Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
Newton's In Search Of The Perfect Investment. Technology Investor.
Previous
Columns
8:30 AM Friday, September 9, 2005: The
Katrina devastation has affected an area of the United States larger
than Great Britain.
An
obliterated apartment complex in Long Beach, MI: Blown
away by Katrina. Only a few cars, including one in the pool, withstood the storm.
An amazing photo.

From this week's Time Magazine.
Economists
have two hands.
Today's Wall Street Journal writes,
"Hurricane
Katrina is expected to slow growth and boost inflation in the second half,
according to a WSJ.com survey of economists. But recovery efforts could give
the economy a modest boost early in 2006."
There's an old
joke about the president of an investment being visited by a genie and granted
one wish. His wish was to employ only one -handed economists. Every time he
asked them what might happen, he was always told "On the one hand.... on
the other other.... In short, you can't predict the future. But I see nothing
to change my own predictions:
+ Rebuilding
efforts will propel massive economic growth in 2006.
+ The massive amounts of steel, lumber, concrete and construction machinery
needed in the Gulf over the next few years will push construction costs up nationwide.
That's bad news for most of us -- except for the companies that make this
stuff. That's where we need to look for investment opportunities -- this
weekend's task.
Where
will all your papers be? Hurricane Katrina obliterated courts, records
and their support network in the New Orleans area. Companies have two places
they store their important papers and computer records -- their office and a
backup site. Do you? You should. Here's my "IT Backup Strategy":
+ Make five photocopies of everything. Make five envelopes. Give one to each
kid. Put one in my bank's safe deposit box. Put one in a small fireproof safe
in my country house. Send one to my trusted friend, Dan Good.
+ I will also scan all the papers and store them on my main laptop and the various
backup hard disks which I make regularly.
I
don't make this stuff up.
+ My friend who rents low income housing tells me the average low income
renter has a net worth of $2,500.
+ The corn in a one-pound box of cereal costs its maker 3¢.
Learning from the tennis greats:
+ Agassi talks about "spending a lot of
time to get still" just before he hits the ball.
+ Federer talks about his eye-ball
concentration. He claims to see the ball hit his racquet. He keeps his head
down well after he hits the ball.
+ In short, concentration (and great footwork) is the name in this exacting
sport. No tennis player has ever moved as well as Federer.
This weekend promises some great matches. The best should be Men's Semifinals,
tomorrow afternoon.
US Tennis
Open TV Schedule
|
Friday,
September 9 |
CBS |
11:00 am
- 6:00 pm
|
Men's
Doubles Final / Women's SF |
Friday,
September 9 |
CBS |
12:37 am
- 1:07 am*
|
Men's
Doubles Final / Women's SF |
Saturday,
September 10 |
CBS |
12:00 pm
- 6:00 pm
|
Men’s
Semifinals |
Saturday,
September 10 |
CBS |
8:00 pm -
10:00 pm
|
Women's
Final |
Sunday,
September 11 |
CBS |
4:00 pm -
7:00 pm
|
Men’s
Final |
Sunday,
September 11 |
USA |
1:00 pm -
2:30 pm
|
Women’s
Doubles Final |
A
promise and a threat?
An older Jewish gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery. His son,
a renowned surgeon, was to perform the operation. As he was about to get the
anesthesia he asked to speak to his son.
"Yes, Dad, what is it?"
"Don't be nervous, son; do your best and just remember, if it doesn't go
well, if something happens to me .. your mother is going to come and live with
you and your nice wife...."
Long
live Alabama
Two fellows from Alabama were sitting around talking one afternoon...
After a while the first fellow says to the second, "If'n I was to sneak
over to your trailer Saturday and make love to your wife while you was off
huntin', and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?"
The second fellow crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head,
and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question.
Finally, he says, "Well, I don't know about that, but it sure would make
us even."
Two
Al Qaeda spies
Two Al Qaeda spies met in a busy Los Angeles restaurant after they
had successfully slipped into the U.S.
The first spy starts speaking in Arabic.
The second spy shushes him quickly and whispers:
"Don't blow our cover. You're in America now. Speak Spanish.
Recent
column highlights:
+ Manhattan Pharmaceuticals: Click
here.
+ NovaDel Biosciences appeals. Click
here.
+ Hana Biosciences appeals. Click
here.
+ All turned on by biotech. Click
here.
+ Steve Jobs Commencement Address. The text is available:
Click here. The full audio is available. Click
here.
+ The March of the Penguins, an exquisite movie. Click
here.
+ When to sell your stocks. Click
here.

Harry Newton
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. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting.
If you click on a link, Google may send me money. That money will help pay Claire's
law school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click
here and here.
Go back.
|