when you’re fat, you have a much higher chance of getting diabetes and cancer.
This morning, I asked a friend for the five major actions he takes to stay healthy? His answers:
1. exercise
2. high vegetable and fish diet
3. laughing
5. plenty of money.
I asked my friend with lymphoma for her advice:
Enjoy the small things. Appreciate every little taste of food. Be kind to everyone. Offer everyone an encouraging word. Count on people. They come through for you.
She summed it up for me:
You have to hit the bottom before you appreiate not being there.
Annaly to issue 100 million shares at $17.70. Announced last night. It will raise $2 billion or so. Many of the high-yielding mortgage REITS are issuing new shares to take advantage of today’s extraordinary interest spreads — between what they’re borrowing at and what they can earn with their bundles of residential mortgages. What can go wrong? First, they buy lousy packages. Second, interest rates could skyrocket, squeezing their margins. Today, NLY will fall, making it an even better buy.
These wars just drag on and on. Afghanistan is now older than World War II. A friend is being sent there. His extended family — that includes me — is petrified for him. The latest news from there is just plain awful, with the violence gettng worse daily. I had planned to visit in August. Now, no way.
From Stratfor, yet another war…
The war in Libya has been under way for months, without any indication of when it might end. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s faction has been stronger and more cohesive than imagined and his enemies weaker and more divided. This is not unusual. There is frequently a perception that dictators are widely hated and that their power will collapse when challenged. That is certainly true at times, but often the power of a dictator is rooted in the broad support of an ideological faction, an ethnic group or simply those who benefit from the regime. As a result, naive assumptions of rapid regime change are quite often replaced by the reality of protracted conflict.
This has been a characteristic of what we have called “humanitarian wars,” those undertaken to remove a repressive regime and replace it with one that is more representative. Defeating a tyrant is not always easy. Gadhafi did not manage to rule Libya for 42 years without some substantial support. Read more.
Don’t trust the Post Office wih your important packages. Two weeks ago, I send two boxes to my son in Portland. One arrived in five days. The other hasn’t. I was too cheap to send it by UPS. Idiot.
The Post Office doesn’t deliver, but my wife does. These days it’s boxes and boxes of… guess what?
I took this picture last night. I included a quarter for comparison. Note how the box says “training made easy.” It doesn’t. Despite boxes of this stuff, this weekend I received nice brown presents in places ranging from the Wee-Wee Pad under my desk to the couch in my office.
Below is the culprit. She’s called Rosie. She’s new (about 3 1/2 months) and charming (when she wants to be). Next step: cutting her toenails. Not easy. She squirms, yelps and complains.
At her finest — asleep. Except for that one eye that checks you don’t leave her.
All this European mess is great for GLD and SGOL, but for few others.
Harry Newton who is not stressing out, but eyeing his stops closely.
Sorry, should have been government service for government SERVANT…
Seems like whenever folks have a PO problem they're quick to blame, but UPS and Fed Ex get a pass. I'm guessing you're unaware the Post Office delivers for both UPS and Fed Ex ? Please don't confuse government service with government service. As much mail order as you seem to do, it's unseemly to pass judgement, but feel free to pay more for similar service……..
They still haven't delivered my package. And I can't trace it. So much for the Post office!
I have a large stuffed frog and good friend, Happy Herbert. He has all the advantages of a cute puppy without the downsides; he's housebroken, never hungry, doesn't bark, is always glad to see me, easily fits in my Jag convertible passenger seat belt (no, he doesn't get me in the car pool lane), and he'll live forever. And kids always laugh and wave when I drive by. Sure beats a puppy.
The puppy was my wife's idea. But I do love it, now we have it.
Happy wife, happy life.
It is worth repeating that Libya is OUR war because WE are NATO. The missions that our “partners” fly consist of (very) high altitude fixed routes with a possible bomb dump from extreme heights while “someone else” hit the target with a laser. Guess who is flying all the logistics, electronic warfare, recon, air control, refueling, and low strike missions? The USN and USAF. There are a few foreign officers in the chain of command, but an amazing number of US Admirals in charge.
On the ground, it's a tribal civil war. Sure, it's a nasty little civil war, but it isn't some great mission to save humanity. Libya is #3 and Yemen is #4. Four at once. Gee, I wonder where they are getting all that money from? Oh yea, NATO! Right…
Didn't the Messiah Obama say that Gadhafi had to go? Or was that what the teleprompter told him to say? Maybe it's time for some “shock and awe”……I personally prefer the lasting impression of the “Daisy Cutter.”
There's actually five Wars going on at present. We forgot Somalia.
The NLY offering is only dilutive if one assumes the more than 2 billion of new capital will earn less than existing capital.
This offering, as prior offerings have done, will increase tangible book value per share, bringing book closer to market and, absent a sudden increase in interest rates, market value should again move higher.
The rationale for Annaly selling stock is that the management will have more assets under management, and thus higher management fees accrue to the managers. I've seen fund managers sell more shares in good times and in bad, and the ONLY reason is to generate higher fees.
That said, Annaly's managers are decent. But the assets are mortgages, with added leverage to juice the returns. Too much leverage at the wrong time in a poor market, and they can fail.
What you need to understand is that ALL investments that are debt financed are dependent on the ability to roll that debt when it is required.
As for gold, please understand that while there isn't counterparty risk in terms of holding an unlevered asset, the fact is that to crystallize a gain you do need to sell it to someone, which means that you need a counterparty to sell it to!
It's just another asset, which happens to be in fashion now. No more, no less.
Harry- Both NLY and AGNC remain on your “Stocks We Like” board. NLY just dilluted shareholders while further leveraging up its bet on low interest rates. AGNC is also highly leveraged. For the longest time you railed against Auction Rate Securities as they failed miserably. They too were highly leveraged plays on interest rates. How do you continue to recommend the same type of strategy that you for so long obejected to. A stock that pays a high dividend (NLY- AGNC) signals a risky proposition. This NLY secondary was corrected to read 120million shares and it dilutes shareholders value. Watch what hapens when interest rates start to move higher. You can kiss the dividend goodbye and the stock will be cut in half.
Harry;
While I own a couple of closed-end funds that are leveraged in the 30% range, I try to avoid leveraged investments otherwise. I looked at Annaly but lost interest when I read that it was leveraged at 7.5 to 1. Wasn't it excessive leverage that got us in trouble? Borrowing short in the wholesale market to invest long sounds an awful lot like the Auction Rate Preferred mess doesn't it?
Harry – the announcement by NLY to issue 120 million additional shares is highly dilutive. This is only a good buy if interest rates remains low. CLEARLY NLY believes rates will go higher which is why they raised capital so they could lock in these low rates when buying morgtages. So please explain why a highly dilutive stock offering predicated on a low interest rate environment signals a “good buy ” to you. NLY pyas a handsome dividend but if the stock goes down but as much or more than the dividend you will have lost money. Please explain….thnx
if you issue 100 million shares, and the issue price for NLY is $17.70, I would hope they would raise more then $180mm. Check, Check Check…simple math.
You're right. Thank you. I fixed it. Check. Check. Check.