This Bank Will Throw Your Dog a Bone May 31, 2007March 6, 2017 BERRY BURST CHEERIOS Hey, Cheerios are . . . reborn! Forget the milk, you can eat ’em right out of the box. I was always more of a cornflakes guy, so this was as much a surprise to me as I imagine it is to you. (Just 100 calories per serving, which they describe as 27 grams, confident no American consumer has any idea what 27 grams is – an ounce. An ounce is not a lot. I’ve gotten letters that weight more than an ounce. But then again, Cheerios, like donuts, are all about the holes, and those don’t weigh a thing.) A GOOD PLACE TO BANK Our investment in Commerce Bank (CBH) has gone no place fast, up barely 12% in what is now closing in on two years, even as everything but its earnings per share – a big ‘but’ to be sure – has been rising sharply. (Earnings have been stunted by the extended ‘inverted yield curve’ – namely, short-term interest rates being higher than long-term rates, when ordinarily the reverse is, for banks, profitably true.) The bank is all about winning fans by dazzling customers with service. Imagine a bank open 361 days a year, from 7:30 in the morning to 8 at night – where the doors open ten minutes before the posted opening time and close ten minutes after the posted closing time. Free checking. ‘No stupid fees.’ Twelve million lollipops (and 2 million dog bones) handed out. J.D. Powers, in its inaugural Retail Banking Survey last year, ranked Commerce Bank #1 – as did Consumer Reports. Greenwich Associates ranked the bank’s call center #1. (Live reps are standing by 24/7 at 888-751-9000.) Even if you’re not a customer, you can go into one of its 500 branches to dump a jar of coins into their ‘Penny Arcade’ machine in return for cash. (Imagine: a preference for paper money over metal, but that’s another story.) They counted $425 million in coins that way last year – at no charge. If you live near a Commerce Bank branch – mainly in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and, increasingly, South Florida – and if your current bank makes you crazy over some insane little problem or charge, you have an alternative. I don’t know whether or when earnings per share will pop back up to the trend line. And even then, the stock may not pop commensurately. Even so, I am happy holding on for the long-term. PINCHOT Ed Shoben: ‘The other five timber-related stocks are (were): Rayonier (RYN), Potlatch (PCH), Pope Resources Units (POPEZ), Timberwest (TWF.UN) and Longview Fiber which has recently been taken out. An interesting column and the Pinchot system is a great way to put all your eggs in one basket. About as wise as putting it all in Las Vegas Real Estate.’ ☞ Like Plum Creek, Rayonier and Potlatch have doubled in the last four years. Pope Resources is up more than fourfold. It might have been an even better retirement plan to invest in these stocks four years ago. Paul Berkowitz: ‘They are all REITS except Pope, which is a master limited partnership. They all seem decent investments, but the clever advertisement for the newsletter conveniently neglects to mention that a large part of the dividends claimed were special dividends paid only when a timber company converted to a REIT. The Graham Investor has a Pinchot FAQ.’ KEITH OLBERMANN IS NOT SUPPORTING GIULIANI In case you missed it . . . here.
The Pinchot Retirement Program Ta-Da! May 30, 2007March 6, 2017 So okay, I got this in the mail. Mailings like this are like little puzzles: You know there’s a catch – but can you figure out what it is? The artistry (I am tempted to say the con artistry, but in this case that would be too strong) always begins with the outer envelope. This one was very good. A standard number 10 business envelope, it sported a first class stamp with one of the New York Public Library lions on it. On really close inspection it was a ‘pre-sorted standard’ stamp, which is the new ‘bulk rate’ (did you know that?), but it had the look and feel of first class – and first impressions are everything. In a blink, the envelope looked like one of those many of us have gotten where, if you owned such and such stock between such and such dates, you may be entitled to participate in a class action settlement. That’s not what this was, but it had that look and feel. In the upper left corner: Claims Administration c/o PRP Dividend Checks 1217 St. Paul St. Baltimore, MD 21202 Then, just above the clear window with my name and address showing through: IMPORTANT PAPERS ENCLOSED To receive your monthly dividend checks, adhere to submission deadline So now I knew I had been presented with a puzzle. (Trust me: there is no such thing as a monthly dividend check you have to ‘claim’ by a certain deadline.) Delighted, I opened it up to see if I could figure it out. Centered at the top of the cover page: CLAIMS FORM To be eligible for the June 8, 2007 check, add your name to the PRP check-distribution list. Who would want to miss getting his June 8 check? (Already, I was thinking of it as mine.) If I had read further, I’d have seen I was being offered a $49.50 monthly True Wealth newsletter subscription (regularly $99), but I skipped straight to the thick enclosure, which had bar codes in the top and bottom right corners. I assume those bar codes were gibberish, to add to the official look and feel, but I wonder what they might translate to say? Some harmless mockery? An inside joke? Perhaps they simply spelled out ‘Pinchot Retirement Plan’ in bar code. Front and center was this bold headline: NOTICE OF YOUR RIGHT TO SHARE IN ‘PINCHOT RETIREMENT PLAN (PRP)’ MONTHLY CHECKS By taking advantage of the plan, it said, ‘you should receive 24 checks – about one every other week. Approximate check-delivery schedule for the next 12 months is as follows’ . . . whereupon the rest of the page was taken up with a list of the 24 dates, in a vertical column. The first three check dates were crossed through – you’re too late! – and the next one, June 8, was highlighted in red. If I acted quickly, I could get that check. Indeed, a Wisconsin paper mill worker had used the Pinchon Retirement Plan ‘to collect $18,500 in One Day.’ Or so said a special red and black copy block that more or less dominated the page. At the bottom of the column of dividend dates was a big bold number: $77,360.00. Okay? Got your attention? I’m guessing that by now you may be curious to know what this plan is. I know I was. Turning the page, I learned nothing of the secret. Just like some of those legal documents you may have seen, there was nothing at all on the second page except, in the middle, in parentheses, small: (This page has been left blank intentionally) Again, the look and feel. It just feels important. It feels like a legal document. These guys are artists! The third page – designated page ‘1-a’ to enhance the official quality – repeats: WISCONSIN PAPER MILL WORKER USES ‘PINCHON RETIREMENT PLAN’ (PRP) TO COLLECT $18,500 IN ONE DAY.’ ‘For most people,’ it goes on to explain, ‘August 7, 2006, was a day just like any other. But for 55-year-old Ron Hanson, it was a morning he’ll never forget. While most of us were preparing our morning coffee, Hanson . . . was cashing a check worth $18,850, according to U.S. Gov’t records.’ Oh, good. Reference to ‘U.S. Gov’t records’ makes it feel all the more official. ‘Incredibly . . . Hanson was not the only one pocketing an enormous payment that day – nor did he collect the largest check.’ On and on it goes, nice big type, easy to read, who can resist? It gives the example of another guy, Paul Lyons, whose ‘original $500 stake is now worth more than $500,000.’ Are you, by now, just DYING to get in on this? To send in your $49.50 for the secret? Hang on . . . you haven’t even met Pinchot yet. Finally, on the sixth page of this document (which is to say, page ‘2-b’), it comes clear – or at least partially clear – that the Pinchot Retirement Plan consists of investing in six timber companies. (Turns out, Gifford Pinchot was the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, 1905-1910, a pioneer in managing forestry assets.) The first of the six timber companies is revealed. It is: Plum Creek Timber Company, which was first suggested here four years ago, at $26.50. (Today it is $40, plus the dividends you would have had along the way – please send me $49.50.) Stripped of all the pizzazz, the Pinchot Retirement Plan is apparently no more than this: to buy stock in PCL and five other timber stocks, each paying about a 5% annual dividend (but quarterly, so that’s four checks from each of six companies, or – just as promised! – 24 dividend checks a year). So let’s say you were a Wisconsin mill worker – or even a cleaning lady! – and you bought $100,000 worth of each of these six stocks with $600,000 you had set aside. At roughly 5% on all six, you would be receiving $30,000 a year in dividends! That’s $2,500 a month! The letter never mentions ‘5%’ annual dividends. (It mentions ‘30% in dividends‘ Plum Creek would have paid you over the last four years; not the 4.2% a year that, at today’s $40 share price, it currently yields.) And the letter certainly never mentions the sizeable amount of cash you’d have to invest to get dividend checks this big. That could be off-putting to someone who had $49.50 to buy the newsletter but not $600,000 to buy the stocks. Instead of cash, it’s expressed in terms of shares (without saying what they cost). ‘If you owned 2,000 shares of each investment,’ the letter explains, ‘you would have collected $77,360 in payments’ – over two years. Don’t we all usually think of the biannual return on our investments? Or our biannual salary? ‘What do you make over there?’ you ask your college buddy who’s just gone to work at Google. ‘I make $120,000 a two-years,’ she replies. These guys are artists, I tell you! (Meanwhile, just how Paul Lyons started with $500 and grew it to $500,000 with this plan is not disclosed.) So is it worth $49.50 to find out the names of the other five timber companies? And for the rest of this outfit’s advice? (They claim to know of ‘a regular government bond that is now paying 11.6% interest a year.’ Astounding! I want some! Until you notice they never mention which government. Perhaps not ours? Oh.) The bottom line to me is that, first, these guys sure know how to sell. Second – assuming you only take whatever of their True Wealth newsletter advice is good – all you stand to lose is $49.50 (plus a further $79 for each subsequent year unless you cancel) – and even that $49.50 is fully refundable, they say, within the first six months. This is more marketing artistry than con artistry, because – although their pitch is deceptive – it’s not as though they’re plotting to steal your house. As to whether Plum Creek and the other five will continue to perform well – I hope so. I still own most of my Plum Creek. The long-term case for timber, I think, remains strong. But prices have come way up of late, and experts I know are selling; so this may actually not be the greatest time to start. Let alone with anything vaguely approaching 100% of your retirement assets, which is what this direct mail piece seems to be suggesting you do. (To me, 10% would be a more reasonable allocation.) The mailer is filled with testimonials from people who have been thrilled with the success of True Wealth recommendations. If there are folks who’ve not done so well, I’m not sure, given the look and feel of this direct mail piece, they’d be included. But call 866-262-8199 if you want to sign up.
Iran, Iraq, Irat; Iranus, Iraqus, I Rant May 29, 2007January 6, 2017 Tomorrow (really) the Pinchot Retirement Plan.Today . . . CHENEY’S PLAN TO START WAR WITH IRAN Click here. (If he can’t persuade Bush to attack, he’ll persuade the Israelis to strike Iran – just hard enough to get Iran to retaliate against our forces nearby . . . so Bush will go to war. Or so it is alleged.) DID WE INVADE IRAQ FOR THE OIL? If it seems this way to a career officer, might it seem this way to those who distrust us? Retired Colonel Wright writes: No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. . . . [Yet] the $12 billion dollar “Support the Troops” legislation passed by Congress [last week] requires Iraq . . . to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts. What does this “Support the Troops” legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. . . Adding to such suspicion may be the agenda of the President’s first National Security Council meeting. It was just 11 days after the Inauguration, and already Iraq was the agenda. One good way to dispel this kind of cynicism, if it’s unjustified, would be for the Administration to open up the still secret guest list and still secret proceedings of the Cheney Energy Task Force that did its work months before the attacks of 9/11. WHY DOESN’T THE U.S. PRESS REPORT THIS? Greg Palast is continually coming up with amazing stories – about America – that the BBC airs but American journalists ignore. It makes me crazy, trying to figure out whether he’s crazy, or whether, instead, somehow we’ve lost a vigorous, independent press. (Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason argues persuasively that we have.) Here’s Palast’s latest – “the missing emails – and missing link – that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.” Read it (please) and tell me: Is this old hat to you? Has it been discredited? Is there a reason Congress didn’t follow up? Can/should we GET Congress to? Have you read Palast’s Armed Madhouse? As I type this, it’s in the top 100 on Amazon – and #15 on the New York Times nonfiction paperback best-seller list . . . but with no link to a review. Has the Times never reviewed it? Why?
Views May 25, 2007March 6, 2017 IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE WEATHER, LOOK OUT THE WINDOW And what better window than a weatherman’s? Here is the real-time view from Bryan Norcross’s New York apartment. Here is his Miami view. (Here is a review of his Hurricane Almanac.) (One handy thing in hurricane season – this solar-powered flashlight, your buying one of which, as mentioned yesterday, could change a life in Africa.) AND IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE WEATHER IN AFRICA Here is the view – and sounds! – from a watering hole (day and night, with lights – which don’t bother the lions one way or another). Here are other live web cams. VIEWING THE NEXUS OF MONEY AND POLITICS Here is a really important site (with a really interesting 6-minute tour) that shows not only who gets what from whom, but when – i.e., right before the vote on a particular bill or amendment. MY VIEW: LIGHTNING DOESN’T STRIKE TWICE But how could I resist? Remember Aldabra – a company formed and funded to acquire something (but nothing specific), and warrants we bought at anywhere from 70 cents down to 38 cents each – now $3.88? (Aldabra bought Great Lakes Dredge and Dock; the symbol of the company is now GLDD.) Well, HAPN is the symbol of another such company, this one trading at around $5.80, with warrants (HAPNW) trading at around 32 cents each. The warrants give you the right to buy the underlying stock for $5 any time in the next four years or so – but only if the company succeeds in acquiring something in the next four months. They are close to doing that, but the first risk is that you lose everything if they fail. With money I can afford to lose, I’ve taken that risk, because the people working on the deal have a very strong incentive not to fail. The second risk is that, even if they succeed in completing their acquisition, the company they are acquiring, InfuSystem, may do badly, so again the warrants would be worthless. But if the stock stayed at $5.80, you’d have a double, and if it ever got to $8.50, you’d make ten times your money. So – if you can truly afford risks like these – take a look at their recent quarterly report and, perhaps, call your deep discount broker. (At Ameritrade, the commission for buying 50,000 warrants could be as little as $8. Another broker might charge $1,000.) I assume this bet will fail – what are the chances of doing well with two of these in a row! But . . . as that assumption comes straight from the Don’t Walk Under Ladders school of financial analysis . . . I took the plunge anyway. (And, yes, I’m told: Lightning sometimes does strike the same place twice. Well, for example, lightning rods.) Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Flashlights to the Amazon May 24, 2007March 6, 2017 FOREVER STAMPS Bill Spencer: ‘Don’t buy too many. You may have seen this explanation, but it is an interesting take on the value of Forever Stamps.’ ☞ Yes. They are wonderful – because you’ll never have any ‘left over’ that require annoying 2-cent stamps to go with them. But there is no point buying more than usual, because as an investment, they’ll barely provide a 0% real return, if that. BUY THIS FLASHLIGHT This from the New York Times tells the story of 2 billion people who have no light after dark (except fire) (and maybe fireflies, but first you have to catch them, then you have to feed them, and they are really annoying to try to read by) (the part about fireflies is not in the Times story, but I’ve always loved fireflies) – and how you can change a life by buying yourself a solar-powered flashlight. What a nice gift for a young kid this summer, along with the story that goes with it. MOST AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE OF ALL TIME ‘I’m thinking about not resigning,’ emailed a friend. But, from the context, I wondered: was he really thinking about not resigning? It sure sounded to me as though he were fed up and might resign. Turned out he meant not re-signing, as in not signing back up – the exact opposite. It’s not hard to see how wars start. (And will someone please tell my why flammable and inflammable are the same thing? Or specify or verify for me why ‘rarefy’ and ‘liquefy’ – but only these, I have been notified -are spelled Efy? Is French this nuts?) PINCHON Artie Doskow: ‘What ever happened to the Pinchot Retirement Program? I’m waiting with bated breath to retire.’ ☞ Well, this is embarrassing. Harlem Success Academy got me off track; the whooping over GLDD got me off track; and last night, it was a shaman from the Amazon who had traveled 25 hours by bus to Brasilia to get a long flight to Sao Paolo and from there to New York and then drove up to Westport for dinner to help us understand the important work of the Amazon Conservation Team. Doing injustice to the Pinchot Retirement Program is not something I can just toss off. I need some uninterrupted time and a sharpened scalpel. (And then I worry I have built expectations too high and . . . and . . . and just at that moment, in trots the dog to eat my homework.)
Time to Pay Attention May 23, 2007March 6, 2017 The Assault On Reason. Even the reviews give you goose bumps: May 22, 2007 The Gore Book: Sweeping Indictment, Rousing Challenge, Massive Best-seller By Brent Budowsky The real presidential campaign begins now with the publication of Al Gore’s sweeping, passionate and uncompromising indictment of Bush, Bushism and American politics in the Bush era. This book will be a massive and gigantic best-seller as Americans vote with their book-buying bucks. This book will have dramatic impact on the presidential campaign by setting the gold standard for what a Loyal Opposition should stand for. If Congress again capitulates to Bush on Iraq policy, the juxtaposition of Gore’s massive assault on Bushism, his criticism of Congress for not presenting authoritative opposition and current events in Washington will unleash a major groundswell in many circles of Democratic and independent politics. This is not a book about politics. It is a book about American democracy in 2007. Gore challenges the surrender of major media to false notions, unreason, misunderstanding and dishonesty that drove America to disastrous war. Gore challenges the onslaught against the Bill of Rights and fundamental freedoms by an administration seeking to monopolize its power in ways reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984. Gore attacks a war that was not just wrong, but in his word ‘absurd,’ an Orwellian preemptive war attacking a country that did not invade us, in response to a terrorist attack that could have been prevented. Gore condemns the exploitation and abuse of 9/11 and the abuse of power, and abuse of trust, of a politics aimed at driving the nation into a frenzy of fear to justify unwise war, un-American torture and illegal actions beyond the reach of Congress and the courts. Gore issues a clarion call for America to rejoin the global community and lead the fight against global warming, AIDS, the crisis of water and a range of global issues that threaten a world that hungers for renewed American leadership. What is striking and powerful about Gore’s book is the sweeping and comprehensive indictment of Bush and the Bush years, and the passion, reason and intensity of his challenge. The pundits will smirk and ask whether Gore’s weight means he is running. The insiders will guffaw and ask whether Gore is still too boring. The analysts with nothing better to say than trite remarks will ask how this will affect Hillary or Barack. All of this makes and empowers Gore’s very point . . . Gore is saying that these are deadly serious times that demand highly serious leaders and that our democracy, too long put to shame by shallowness and deceit, must be reawakened by a people who say, ‘No more.’ Maybe Gore will run, maybe Gore will not, but this book will begin a far greater and deeper debate. The power, strength and sweep of this book are words from a man who should have been president, might well still be president, and provide a call to action for the next man or woman who will be president. ☞ I am enthusiastically neutral among all our fine Democratic candidates (even our drop-outs were great: Russ Feingold, Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack). And I note that, to a man (and a woman), ours all believe in evolution.
Like Father Like Son May 22, 2007March 6, 2017 GLDD EXPLAINED Will: ‘The water resources bill passed in the House and Senate overwhelmingly at the end of last week. After an agreement on the final bill is reached in conference, both houses of congress will vote again and it will be sent to the President. Apparently, this is a high priority bill that authorizes more than $12 billion in water resource development spending. I’m guessing this could account for some of the recent volume.’ ☞ Every $12 billion helps. BOREALIS Nathan Johansen: ‘That original link to the WheelTug video breaks down near the end. It’s since been fixed and reposted with this link.’ Jim Batterson: ‘It seems like Borealis is so thinly traded that anyone buying or selling a hundred shares can shift the ‘last sale’ price of the stock by a dollar or so. Obviously it is a mistake to buy or sell shares ‘at market’ for a stock like this. So, two questions: (1) Is there a ‘right’ strategy for buying or selling a stock like this? If the ‘last trade’ is $8.20, can I put in a buy order for, say, $7.50 and just be patient? Can I put in a sell order for $9 and hope someone wants to buy some? Patience seems very important here. (2) Doesn’t this create an opportunity for someone to ‘make a market’ in the stuff and do the arbitrage thing, putting in buy orders for $7.50 and sell orders for $9.00 and make money both ways following the meanderings of a thinly-traded stock like this?’ ☞ The first thing to say is that, ordinarily, ‘spreads’ and other transaction costs kill you in the stock market, which is why, over time, a monkey throwing darts beats most mutual fund managers. The second thing to say is that BOREF is not ordinary. Either it will eventually be zero, in which case you will lose 100% of your money whether you paid $8 or $9, or – however slim the chance – it will be worth much, much more than $9. (I will admit to having become increasingly hopeful, or perhaps simply increasingly deluded.) So, yes, you should never enter a ‘market’ order for a stock like this. But I don’t think it’s crazy to offer to buy it, with money you can truly afford to lose, at the ‘ask’ price, even though you’d lose 10% or 15% if you turned around immediately and sold it. (With a house, you’d also lose close to 10%, between commissions and closing costs, if you sold the day after you bought.) As to your second question, the market makers in BOREF make the spread between bid and asked, not retail investors like you and me. We pay the spread. You can’t just put up a shingle and become a market maker. FATHERS DAY Okay, tell me this isn’t funny. For a whole book of father-related New Yorker cartoons, click here. (Fathers Day falls on June 17 this year.) GORE And I say again: After you read his essay, buy The Assault On Reason, Al Gore’s new book.
WATCH The Plane Move May 21, 2007March 6, 2017 THE BEST POSSIBLE HOTEL PRICE I can’t believe there are still people who book hotel rooms without ‘naming their own price’ at Priceline.com – ah, the profligate traveler. (The two exceptions: if you need a specific hotel, not just a specific neighborhood; or if plans might change, as the Priceline charge is nonrefundable.) Well, for us Priceline enthusiasts, there’s a way to beat Priceline at its own game, as detailed here. Basically, the notion is to start your bidding way low, then gradually increase it (he uses $1 increments, but it would be a lot faster, at little extra cost, to jump $5 at a time). Normally, Priceline makes you wait a day to re-bid. Those of us who use it regularly have figured out the obvious way around that – add a neighborhood, so it’s not an identical search, and you can re-bid right away. But all hail Matt Markovich of KOMO-TV (or whoever he learned this from) for taking this to a whole new level. WHAT THE PROSECUTOR SCANDAL REALLY IS Writes Marie Cocco: It is time to stop referring to the “fired U.S attorneys scandal” by that misnomer, and call it what it is: a White House-coordinated effort to use the vast powers of the Justice Department to swing elections to Republicans. FALWELL ‘I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!’ – the late Reverend Falwell, as quoted in Bill Press’s column. Bill goes on to write: In 2000, Falwell even said that Christians had a moral duty to vote for George W. Bush over fellow Christian Al Gore. . . . In the end, that was Jerry Falwell’s undoing. He tied his faith so closely to politics that he cheapened religion and made all evangelicals look like puppets of the Republican party. Falwell, in fact, redefined Christianity so narrowly and so politically, that if Jesus Christ himself came back today, he wouldn’t qualify for membership. ☞ And then there is this pitch-perfect column from the Miami Herald, about Jerry Falwell’s finest hour (a day in 1999) – but noting, in broader context, that ‘[Reverend Falwell] had an uncanny ability to miss the moment. Time after time when great issues of the day demanded moral leadership, the founder of the Moral Majority proved himself bereft of same.’ (As when he supported Apartheid.) AND WHILE I AM GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL . . . You will not find a more blunt assessment than Christopher Hitchens’s, in this Anderson Cooper interview. BUT IF GOD HATES ME, WHY DOES GLDD KEEP GOING UP? The stock and warrants gained another half buck Friday. Maybe something’s going on, or maybe the stock is up simply in the wake of its first quarterly report filed last week. Revenues were up 16% from the prior year’s first quarter, the prior year’s loss was flipped to a modest profit, and the backlog of business jumped 30%. All this before the hoped-for return to normalcy in U.S. dredging activity (cut by 50% the last several years because of budget constraints from the Iraq war). So something specific may be happening, or maybe it’s nothing more than some mutual fund manager, with billions to invest, picking up a couple million shares – pocket change. I’m not selling any of my warrants that haven’t gone long-term (and in hindsight, of course, I’m sorry to have sold even those) . . . although we need now to pay attention to the terms of the warrant, which allow forced conversion if the stock stays above $8.50 for 20 consecutive business days (as outlined here). I’ll try to make sense of that in the coming days and offer suggestions. BOREF Well, for what it’s worth, you can now watch the plane move, on YouTube. I doubt you will be able to judge from the video whether this is really viable. I certainly couldn’t. But Delta may have that competence – and they seem enthusiastic about the prospects.
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! And a Must-Buy New Book May 18, 2007March 6, 2017 ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Wednesday it was the Harlem Success Academy that got me off track. Yesterday it was dealing with police who had been summoned on a noise complaint from my neighbors, who’d been driven crazy by my uncontrollable whooping. That whooping, fellow GLDD warrant owners will understand, was brought on as the underlying stock climbed to $8.75 on volume of more than a million shares – I don’t know what’s going on, but something must be – giving our warrants, which we bought at prices between 38 cents and 70 cents this past year, an intrinsic value of $3.75. Any time I can make six or eight times my money in a year, I whoop. A good neighbor should understand that. So Monday (I hope): ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ In the meantime . . . HARLEM George Berger: ‘Harlem Success Academy sounds wonderful, as does Joel Greenblatt’s work with Public School 65Q in Queens. Now those are a couple of projects I wouldn’t mind sending some of my GLDD and TLBTBTM profits to. (Sorry, not the DNC.) I was thinking it would be great if Joel Greenblatt could set up a charitable foundation to fund worthy education projects, so we TLBTBTM people could have a reliable place to donate that could really make a difference in education. Or if you’re familiar with anything like that I’d be interested to hear about it.’ ☞ That’s a great idea! (Except for the part about the DNC – you are missing the best possible political investment.) And for now, there’s an immediate solution. Just send your check to: HARLEM SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL 34 W. 118th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10026 ATTN: Jenny Sedlis Their 501(c)(3) tax ID number is 20-5298861. (Amazingly, the web site does not yet accept on-line donations; but I’ll bet it soon will.) And when you have finished funding Harlem Success Academy, never fear: the goal is to open three more such school next year and a lot more after that. But neither is this a bottomless pit. The further goal is for each school to reach breakeven in about six years – even when funded with just 75% of what public schools currently get per pupil. Warren Spieker: ‘As you know, this is an initiative (charter schools) which most Democratic politicians have opposed – largely due to the influence of the teachers unions, I suspect. Like Joel, I contribute to a local charter school and have seen similar extraordinary results. I would be interested to read more about your thoughts on this subject. Even better, what can you do as the treasurer of the DNC to influence party politicians to change their position on this issue? It seems at odds with Democrats general interest in looking out for the poor and giving them the opportunity to improve their lives through education.’ ☞ Well, yes and no. Many Democratic politicians have led the way on charter schools (and I agree with you that more should). Here is a news report that begins: President Bill Clinton took his education reform tour to Minnesota on Thursday, heralding the rapid expansion of public charter schools during his seven years in office and announcing additional federal grants to help ensure their continued success. . . . “We have invested almost half a billion dollars since 1994 to help communities start charter schools [Clinton said] … my goal was to at least fund 3,000 (charter schools) or more by the time I left office and I believe we are going to meet that goal.” ☞ Governor Spitzer and New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein (who came from the Clinton White House) have been important supporters. Joel Greenblatt and his business partner John Petry have launched Democrats for Education Reform. I’ll post a link to the web site when it’s ready a few weeks from now. I hope our Democratic nominee will take a strong stand for continuing the progress our last Democratic Administration was very much a part of encouraging. We need to support our teachers and our public schools. The teachers unions do a great job of that . . . but sometimes a little too great. We need to make it easier to replace poorly performing teachers and administrators, because our kids deserve competence. And because the return on investment of providing an effective education (which most of our kids get but far too many don’t) is all but incalculably large. Gennady: ‘I think the charter school movement is great. I’m speaking from experience since my youngest son Jacob went to the first, only – and now defunct – High School of Math and Science here in Fulton County. The school closed due to lack of funding. While on the state and national level there is a lot of support for the idea, on the local level (county board of ed) there is a lot of resistance which really ends up sabotaging the idea. The failed schools, like ours, are then used by opponents as ‘examples’ of why not to support the charter schools. By far the biggest problem is funding, as you mentioned in your column. Here in Atlanta, school boards pay charter schools 100% of operating costs per pupil (roughly $7.5K/year for high school here), but they conveniently forget the capital side of the budget (which is used to build schools, like our new $50 million high school), which would make per pupil number more like $10K. They force the charter schools to pay rent out of the same measly per-pupil money they give – which is what closed our beloved Math & Science High in three years, after a very supporting and understanding landlord ran out of patience.’ GORE Mark Lefler: ‘Al Gore hits the nail on the head.’ ☞ After you read that essay, buy The Assault On Reason, Al Gore’s new book. Have a great weekend.
These Six Year Olds Wear Ties And They Sure Looked Happy To Me May 17, 2007March 6, 2017 ‘The Pinchot Retirement Program’ will have to wait – I got carried away up at Harlem Success Academy, a charter school, watching five-year-olds learn the difference between a mixture and a solution (they take science five days a week) and six-year-olds learn chess (I could still beat them, but by the time they’re eight, who knows?). I was the only male in the school not wearing a tie – including the five- and six-year-olds. I got there at the very civilized hour of 1pm. The students had been there since 7am and would be staying, as they do each day, until 5pm. (No naps, either, except for me, when I got home.) No kidding around: these children are going to succeed. Despite the extraordinary results the school is already showing, New York reimburses charter schools for only 75% of what it pays to educate its public school students. That should actually be enough for Harlem Success Academy, once it’s at its full complement; but with only two grades enrolled so far (a new one is added each year), there is a significant shortfall. Interestingly, that shortfall is currently made up in large measure by the author of The Little Book That Beats the Market, from which some of you have begun to profit. GEORGIA RULE Mike Lynott: ‘As you said, it’s ‘set in Idaho.’ That’s different from being filmed in Idaho. Those were California hills you saw, not the foothills we see from Boise, not the ski slopes of Sun Valley, and certainly not the splendor of the Sawtooths. Jane [Fonda] apparently explained in an interview that it was ‘too expensive’ to actually film it in Idaho. I too will see it soon. I’ll be fascinated to watch the reactions of my fellow Idahoans.’ DAVID ‘D’ITALIANO’ RESPONDS ‘You wrote: ‘It’s not an extra law, really, it’s fixing the one glaring omission in the existing law, to send an important signal: hate crimes against sexual minorities are repugnant, too.’ I’m very curious to whom you think this message is being sent. I doubt someone who would beat up or kill someone, especially someone they hate, is going to suddenly be put off doing so by this law.’ ☞ For starters, it sends the message to me. I want to know that my country – which does not tolerate hate crimes against blacks or whites or Jews or Catholics or Poles – also does not tolerate hate crimes against people like me. There are other reasons for the law (sending the message to tens of thousands of police officers is one; sending it to the nation as a whole is another; providing extra resources to solve hate crimes is a third). But I’m not sure any more reason is needed than the first.