Previous Columns
9:00 AM EST Tuesday, June 3, 2008: If you believe in contrary indicators, this week's covers points to a drop in oil prices.

I can personally see oil prices declining short-term -- if only because bubbles burst and the world's slowing economies are curbing consumption. But long-term the fundamentals of tight supply/ escalating demand stay with us. Some economists are predicting $200 a barrel. Meantime, high oil's affect on the economy will be severe. Immediate: Most everything is getting more expensive. From airline tickets to mail order shipping. Long-term: the effects will be profound. Sample: Suburbia will be less popular. Downtown living will boom.

Nuclear power, photovoltaics, hydro, wind, biofuel, sewage and other alternative energies have suddenly become more appealing, both economically and to politicians.

Goteborg is among dozens of municipalities in Sweden with facilities that transform sewage waste into enough bio-gas to run thousands of cars and buses.

"It's like a utopia," said Andreas Kask, a business consultant who drives a taxi in Goteborg. "But it hasn't worked out that well in reality."

Drivers complained that there were too few filling stations and that cars only held enough bio-gas for two or three hours of driving. Some also said early models of bio-gas cars performed poorly on steep climbs, were sluggish on damp mornings and had reduced trunk room because of bulky tanks.

Ola Fredriksson, an engineer at Gryaab, the sewage facility in Goteborg, said that what an average person flushed down the toilet each year created enough bio-gas to drive 120 kilometers, or 75 miles.

I don't make this stuff up.

Photovoltaics come along: As oil prices explode, alternative energy comes more into its own. That's the key dynamic. The second is that photovoltaic (also called PV) is following computing -- getting more powerful and cheaper by the year. Photovoltaic makers have been discovered by the market and some, e.g. First Solar (FSLR), have been overbought. It will fall a little more. But it's getting close to the time you should cover that short I recommended just recently.

Meantime, my photovoltaic guru likes three photovoltaic companies: Yingli Green Energy Holding (YGE), A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd. (APWR) and Suntech Power Holdings (STP). All three have strongly growing sales and are solidly profitable. Buy a portfolio of all three.

The law of unintended consequences: The villain of the summer blockbuster this year is Rep. Collin Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat who chairs the House Agriculture Committee. With federal ethanol shenanigans driving up the price of corn, movie theaters are feeling the bite as their concession-stand margins are diminished. Making less money from popcorn, cinemas are raising the price of tickets — to $10 in Kansas City, and to $12 in New York. Richard Gil, an economist at the University of Santa Cruz, studies the movie business and predicts that moviegoers will pay an extra buck or two for a ticket by the end of the year. So in addition to driving up our grocery bills to enrich politically connected business interests, doing nothing for energy efficiency, degrading the environment, bleeding the water table dry, and helping starve the poor of the world, Congress’s ethanol program is making movies pricier -- with more price hikes to come.

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Drawing of The Simpsons at the movies courtesy 20th Century Fox

Adobe is trialing a Web word processor: It's called Buzzword. It's from Adobe. Being web-based means three things. First, there's no software on your machine. Adobe will update the software without you having to download and install stuff. Second, you can get to your work from any computer anywhere. Third, you can more easily share your files with your friends and co-workers. Abode calls it web conferencing and screen sharing.

I like the simple design of Buzzwords. It's much cleaner than Word. There are several neat features -- flowing text around a picture, making PDFs of your work, and a cool simple menu. You can try it out for free at www.buzzword.acrobat.com.

This will hurt Amazon: This is seriously annoying, since I live in New York State. From today's New York Times.

If you live or work in New York State, look closely when buying online. Last Sunday, many but not all online retailers started to collect sales tax on goods shipped into New York. Most significantly, Amazon.com, the largest online store, was one of them.

In April, as part of its 2008-2009 budget, the state legislature passed what is being called the “Amazon Tax.” What’s new isn’t actually a change in the law — New York residents always owed tax on their purchases—it is an expansion of the law that is meant to force online retailers to collect the tax and send it to New York. Any company with physical operations in the state — such a store or office—already collects tax for the state.

Indeed, the state calculates that of the nation’s top 20 online retailers, 18 had already been collecting tax because they, like Dell and Staples, had operations in the state. The remaining two — Amazon and Newegg.com — have now registered to collect taxes.

The state now says tax must be collected by any online store that gets customers referred to them by Web sites based in the state. In late April, Amazon filed suit challenging the state law.

Amazon and Overstock are suing New York State to overturn the law. For me, I'm looking for other places to buy.

The French Tennis Open continues. Watch it in high definition (HD). The quality is mind-blowing. The best HD seems to be from DirecTV and shown on my Samsung DLP big screen TV. HD is the only way to watch sports. The Tennis Channel is 455 on Time Warner Manhattan and 217 on DirecTV. ESPN is 209 on DirecTV and 29 and 729 (HD) on Time Warner. Your channels will be different.

As you watch the tennis, You'll notice: 1. How deep they hit the ball. 2. How much they move the ball around, from side to side. 3. How often they run around their backhands. 4. How consistent the better players are. They simply make fewer mistakes.

Endearing
It’s Daniel and Rivkah’s 50th wedding anniversary (mazeltov) and to celebrate, their son Aaron invites the close family to a Golden Wedding dinner at his house. During the evening, Aaron gets very emotional every time he hears his dad call his mum by such endearing terms as ‘darling’, ‘petal’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘my lover.’ It’s clear to Aaron that his parents are still very much in love. While Rivkah is out the room, Aaron goes over to his father, kisses him and quietly says, "Dad, I’m so pleased for you both. I think it's fantastic that after 50 years you’re still calling mum by those loving pet names."
But Daniel, looking very embarrassed, says, "Things are not always what they seem to be, son. I must tell you the truth - I forgot your mother’s name about 5 years ago."

Our friend Hymie
Jeremy and Nathan meet in the Post Office whilst they queue for their pensions. Nathan says, "Did you hear what happened to Hymie Himmelfarb?"
"You mean Hymie Himmelfarb with the smokers cough?" asks Jeremy.
"Yes, that's the one," replies Nathan.
"Hymie Himmelfarb with the gout and double hernia?" asks Jeremy.
"Yes, that’s him, Jeremy," replies Nathan.
"Hymie Himmelfarb with the blotchy skin and who’s always fainting?" asks Jeremy.
"Yes, him, but all right with the questions already," replies Nathan.
"No, I didn't hear about Hymie Himmelfarb," says Jeremy. "So what happened to Hymie?"
"He died yesterday," replies Nathan.
"Oy vey! He was such a healthy man."

Fitness counts
Jed and Solly, both in their 50s, have been working in the same office for many years and have become close friends. One Monday, despite his age, Jed boasts to Solly about his sexual endurance the night before.
"I did it three times with my wife last night Solly," says Jed, matter-of-factly.
"Oy yoy yoy! Three times," gasps Solly admiringly. "How on earth did you manage that?"
"It wasn’t too difficult," replies Jed, modestly. "After my wife and I made love for the first time, I took a 10 minute nap. Then I made love to her again, followed by another 10 minute nap. And then we made love for the third time. I can’t describe how I feel, Solly. I woke up this morning feeling like a stallion."
"What a good method," says Solly, "I must try it. Mine Sadie won't believe what’s happening to her when I manage to make lover to her three times in one night. It will be a mekheiyeh (pleasure) for both of us."
So that night Solly surprises Sadie. He makes love to her, then takes a 10 minute nap, makes love to her again, takes another nap, this time for 15 minutes and then makes love to her for a third time. Then, with a smile on his face, he rolls over and falls fast asleep.
Solly wakes up feeling absolutely marvelous. He gets dressed and leaves for work. Rather than get on his usual bus, he takes a leisurely stroll to his office. This makes him 30 minutes late. When he arrives, his boss is waiting for him.
"What's the matter Mr. Jones?" he asks, "I've been working for you for nearly 25 years and I’ve never once been late. Surely you’re not going to reprimand me for a measly thirty minutes?"
"What do you mean thirty minutes?" says Mr. Jones, "where were you yesterday?"

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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