{"id":3470,"date":"2010-08-18T09:08:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T13:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=3470"},"modified":"2010-08-18T09:12:14","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T13:12:14","slug":"things-are-looking-up-for-the-economy-and-for-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=3470","title":{"rendered":"Things are looking up for the economy, and for jobs."},"content":{"rendered":"

Deere, Walmart and the shipping companies are reporting higher sales and higher demand.<\/p>\n

For me personally, I’ve been “showered” with a bunch of cash dividends from my long-suffering private equity funds who finally managed to sell some of their assets. One even boastfully reported a 2.6x return, conveniently forgetting the long, long time it’s been.<\/p>\n

But heh, there was a while there (a long while) when all my funds looked like they were headed straight down into the black abyss.<\/p>\n

Am I feeling better about the stockmarket? I guess I have to, cautiously. The two highest\u00a0 dividend payers\u00a0 in the Dow — Verizon and AT&T — have bounced up. That’s nice. Gold is coming back. NLY, ANH and that AGNC have eased back a bit, but their high dividends more than covers the fall.<\/p>\n

It seems to be a market in transition — marking time for the next big step. Not screaming cheap. But offering dividends and the opportunity to juice up your return with covered calls. I bought some more bonds yesterday. Boy are short-term yields low. Today I’ll sell some covered calls on stocks I like — like BHP.<\/p>\n

The day Chase turned me for an Amtrak MasterCard<\/strong> (which I really wanted)<\/span> <\/strong><\/span>was the same day they offered me $125 cash to open a Chase check account with a minimum opening balance of $100.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n

Why you and I never see a Google startup.<\/strong><\/span>I always wondered why no one ever showed me a decent deal. My Silicon Valley friend explained there are three types of startups:<\/p>\n

+ Level 1. The best.<\/strong> Rich friends and family provide the startup money. These deals are no-brainers. The money comes in instantly, if not sooner.<\/p>\n

+ Level 2. The best, also.<\/strong> But the entrepreneurs don’t have any rich friends or rich family. They take the deal to a professional VC firm in Silicon Valley. The good deals get funded instantly.<\/p>\n

+ Level 3. The second best.<\/strong> They get shopped to the angel investors, like you and me.\u00a0 They’re drek. The chances of them making it are low. And that’s polite.<\/p>\n

The accuracy of Federer’s serve is amazing.<\/strong><\/span> During a shoot for a Gillette commercial, Roger Federer had one of the guys put a Coke can on his head. The rest is magic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch the video here.<\/strong><\/a> Do not try this trick at home.<\/p>\n

Motorcycle mania, revisited. <\/strong>My partner Gerry rides a Harley at 80 without a helmet and without protective clothing. At least this nice baby has a “protective” covering.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t make this stuff up.<\/p>\n

Totally tasteless humor.<\/strong><\/span>
\n5,000 Jewish men were surveyed as to why they liked oral sex.<\/p>\n

1% liked the warmth.
\n2% liked the sensation.
\n3% liked the eroticism.
\n94% liked the peace and quiet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Harry Newton,who is running the photo booth at this weekend’s wedding. You could not believe how much equipment I need. If you’re ever in New York City, go visit B&H Photo at 9th and 34th Street. It’s one amazing store. Probably the most automated and best-run electronics retailer in the world. Amazing. Simply amazing.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deere, Walmart and the shipping companies are reporting higher sales and higher demand. For me personally, I’ve been “showered” with a bunch of cash dividends from my long-suffering private equity funds who finally managed to sell some of their assets. One even boastfully reported a 2.6x return, conveniently forgetting the long, long time it’s been. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}