“
I haven’t learned a lot more about investing or making money since I was 25 years old. But I’ve learned a lot about human behavior. Let’s play a game. If you had to pick 1 classmate, and you would earn 10% of what they will earn for the rest of their life, what would go through your mind? Their IQ? Their grades? What school they went to? Who’s the best on the dance floor?… Or is it who’s the most effective human being. Who do people admire and love to work for. Who is able to inspire and willing to give credit to other people for their successes.
If you had to short 1 classmate 10%, who would that be? What traits turn you off?
You’ll realize that the qualities in the people you want are behavioral, not born in. You want someone who doesn’t keep score, like ‘I cleaned your room, now you clean mine.’ You want someone who people want to do things for.
” — Warren Buffet“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is.” — Steve Jobs, on what drives Apple employees
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Danish homeowners can actually purchase their own mortgages at a discount when the bonds linked to the mortgages are trading at a discount. Very interesting system. The Economist elaborates…
“The second feature of the Danish system is that mortgage-holders can also buy the bonds in the market and use them to redeem their mortgages. This is useful if a rise in interest rates (or a fall in house prices) causes mortgage-backed bonds to trade at a discount. Redeeming their bonds allows homeowners to reduce the amount they owe. In America, for instance, mortgage-backed securities have fallen far below their fundamental value in thinly traded markets, partly because the people who would benefit most from buying them have no mechanism to do so. “Everybody can buy that bond at a discount except that one guy who is most involved with the loan, the homeowner,” says Alan Boyce, a mortgage expert who has worked with George Soros, an investor and philanthropist, on promoting the Danish model in emerging markets. In Denmark, by contrast, a fall in the value of mortgage bonds usually encourages homeowners to snap them up to redeem their own mortgages, as is happening now.”
-The Economist
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“As long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
— Lewis Carroll
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” — Thomas Jefferson
I caught this in the FT today.
Linguist says US intelligence spied on Blair
The part of the article that I want to draw attention to involves the Red Cross:
“Last month, Mr Faulk and another former NSA employee provided a rare glimpse into the veiled world of the NSA, by revealing that the spy agency had spied on journalists, soldiers, and non-governmental organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross. They told ABC that the NSA routinely spied on Americans by listening to private conversations, including pillow talk and, in some cases, phone sex.”
Post 9-11 policies driven by fear have killed privacy. We need it back.
“Auto Industry Close to Bankruptcy But They Get Pricey Perk
By BRIAN ROSS and JOSEPH RHEE
November 19, 2008 
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The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.
The CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler may have told Congress that they will likely go out of business without a bailout yet that has not stopped them from traveling in style, not even First Class is good enough.
All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM’s $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.”
Another reason why we shouldn’t bail out Detroit. Management must go.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6285739&page=1
I don’t think the American government should bail out the failing US auto industry.
Mitt Romney has a great op-ed in tomorrow’s NYTimes on why Detroit should fall into a bankruptcy. The crux of his argument, is that Detroit needs to restructure itself. A bailout (aka Get out of Jail Free card) would let it pass go and collect $200. “With [a bailout], the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.”
The piece ends with “Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was a candidate for this year’s Republican presidential nomination.”
What it should have said is that Romney founded Bain Capital. BainCap is, arguably, one of the most successful private equity firms. Romney knows a thing or two about running businesses and making things operationally efficient.