Value investing says you buy stocks with good earnings and good prospects. That was the good old days — before big, bad interfering government.
Increasingly, there are whole industries to avoid (or short) because of idiotic government interfence, including wind, solar, housing and banking.
But there are some to benefit — mortgage REITs and gold.
I don’t believe Europe has come anywhere close to solving its problems, though the positive rumors are helping stocks. When stocks rise, it’s a good time to short or sell call options.
Time for a litle optimism. Last night I read:
From the book:
IN the fall of 1982, I arrived here as an 18-year old student from India. America was in rough shape. That December, unemployment hit 10.8%, higher than any point since World War II. Interest rates hovered around 15%. Vietnam, Watergate, the energy crisis and the Iranian hostage crisis all battered American confidence. Images of the helicopters on the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon, of Nixon resigning, of long lines at gas stations, and of the hostages blindfolded were all fresh in people’s minds. The Soviet Union was on a roll, expanding its influence far beyond its borders, from Afghanistan to Angola to Central America. That June, Israel invaded Lebanon, making a volatile situation in the Middle East even more tense.
Yet America was a strikingly open and expansive country. Reagan embodied it. Despite record-low approval ratings at the time, he exuded optimism from the center of the storm. In the face of Moscow’s rising power, he confidently spoke of a moral crisis in the Soviet system and predicted it would end up on “the ash heap of history.” Across the political aisle stood Thomas (Tip) O’Neill, the hearty Irish-American Speaker of the House, who personified the generosity and tolerance of old-school liberalism. Everywhere I went, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. It was a feeling I had never had before, a country wide open to the world, to the future, and to anyone who loved it. To a young visitor, it seemed to offer unlimited generosit and promise.
For America to thrive in this new and challenging era, for it to succeed amid the rise of the rest, it need fulfill only one test. It should be a place that is as inviting and exciting to the young student who enters the country today as it was for this awkward 18-year old a generation ago.
I arrived here in September 1967 as a young 25-year old student from Australia. I brought a 175 cc motor scooter across from Europe on a ship. They hoisted my bike from the ship’s hold and placed it ever so gently on the pier. I looked around for Customs or Immigration. Eventually I found a dockworker and asked “What do I do now?” He answered, “Where do you want to go?” I said “Boston.” He pointed north-east and said “It’s that way.” I got on my scooter and drove (slowly) to Boston. It was so simple, so logical and so open.
When I had left Australia a year earlier, my boss told me I would love the Americans because “they were just like me.” They substituted enthusiasm for intelligence. I thought he was insulting. He wasn’t. Americans got things done. They set ridiculous goals and achieved them because the knew they could.
Fourteen years later I shared the American dream and became an American:
Today’s problems are minor when viewed against America’s 235-year history.
I before there are more opportunities for enthusiastic Americans and aspiring Americans than ever. In fact, I am seeing more business startups than I have ever seen. I’ve actually invested in a few in recent months. It’s fun meeting young people who are living the American dream. I visit a software startup today at 11:30 AM. Though the idea is somewhat north of Plantet X, the enthusiasm of the kids for their ideas is contagious.
Last night we had dinner with a friend’s 14-year old son. He has an idea for a T-shirt business with a difference. (Personally I don’t get it.) He’s already lined up retail distribution, is checking out suppliers and is harrassing me to be his first customer. Which I’ll be privileged to be. He’s 14 and has just read a book on America’s millionaires and billionaires who dropped out of college to strike it rich, and did. I daren’t tell his father whio believes formal education is next to godliness.
Just think how rich I’d be if I had dropped out of college and grad school!
On going gluten-free. Gluten is found in all wheat, barley and rye products. Many people are allergic to it. They may become malnourished because the carbohydrate energy they would normally get from gluten goes straight through their body without being absorbed. That can damage the small intestine. It can also cause weird allergic reactions. By stripping gluten from your diet you can cure strange symptoms — not normally associated with what’s known now as celiac disease. Novak Djokovic was diagnozed with celiac, went off gluten and went on to win the US Tennis Open.
Novak Djokovic won this year’s US Open. He beat Nadal in the most physically grueling tennis match I’ve ever seen.
I wrote about gluten yesterday. Many readers wrote in, commenting that by going gluten-free, they or their friends and relatives had achieved remarkable improvements in their health. The comments are worth reading. Click here.
Confessions of a shoe nut. Tennis has made my feet wider and my left foot longer than my right foot. Hence I am now obsessed within finding comfortable casual shoes. With the boom in running, there has been an explosion in casual shoes — each one promising more comfort and better performance than the other. One “big” craze has been barefoot running — or as close to it as you can design a lightweight shoe. There’s been an explosion of lightweight shoes. They’re very comfortable — and light to pack for a trip.
One major problem with many of them is they assume you run with your knees apart (thnk riding a horse) and the designers slice the heel, like this adidas ClimaCool Ride shoe:
I find shoes like this uncomfortable, since I run flat. Tennis shoes and older running shoes typically have flat heels, which work better for me. This is the adidas Barricade 2 tennis shoe, which I love. Note its flat heel.
That’s it for shoes.
Is it weird enough yet? Thomas Friedman’s latest column on global weather weirding. Click here.
Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons.
Harry Newton who’s trying Djoko’s windshield wiper forehand and gets it once every other blue moon.
Welcome, Harry, and I, in particular, are happy you are here!
I will defend with my life the right of Thomas L. Friedman to write such really bad advice and your right to recommend it. And now, I will exercise my right to call Bullshit. Friedman's underlying premise that government can solve everything… for example, by creating “fixed, durable, long-term price signal that raises the price of dirty fuels” is pure wishful dreaming. I am fully ready to accept that seasons and climates change. Sure. If the climate is changing, what hubris makes Mr. Friedman believe we can either cause it or do anything about it? And, what idiocy makes him think that the “government”… which has proven itself incapable of so much.. has any insight into how to interrupt any change or even if such an interruption is a good thing. No, Mr. Friedman, I am not willing to empower government or to give up a single freedom to give the politicians a license to spend, tax, and control. — FJD
Especially recently, the republicans in congress have been deliberately sabotaging the effectiveness of government so they can get elected as the party that said all along that government was ineffective. They do this with deregulation, fake crises(think debt celing), and grossly misleading wording(think Job-creators instead of rich people). Democrats are equally sold out to big money, but they haven't yet sabotaged the workings of government for their own political gains. If you vote republican you are contributing to a system of dysfunctional government. If you vote Democrat you are contributing to a system where the government works but mostly for rich corporations. This is clearly over-simplified, but until we get more Elizabeth Warrens to run, it's what we are stuck with. This article says it better than I have:
http://www.truth-out.org/goodb…
Love that your hair was described as “greying.” That must have been a looooong time ago…
TENNIS TIP for Harry: The ClimaCool Ride is designed to help keep your weight on the insides of your foot. Therefore it promotes a “knock-kneed” as opposed to a “bowlegged” position. Maybe you already understand that but it wasn't ascertainable from your description. Now on to the TENNIS TIP. This tip will improve your foot-work immeasurably and IMMEDIATELY, by that I mean overall balance, quickness and speed. Do the following, compress you big toe, just pull it in towards the ball of you foot. Now do the same with the rest of your toes. This will make the bottom of your foot “firm” almost like the bottom of a ski boot. The tighter you can hold your toes in the better, you may feel some burning in you calf mussel, that's good. Now as you are playing tennis keep your weight in the area of the root of your big toe towards the ball of your foot. This will become easier as you get use to it. Remember to try and keep your toes in this compressed position as you practice and play. If you have never done this before you will quickly notice a concentrated burn in your calf mussels, stay with it, your legs will become stronger. Once you have mastered this then you can move on to the “cross-over-step”. This also works like magic. Simply do the following when you are practicing against a wall. Hit the ball so it rebounds to your right requiring you to take 2 or 3 steps to get the ball. Once you have initially hit the ball to your right you will be facing somewhat square to the wall, in your reaction to the ball to move right you simply pivot on your toes (both feet) to the right (keep those toes firmly pulled in), this is your first move. Your second move is to step over your right foot with your left foot. Once again you lift your left foot and step over your right foot, now complete the 2 or 3 steps to get to the ball. I'll be you dollars to donuts that your first and only move is to lift your right foot and move it to the right, leaving you in a rather wide stance (the distance from your left foot to your right foot) from which you cannot obtain max quickness to the ball. At first this might not seem as though you are gaining anything but as you practice will VERY QUICKLY begin to gain a sense of considerably more range, much more range. An added benefit of cross-over-step is that you will move in much more of straight line to the ball, no more of that half moon curved running pattern to get the ball which reduces your range. Really get the sense of pivoting (rotating) hard, or in other words really swing those heals around.
I learned this all of this while in Boca Raton Florida, baseball spring training (1980) for my college baseball team, I was the shortstop. We were taking batting practice at some big baseball complex and I was at shortstop just taking some ground balls. I had noticed this big black guy in the 3rd base dugout shaking some hands and having a few laughs with some of the coaches and players. Then during a break in the batting practice this black guy walks out of the dugout towards me at shortstop. I almost shit my pants when I realized it was Ernie Banks. He was at the complex for the rest of the week, he worked with me a lot that week and showed me all of the footwork techniques I've described above. They worked like “magic” just like he said……….and they will for you too in tennis. Give this a try I promise it will work for you……best of luck