Monthly Archives: December 2008
Last Trading Day Thoughts
What’s about to be revealed, at the close of trading today, is the real nature of what a multi-billion dollar industry insists is “investing” in paper assets. It’s generally not, of course, really investing at all. The more precise word … Continue reading
Coping: Back to long underwear?
A curious email from a reader: “Subject: Rich’s Rule of Powerful Frugality Hey, I just had a realization: some folks are cold sometimes, and some hot sometimes. Some just can’t seem to live happily in an ever-changing environ without changing … Continue reading
Markets Marking Time
Since the Dow hasn’t bothered to come through with my projected low – which might be as low as 4,000 – I got to wondering if I was completely whacked/out of my mind. So I picked up the phone after … Continue reading
Coping: Monday’s “Time Pie”
About this ‘time’ yesterday, I was remarking on how there should be more attention paid to how ‘apparent time’ is running compared with clock time. The distinction being that ‘apparent time’ is what is experienced by humans while mechanical time … Continue reading
Beneficiaries of War
It’s such a short point – but so obviously true – that I almost feel it’s condescending to mention it to you because I reckon you’re old enough to figure out that part of how the world works is the … Continue reading
Coping: About Time
Maybe its because I chat so much with the chief time monk at HalfPastHuman, but lately I have become a bit worried about ‘time speeding up’ simply because it pops up in our discussions as something to pay attention to … Continue reading
“Wars And Rumors of Wars”
The headlines are almost on the verge of making me lose sleep: “Pakistan redeploying troops to Indian border” in the wake of the recent Mumbai attacks doesn’t make me drift gently into deep slumber. Already, we’re starting to see … Continue reading
How Far Is Down? Save the Retailers!
Depends where you’re looking, but the holiday season wasn’t very festive according to the spending reports that are coming out on ‘the day after.’ To be sure, Elaine and I didn’t even exchange gifts here at the ranch on Thursday. … Continue reading
Coping: That “New Industry”
The arising ‘anti-terror’ industry, of course, deserves a lot of attention as an area where returns have been most excellent since 9/11. Now, with the latest move of troops into Afghanistan (for reasons fuzzy to me except it has something … Continue reading
Client Confidential: Dear Santa
I hope you don’t mind my busting our Nondisclosure Agreement, but I think it’d be OK to disclose that you’re one of my marketing consultancy clients. Besides, by revealing one of my clients, it might help drum up a little … Continue reading