Interview with Kyle Bass
Kyle Bass is awesome. He is the lead in character in Michael Lewis’s most recent book Boomerang. Lewis describes how he came to fully understand the scope of the global debt crisis during a visit with Bass in Texas.
Bass is razor sharp and you should watch this video in its entirety.
Thoughts on U.S. Special Forces forces in Northern Uganda
Learning that President Obama has authorized 100 Special Operations soldiers into Uganda to supervise the very necessary round up and termination/imprisonment of the murderous Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army inserted a sense of righteousness into U.S. foreign policy towards Africa that is very encouraging.
Congress passed The Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act in May 2010 and was signed into law by President Obama shortly thereafter. The deployment of U.S. soldiers to the region in order to bring Kony to justice is a concrete action that will hopefully produce a permanent change in a region that has been on the receiving end of the most horrifying crimes against humanity in recent history. I understand the temptation to argue that inserting troops into an area as unstable as the Eastern Congo/Northern Uganda could lead to an unpredictable entanglement. However, staying focused on the goal at hand and immediately withdrawing after Kony is gone justifies seeing this through.
When I lived in Rwanda in 2005 I travelled overland from Rwanda’s capital city Kigali to Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Even then, I recall hearing about Joseph Kony and what a madman he was. Back then it was hard to me fathom the suffering he was responsible for in such a beautiful setting.
Northern Uganda is a gorgeous place. It has views that will take your breath away, leaving you speechless and transfixed by the scenes unfolding in front of you. I remember riding on the bus from Kigali and Kampala and being absolutely hypnotized by the vivid green hills that stretched into forever, all bathed in a warm yellow sun. As we passed into Uganda, we would pass tea farms alongside the road with women hunched over, some of them with babies affixed to their backs, working away in the fields. In retrospect it is hard to reconcile that so much abduction, enslavement, rape and murder was taking place only a short distance from where I was.
Political theatre tonight: Perry is toast, Romney is closing
Caught most of the latest Republican debate earlier tonight and it is clear that the candidate shake-out is commencing.
Rick Perry is crashing and burning. The guy started off so strong and tonight he looked so weak as he meekly confronted Romney about his healthcare law being the template for Obama’s. You could tell he was much less confident than on previous occasions and it showed.
Romney is beginning to walk away with this thing. His business acumen really comes across and makes the other sideshows (Gingrich, Santorum, Bachmann,etc.) look foolish and exposed. The intrade odds of Romney being the Republican nominee in 2012 rose 11% today to 68% overall.
That is beginning to look like a safe bet.
Depositors set to abandon Big Banks…
If you live in a major metropolitan area in the U.S. you have likely encountered some version of the #OccupyWallStreet protests that have spread across the country with impressive speed and organization.
The organizers of these protests are in the process are articulating a coherent strategy going forward and they are calling for specific actions that will impact the large national banks that we are all so familiar with.
BAC has not done themselves any favors by deciding to charge $5 per month for use of a debit card. That action alone will drive customers away. Wells Fargo, Chase and Citi are all preparing variations on a similar fee to be imposed.
With the Occupy Wall Street protesters now pushing for everyone with accounts at any of the TBTF banks to switch to credit unions on Nov.5, we can assume that these banks will lose an unknown amount of deposits from this demographic in the near term. While the net deposits that will be lost is small, it should not be disregarded.
The banking industry is now facing a serious marketing challenge that is bad for business. It will become fashionable for young people to boast that they are out of these institutions.
Add in general uncertainty emanating from Europe and you do not want to be owning these stocks right now, particularly BAC.
Shorting U.S. financials right now is an attractive option. Assuming we experience a mild panic when Greece defaults, U.S. financials will crater and should then be moved into the BUY category, but not before Europe is resolved.
From Mark Cuban’s blogmaverick.com…
The Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do
Sep 19th 2011 12:25PM
Bust your ass and get rich.
Make a boatload of money. Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes. Hire people. Train people. Pay people. Spend money on rent, equipment, services. Pay more taxes.
When you make a shitload of money. Do something positive with it. If you are smart enough to make it, you will be smart enough to know where to put it to work.
I don’t care what anyone says. Being rich is a good thing. Not just in the obvious sense of benefiting you and your family, but in the broader sense. Profits are not a zero sum game. The more you make the more of a financial impact you can have.
I’m not against government involvement in times of need. I am for recognizing that big public companies will continue to cut jobs in an effort to prop up stock prices, which in turn stimulates the need for more government involvement. Every cut job by the big companies extracts a cost on the American people in one way or another.
Entrepreneurs are needed to create and grow companies to absorb those people in new jobs. If entrepreneurs don’t create those jobs, the government ends up having to spend more money to help them one way or another.
So be Patriotic. Go out there and get rich. Get so obnoxiously rich that when that tax bill comes , your first thought will be to choke on how big a check you have to write. Your 2nd thought will be “what a great problem to have”, and your 3rd should be a recognition that in paying your taxes you are helping to support millions of Americans that are not as fortunate as you.
In these times of “The Great Recession” we shouldn’t be trying to shift the benefits of wealth behind some curtain. We should be celebrating and encouraging people to make as much money as they can. Profits equal tax money. While some people might find it distasteful to pay taxes. I don’t. I find it Patriotic.
I’m not saying that the government’s use of tax money is the most efficient use of our hard-earned capital. It obviously is not. In a perfect world, there would be a better option. We don’t live in a perfect world. We don’t live in a perfect time. We live in a time where the government plays a big role in an effort to help lead us out this Great Recession. That’s reality.
So I will repeat my point. Get out there and make a boatload of money. Enjoy the shit out your money. Pay your taxes.
It’s the most Patriotic thing you can do.
Space Available for Rent…
I saw this earlier on barry ritholtz’s blog earlier and thought it was pretty clutch…:)
The U.S. economy and Obama’s reelection
Its my sense that the country and the Democratic party in particular are coming to terms with the fact that Barack Obama may not be reelected in 2012. In fact, if the election were held today he would likely lose.
The simple fact is that the economy has not improved during his tenure. We are now set to possibly reenter a recessionary period and any impact on the unacceptably high unemployment rate. At this point, the American people simply want relief and are willing to listen to anybody that will hear their pain and offer viable solutions.
President Obama’s problem is that the window of time that he had to deliver real impacts is nearly closed and people are now starting to look elsewhere. What his strategy should be going forward to pull off reelection is unclear to me, but his position seems to be growing increasingly fragile.
The unfortunate reality is that none of our politicians, Democrat or Republican are willing to be honest with the American people about the the true nature of our problem and what it means for them.
With the rise of social media over the last few years the opportunity for a third-party candidate with independent financial resources to flank both parties is there. If that were to occur perhaps we would witness some “bipartisan” action from both parties to protect their own warped interests. Unfortunately, it is a scenario that could come to pass.
Looking at Rentrak (RENT)
The market is trending lower right now and there are cheap stocks everywhere. One that jumps out is Rentrak (RENT) based right here in Portland, OR.
A small competitor against the Goliath that is Neilsen, the market leader leader in entertainment ratings, research and data. Rentrak offers a unique service that integrates audience demographics including age, income, viewing habits and other valuable stats to media companies looking to optimize ad targeting and spending.
Rentrak is now at an all-time 52 week low and looks very cheap. After suffering a big decline from earlier this summer, I think RENT is a compelling value buy.
What rock could Qaddafi be hiding under?
Maybe his view looks something like this. The Libyan desert is beautiful…
