On Occupying Wall Street…What Would Allen Ginsberg Do?

 Gentle Readers and Reasonable Minded Thinkers,

 We see here a photo of Allen Ginsberg, taken by Jerry Aronson, maker of The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, which is reviewed (with four more exclusive photos) in Beatdom Issue 9. It was taken at Grant Park, Chicago, in 1968 during the infamous riots at the Democratic National Convention.

 Ginsberg chanted to distract the protestors from marching because he did not want them becoming active due to his presence and ending up with their blood on his hands because he incited them to challenge armed police.

 Allen Ginsberg is universally-known as a good and kind man. In Aronson’s film, a comment is made by counterculture icon Ed Sanders about how to decide if a course of action is right or wrong. He offers that the best choice is to ask ourselves, ‘What would Allen do?’

Today, someone took umbrage to the fact that we stated that the list of ‘demands’ offered by the protestors have nothing to do with day to day trading activity on Wall Street. The demands, if anything, would benefit Wall Street. Take the end of the war on drugs, for instance. If that were to happen and sweet marijuana were made legal, it would open up a whole new industrial segment and provide jobs for millions and bring billions into the economy yearly. Companies would be formed, like the already existing Medical Marijuana, Inc, (MJNA.PK), which would put a whole new breath of air into the sagging sails of the US economy.

The protestors want student loan forgiveness. If student loans were forgiven, people would have more money to spend on other things. This would lead to an increase of profits by many industry segments, including food, clothing and consumer discretional spending, to name just a few. The increased profits would lead to stronger balance sheets and the value of the stocks of these companies would rise with the tide. How is this an anti-Wall Sreet agenda?

How about ‘free education kindergarten through college’?  That one seems to undermine the whole financial system, alright, as who is going to pay and since we have never had any children we certainly hope these protestors have pockets that are deep enough to pay our share. Again, though…what does this have to do with Wall Street…not one bleeding thing!

Oh, and let us remind you all that these are ‘Official’ demands. Who is the official? Did the protestors elect another Obama-like figure who is the Official and presides over them? Speaking of His Nibs, the Prez, most of these protestors look like the same foolish bastards that were campaigning for Obama in the first place and if it were not for the pissing contest between Obama and the GOP in Congress, we would not be in the bad economic shape we are in.

The problem lies in Washington, not on Wall Street. Regulatory statutes are not voted on by the men and women who broker trades on Wall Sreeet. They are voted on by the elected official picked by the american voters. Put the blame in the right place if you expect any real action. This is the real world. School is out for ever, as Alice Cooper said.

Then we have the repeal of capital punishment…another hot topic on Wall Street. We guess what happens is that when somebody is meant to be executed, they are transported to New York City, where a bunch of stock brokers have a secret back room where they hang, dismember, gas, stab, shoot and stone the poor people who do not have jobs because Obama does not agree with Congress…does this make sense to you? Odd, it makes no sense to us but this is what people are getting their heads busted over.

Who is the great mind who thought of having all the kids go out and get gassed and clubbed by the garda? Who put the lives and safety of all those people behind their own twisted ideology and is responsible for the violence that the protestors wear like the red badge of courage? Who is the face behind this? That is your criminal. There is the evil force du jour.

Equal Rights for women…gee, we have seen many successful women on Wall Street. As long as they can hustle the equities, they are equal. As long as they make money for their company, they are equal. In the minds of the protestors, however, Wall Street is a place in New York City, once the most progressive city in the world until LA got the jump with medical marijuana, where woman are held in dungeons and treated like serfs. This is all getting a bit silly but we reckon you get the idea.

Why Wall Street? It does not make the laws. Wall Street is their saviour, if these moron would open their eyes. If they had jobs, they would not be in the park. If they were looking for a job, they would not be in the park. If they had not voted for Obama, they would not be in the park. Why not Washington? Why not in front of the White House?

These kids are amateurs, for one thing. They have no grasp of how society works, if they are in NYC and the problem is in DC.

They will affect no real change, except for the change in a few profiles when the billyclubs break their noses and open their foreheads. It is more likely that some old guy, some old WWII veteran, who’s wife died because she could not get the proper medical attention or because they could not afford medicine due to the tactics of our elected officials – the ones who are paid to represent our voices and then take money from lobbyists to stick up our collective ass. One of these old guys is going to take his hunting rifle down off the wall, where it has been collecting dust for 20 years and go to DC and plug himself a few pols. As he is led away in cuffs, some of his buddies from the VFW will see him on TV, while drinking at the bar, and feel the ‘band of brothers’ emotion that got them through that great war and take to DC with their own guns. They will not care about mace because they will just shoot. They are not far from dead and what they had is being taken away bit by bit, so what do they have to lose? Not a damned thing. The old guys are our hope for change, not these young wankers who think it is time for a party and may as well get their childhood agressions beat out of them by a uniformed cop.

Occupy Wall Street? Why not occupy Disneyworld?  That would hurt a lot more people. It would dent the tourism, airline, automobile rental, hotel and restaurant businesses from Florida to all ends of the USA because people would not be buying gas or taking planes or stopping to eat or staying at a hotel on their way to the wonderland of american moronism. This would really hurt Wall Street.

With the elections coming up, all this protesting does is to keep focus off the real issues and agendas facing the american people…like voting for somebody with a brain who can get us out of this mess.  This is the sort of thing the FBI of CIA could arrange to keep the country is a state of upheaval so the light is not shone of the FEMA camps they set up in Denver, CO, this weekend. Did you hear about that? – or was there not enough space for the news on both so you hear about the protestors, instead? These kids in the parks deserve what they get. Anybody who is dumb enough to challenge a policeman, whether you are on the right side or the wrong side of moral boundary, is gonna get one up against the side of the head. That is how it works. It has always been that way and if you do not get it, you are a right imbecile!

These people act surprised that the police are hurting them…what the fuck? The city is broke enough and can’t feed kids in school and has other programs where funds have been cut and now they have to pick up the tab for all the overtime the police are working to contain this foolish fracas.

We hope that every cop who gets paid overtime for working the Wall Street Occupation, cashes his check and takes that money right to Wall Street and purchases some stock in American companies. Then, the ‘occupation’ would actually help the economy. We wonder how many displaced pretzel and falafel vendors have gone out of business because they could not find space to park their food carts. This occupation is for idiots but we are a nation of idiots so it will probably drag on for a while…but on the bright side, at least they are not teabaggers.

 

 

 

My Stock Blog Redux ~ DOW, DNN, SD, HERO, MPEL

     Kind Readers,

     No, we are not dead.  We are still dealing with the mysteries of the PC and why we can no longer load photos on here the way we are supposed to, as well as other matters of universal importance.

     After our last stock blog, you probably thought us to be insane.  All the stocks we listed went down.  Well, if you look further, you will see that the whole market went down and not just in the USA but all around the world.  What this does is to create a ‘buying opportunity’.  When quality stocks get low in price, you do not sell them, you buy them from idiots who think they are not good, based on their perception of performance.

     The market has turned from Bear to Bull today and a rising tide lifts all ships.  That is an expression Mark Haines used to use a lot.  He was a morning commentator on CNBC and died yesterday at age 65.  CNBC tells you what they want you to hear but Haines was a regular guy and went for the cheap jokes a lot. We will miss him.

     So let us take a look at the damages.  The first stock we mentioned was Dow Chemical (DOW), which was around $40 a share when we told you about it.  At the moment, it is up .95 cents at $36.05, digging its way back up from the correction.  DOW is the least of our worries and we almost wish it would stay low until the end of June, so that we get more shares when the quarterly dividend is paid out.  Watch for it to keep climbing, though.  Now India has drought that threatens to make cotton even more expensive and DOW has the answer to drought.

     Hercules Offshore Drilling (HERO) was $6.10 a share when we told you to buy it.  It took a dive but always held above that six dollar mark, like a winner.  Since then, Obama has turned around on American oil and natural gas, so expect these oil service companies to thrive.  At the moment, it is at $6.43 a share, up almost 5% for the day.  It will keep going up but even if you had only bought a thousand shares and sold them now, after three weeks, it would still get you a $330 profit…but that is small potatoes as you will see in days to come.

     Similarly, Sandridge Energy (SD) is up to $10.88, also showing around a 5% gain today.  We did not tell you about this one yet but now is the time to buy.  We own it.

     The casino group Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) took a dive, too, but is up almost 7% today on active trading. It is at $10.64 and it was $10.63 when we told you about it so, if nothing else, it held firm while many stocks floundered and continue to do so.  This one is going to really take off later in the year.  Their most recent yearly report, issued last week, shows that MPEL has swung to a profit, after posting losses for a number of reporting terms.  It was not much of a profit, a penny a share, but it repressents the swing from losing money to making money, which is what it is all about.  They crossed the threshold and are ready to rock.

     Speaking of rocks, look at Denison Mines (DNN).  It is holding its own, considering the badmouthing and backsassing that uranium mines are getting these days.  It is at $2.12, down .07 cents from when we told you about it but this is a long term play and an entry level of $2-something is excellent.  Uranium and other raw materials will be needed to help build the new world intrastructure, no matter how dangerous people think nuclear power is this month.  The fact is that nuclear energy is never going away, so invest in it while it is cheap and get some oil stocks to carry you until we are past the use of fossil fuels.

     Added May, 26, 2011 3:13pm EST

     We are adding this note to point out the significance of Sandridge Energy (SD). At this time, the price per share is $11.97usd.  If you had bought it yesterday, when we said it was up to $10.88, and sold it today (at today’s high of $12.13) you could have shown a profit of $1250.00 in 24 hours on a $1,088.00 investment.  That is about a 13% gain overnight…try making that percentage on a CD!!!

My Stock Blog ~ DOW, HERO, DNN, MPEL

     Gentle Readers,

     Today we discuss one of our favorite subjects and, in so doing, we must change the rules a bit.  This blog has a disclaimer which says everything you read is fiction and not to believe a word.  In writing about stocks, we shall stick entirely to the facts and there will be no funny business.

     As far as the matter of disclosure goes, we do hold positions in every stock that we make note of.  We do not do picks and pans.. We only tell you our picks.  With no formal training in Finance and having lived by the seat of our pants for most of our years, we have found that the stock market can be equally as kind to the little person as it can to the big boys – if you make the right decisions.

     One must never expect instant success.  In fact, a good rule of thumb is that you will lose money on two out of every five stocks you invest in.  Those losses can be used to bring down the taxable amount of your gains, so they are a known risk which is necessary.  Sometimes things change, even if you do the homework or due diligence (DD).

     What authority do we have, then, to write about stocks and equites?  We trust Bank of America, who has a ‘performance’ tab on our brokerage account which indicates that in the first financial quarter of 2011 (Q1), we handily beat the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.  Our portfolio gained 13.3% while these others gained around 5-6%, as a group.

     We take certain matters into consideration when buying, such as insider trading, institutional buying, the balance sheet, the profit margin, earnings and potential in the world around us.  We picked these first four companies to illustrate how studying the world news will lead you to your best picks and profits.

     Take Dow Chemical (DOW), which has been climbing in share price with almost no hurdles.  Many think of DOW as the enemy but they are not aware of the good things that DOW is doing for the world.  The share price keeps breaking news 52-week highs and is trading at around $40 a share.  They have just upped their dividend to a dollar a share and are at the end of assimilating the purchase of the world’s largest chemical company, Rohm and Haas, which it bought in the last two years and opens them to far more revenues, especially from emerging markets.  In their most recent yearly report, DOW showed revenues of $16 billion from their Asian operations.  This is up $9 million from the previous year and China is just taking off but that is only a small part of the story.

     Watching the news last night, we could not help but notice the warnings of impending droughts threatening grain crops in both China and the USA.  There is only so much water in the world, right?  True, however,  yesterday Dow Water & Process Solutions, a division of DOW, was awarded ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’ by Global Water Intelligence for its seawater reverse osmosis facility in Kumell, Australia.  This is the third largest desalination plant in the world.  Not only does it produce one third of the water for the city of Sidney but ‘energy requirements for the plant are offset with 100 percent renewable energy from a 67-turbine wind farm’ and the plant also employs an extensive marine life monitoring program.  DOW is bringing clean water to many parts of the free world where it is badly needed.  It will be needed even more badly in the future, as natural water resources are said to last only another ten years by many scientists.  That is where the money comes in.

     Dow makes many other products and has been increasingly environmentally-conscious. although it is perceived as a behemoth monster that wants to kill us all.  They have a very strong global presence, far ahead of the rush to invest in ‘emerging markets’.   Forty dollars a share is prohibitive but you must remember that you get the same percentage of profitable return on a thousand dollars as you do on a million.  Take a look!

     Next we have Hercules Offfshore Drilling (HERO).  This one is a bit of an underdog, thanks mostly to Obama’s moritorium on drilling on American soil, even though foreign companies can drill here.  The fuss over the moritorium finally got to fever pitch and Secretary of Interior Salazar lifted the ban and started to allow contracts for drilling to be issued.  Right now, HERO has contracts to drill for Chevron and a few other refiners.  The earnings from this activity will show on balance sheets starting at the end of Q2.

     While it is selling at a discount of $6.10 a share as this is typed,  this stock traded between $35-40 until the shite hit the fan in 2008.  Since then, it bought the equipment of another troubled drilling company and now controlls 40% of the shallow water drills in the Gulf Coast.  The book value of the stock is $7.43, based on current assets and equipment.  When you consider that the failing company HERO bought the equipment from was selling for about $35 a share less than two years ago, this stock shows huge potential for upside…that means money!!!

     Here is where ‘looking at the world around you’ comes into play.  Our next pick is Canada’s Denison Mines Corporation (DNN).  This one is a little riskier and is for people who want to make money in ten years, as opposed to today or tomorrow.  This one traded between $10-15, going to a high of around $20 in 2007; as of this writing, it is down to $2.19 a share.  On the balance sheets, this is currently showing a loss of four cents a share, however, this company is a miner than specializes in uranium, vanadium, silver, gold and other minerals…mostly uranium.  They also recycle uranium.

     You may not like uranium but it is better to have ‘safe’ uranium than ‘unsafe’ uranium and keep in mind that construction on the last nuclear reactor in the USA was started in 1976 and that these facilities are going to need to be updated, upgraded and so uranium is under-rated and hated at this point in time.  In a little while, people will want uranium again and there is a shortage…unless you look at the large mine DNN just found in Mongolia, nice and close to the Asian markets which will be going nuclear.  The demand for uranium is much higher than supply.  Another plus is that Canadian stocks tend to do better than American stocks, in general, for various reasons we will not go into at this time.

     So, if you look at the world and see the panic, interest, discussion, worry and fuss over ‘energy’, it would seem that the best way to make money is to stick with the oil producers until the alternative forms of energy notch higher growth stats.  In the meantime, DOW has wind farms, solar shingles and other solutions.  The future seems to be nuclear, so uranium will rise again.  By having all bases covered - diversification is the term - we can make a little money on the way things are going…and why not?  The big boys do it…why should money only be for the rich?  We deserve some, too…

     If you think I am a fool and that this stuff is all a gamble, then i suggest you take a look at Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. (MPEL) of Macau, which is trading at $10.63 at this time.  If you have ever followed gambling stocks, you may have seen how fast they shoot up in price and wish you had some.  In 2006, Macau replaced Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world.  The revenues are much higher than Vegas and the owners of MPEL, the Ho family, were there long before the Sands, the MGM or WYNN got there.  Take a look at a chart for the Sands (LVS) and see where it was about two or three years ago, compared to the price now.  Not only does MPEL have the advantage of being on Macau’s Cotai Strip longer than the newcomers, it has a Hard Rock Cafe opening this year (which may not seem like a big deal to you but if you live in a communist country where thrills are limited, this is a big thing!).  Aside from that, there will be shuttles running gamblers there from mainland China by the end of the year and it is said that the Chinese are loyal to country, so you can imagine where they would prefer to drop their cash.  Remember, gamblers all know that the odds are always with the house – so why not buy part of the house, while it is cheap?

     That is it for this time.  These descriptions could be better but that would require a full blog for each stock.  That would not be a problem but the key is timing and the markets are down right now, along with stock prices.

     If you liked this information or hated it, please send us some feedback.  We love to hear from you!!!