Nutrition and Diversity Make for a 79% Gain Is This a Great Country, or What? January 14, 2011March 21, 2017 Understanding that you may not have had time yesterday, I offer again – for the weekend — Wednesday’s memorial service, a moving national experience. The President’s portion, and the tone it sets, is important to hear. It inspires hope. Another hopeful thing, I think, is the federal push to improve the nutrition of federally-subsidized school lunches. Fruit instead of Twinkies, to shorthand it. In Cambridge, where something like this has already been tried, 40% of the overweight kids slimmed down, according to last night’s CBS report. This is not a small thing. What better way to help build a better future? Healthy kids a healthy nation make. DIVERSITY Beyond good health, diversity – and a healthy respect for, if not outright celebration of, our differences – makes us strong. Marge Wright: ‘I’d love to see you write about the ethnic, religious, and orientation diversity of the people prominent in Rep. Giffords’ attack and aftermath. We have: Rep. Giffords, a female in high office, who is Jewish. Daniel Hernandez, the intern who held her upright and accompanied her to the hospital, credited by many as saving her life – a Latino and out gay. Dr. Rhee, her trauma chief, is Asian American . . . THIS is the new America! It seems to me that a lot of the hate / fear / violent rhetoric is old whites clinging to an idealized past when they held all the power – and I say that as an old white who is delighted that era is OVER.’ ☞ Hernandez rushed toward the gunfire when he heard it. I assumed he was Latino but hadn’t realized he was gay. This excellent column asks why under the law he is a second class citizen. DCTH John Connors: ‘Just wondering if you have any giddiness associated with DCTH?’ ☞ Coming up on the January 21 anniversary of its first mention here at $5.37 (thanks again, Guru), it closed last night at $9.65, up 79%. So far so good (though how I wish I had sold half when it first ran up to $16). Fingers tightly crossed the bulls prove to be right about what its valuation should be. I guess there is some risk they may not get the approval they expect and some risk that, even if they do, itheir procedure may not be received in the marketplace as well as hoped, or that the market may not expand to include other uses, as hoped. Then again, it may all work out very well. I have a good chunk of it, so I hope so. But I’m not buying it here. And, fortunately, you bought it only with money you can truly afford to lose.
Four Mutual Funds January 13, 2011March 21, 2017 TUCSON Yesterday’s memorial service is nearly two hours, if you have the time. A moving national experience. The President’s speech, and the tone it sets, is important to hear. I feel as though I should leave it that today. Feel free to come back to the rest of this tomorrow: LIKE ME Turns out the Like button is cumulative. And does not show up (I think) if you don’t have a Facebook account. Fickle, fickle, fickle. DEPO, AFOP, ET AL* AFOP closed last night at $19.59, up 144% since Aristides’ Chris Brown suggested it in September. Just days ago, at $15.60, he thought it “appears to have the golden triad of operational momentum, share price momentum, and undervaluation.” I hope you’ve taken some profits, as the easiest money seems surely to have been made. DEPO closed at $7.02, up nicely whether you paid $4.50 (56%), $3.02 (132%) or even $2.36 (197%) not quite a year ago. (Thank you, Guru.) CRME “will resolve its two overhangs by the end of the year,” guru told us November 10, which could push the stock up from the current $4.60 to $7 or more. “Remember, remember, remember.” I cautioned: “he’s often right but not always! So . . . only with money you can truly afford to lose.” The stock touched $7.10 yesterday, closing at $6.99, up 50% in two months. (Guru thinks much if not all the gain has now been realized – it could go to $8 or beyond, but $7 to $8 has been his target.) EMIS closed at $2.25, up 80% since August. (“Want another truly, truly speculative little drug stock? EMIS may absolutely lose every penny you invest; but guru thinks the risk/reward at $1.25 is good. If you have profits in some of his other suggestions, maybe take a little for a small gamble here?”) If this one works, it goes much higher. If it doesn’t, we’re toast. YMI closed at $2.64, up 60% in less than a month. (“If you have yet more money you can truly afford to lose,” I wrote, “Guru suggests adding a few shares of YMI to our latest speculative basket.”) As with EMIS, it could all be for naught – or go a good bit higher. GLDD, our silty, muddy dredger, closed at $8.58, now up 80% from September’s mention. A very smart friend just joined the board, and smart people have a way of finding opportunities, so I feel good holding for the long-term (with all the usual caveats). BZ is up from 53 cents to $8.38 last night and the warrants, suggested at various prices ranging as low as 2 cents, closed at $1.03, up 50-fold. So 10,000 Boise Paper warrants [I wrote in October, 2008] could be had for $200 yesterday morning (and $350 yesterday afternoon), down 99% from their high less than a year or so ago. I bought a zillion of them not because I expect the underlying company, Boise Paper, to thrive. But what if it did muddle through? Its stock is down from $10 to 53 cents. What if by June 18, 2011, when those warrants expire, the stock had returned to $10? Highly unlikely, to be sure, but not impossible – and, exercisable at $7.50, each one would be worth about $2.50. So the 10,000 you bought for $200 – plus a deep discount broker’s $8 commission – would have become a $25,000 long-term capital gain. A less reckless speculation, though still very much a speculation, would be to buy BZ stock itself. The leverage is not as great – and the possibility of total loss certainly still there – but with the stock, there is no deadline by which better times must return. If the stock hit $5 five years from now, you’d have made nearly 10 times the yesterday’s 53-cent closing price . . . whereas the warrants would long since have expired worthless. ☞ So here we are, and those $200 of warrants may still expire worthless – or just might be worth $25,000 (up from the current $10,000), or even more. I’ve sold most of mine by now, but kept enough to be over the moon if it keeps climbing. It’s worth noting that these aren’t all the suggestions that have appeared in this space, only the ones that have me, of late, the giddiest. Leaving aside our total wipeouts over the years in FMD and WAMU . . . in my idiotic Google puts and my tragic DNDN puts . . . there are lots of others that have not performed spectacularly either way. And still others for which – in the somewhat unique case of BOREF – we wait, like hopeful Casablanca émigrés, and wait. And wait. And . . . wait. More than that, it’s worth noting: When I get a little giddy like this, it often means the market is due for correction. That said . . . GETTING IN ON THE ACTION Both Guru and Aristides’s Chris Brown, hedge fund managers mentioned here from time to time, have very different approaches but identical $500,000 minimums, open only to “accredited investors.” But a third super-smart investor friend, Joel Greenblatt, also mentioned here from time to time, has launched four mutual funds suitable, in my view, for retirement plans ($5,000 minimum investment) and ordinary humans ($10,000). Though I’ve long emphasized the advantages of index funds, with their tiny expense ratios and the low transaction costs / tax exposure inherent in their passive, low-turnover approach, these four funds – two of them domestic, two international – have hefty annual expenses and higher turnover. But, for reasons I address in the new edition of my book, which if you have even a shred of decency you now have sitting by your bedside, or shortly will, my gut is that these funds will justify their fees over the long term: Formula Investing U.S. Value 1000 Fund A – FVVAX Formula Investing U.S. Value Select Fund A – FNSAX Formula Investing International Value 400 Fund A – FNVAX Formula Investing International Value Select Fund A – FNAAX I could be wrong, of course. And (even if I’m not), in hindsight, this could turn out to have been a terrible time to invest in the market in any way, even through funds that might wind up performing relatively less poorly than most others. But, for what it’s worth, I expect to put some of my own meager retirement money in each of these funds. (Because they’re so new, the “full service” brokerage firm at which I have my retirement account won’t let me buy them. I’m working on it.) *ET AL – The Airline of Etcetera. Or, wait: “ET AL, The Airline for the Others of Us.” There’s something here, I think.
Love In the Time of the Revolutionary War And Four New Mutual Funds January 12, 2011March 21, 2017 So let me get this straight. Monday’s column, which gave you free cell phone calls to China, drew 259 “likes” and yesterday’s – where I took the day off – drew 288. Okey-dokey. Be that way. Roberta Taussig: “I can’t see the ‘Like’ button. I’d happily press it. Can you ask your Webmaster whether there’s some incompatibility between your ‘Like’ button and the Chrome browser?” ☞ Others reported the same problem. I happen to know that thousands read this page every morning, so I can confidently state, given that 259 like it when I write something and 288 like it when I don’t, thousands of you don’t much care for it either way. Meanwhile, do you know how a lot of people have a quote of some kind as part of their email signature? I enjoy them. Roberta, above, signs off: “Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. – Robert Orben.” I like that. And I love Mark L.’s: “I am nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect!” Ken Doran: “You ask, ‘Does this refer to today’s column alone?’ Yes; you must earn your like 5/52. ‘Does it accumulate over time?’ No; see above. ‘Do I win a prize at some point?’ Yes; the opportunity to pursue like 5/52. ‘Do you win a prize?’ Yes; but please don’t ask what it is. Finally, you write, ‘I like you, too.’ You are to be commended on your good judgment; but see No. 1 above.” Gray Chang: “Where’s the ‘Dislike’ button? (just kidding).” GAYS IN THE MILITARY Who knew? Mr. President, Washington and Franklin thank you By Mark Segal When President Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” he might have felt the ghosts of Founding Fathers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin smiling over his shoulder. They might have even whispered in his ear, “It’s about time.” History clearly recalls that the Revolutionary Army was a rag-tag band of men with little to no military training. We fumbled through the beginning of the war of independence with lack of training, conduct and organization. Washington knew that, without help, the Colonies would lose. Since Washington himself was the best this nation had, he looked to Europe for someone who could bring order to the troops. To that end, Washington wrote the Colonies’ representative in Paris at the time, Franklin, to see what he could find. Franklin learned of a Prussian military genius, Lt. Gen. Friederich von Steuben, who’d had a string of successes with numerous armies across Europe. There was one problem: Various kingdoms of Europe had asked von Steuben to depart because of his “affections for members of his own sex.” And while Franklin was interviewing him, the situation became somewhat hectic as members of the French clergy decided to make a crusade and drum him out of France. Franklin had a choice here, and he decided von Steuben’s expertise was more important than his sexual orientation. He and another colony representative, Silas Deane, acted quickly before the clergy could deport von Steuben and sent him to the Colonies to serve with Washington. Once the lieutenant was here, Washington was concerned about von Steuben’s lack of English, so he appointed two of his officers who spoke French to work as translators. One of those officers was Alexander Hamilton and the other was his close friend Henry Laurens. Some historians claim the two were lovers — but that’s another column. Washington and Franklin’s trust in von Steuben was realized as he taught the troops the essentials of military drills, tactics and disciplines, including how to effectively use a bayonet and organizing a military camp. He authored the “Revolutionary War Drill Manual,” which became the standard drill manual until the War of 1812, and served as Washington’s chief of staff in the final years of the Revolutionary War. He was part of Washington’s inner circle, and a major factor in the victory of the Colonies. And that, my friends, is why gay history is important. And a fun read. Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He is the nation’s most-award-winning commentator in LGBT media, having recently received the 2010 Columnist of the Year Award from the 2,000-member Suburban Newspapers of America. He can be reached a tmark@epgn.com. MARRIAGE And now that we’re on the verge of allowing our gay sons and daughters to fight and die for our country, there us talk of affording them the same right to marry as anyone else. Which is just the next step in the long evolution of marriage, according to this interesting piece in the Washington Post. Snippets: . . . For millennia, marriage was about property and power rather than love. Parents arranged their children’s unions to expand the family labor force, gain well-connected in-laws and seal business deals. . . . A husband couldn’t cede any rights to his wife, said the courts, ‘because that would presuppose her separate existence,’ according to Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws. . . . In 1964, . . . an article in a journal of the American Medical Association described beating as a “more or less” satisfactory way for an “aggressive, efficient, masculine” wife to “be punished for her castrating activity” and for a husband to “re-establish his masculine identity.” . . . Support for same-sex marriage is already higher than support for interracial marriage was in 1970, three years after the Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws. And since young adults ages 18 to 29 are the group most supportive of same-sex marriage, it is largely a matter of when, rather than if, a majority of Americans will endorse this extension of marriage rights. Tomorrow: four new mutual funds for your consideration.
Experiment January 11, 2011March 25, 2012 At last count, 259 people had “liked” yesterday’s column. If more people like today’s, there may not be one tomorrow. Taking the day off. Enjoy!
Phone Free January 10, 2011March 21, 2017 FREE PHONE CALLS TO 55 COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE U.S.) Posted by New York Times crack tech columnist David Pogue, who says he’s adding a local freephone2phone access number to his cell phone’s address book – happy to endure one or two 12-second ads in order to get his overseas calls for free. (It works fine calling from a landline, also. And for calls within the U.S., e.g., for someone with a basic landline that does not already include ‘free’ long-distance.) . . . To try out FreePhone2Phone, I dialed a local number, which I looked up at FreePhone2Phone.com. To reach the New York City access line, you’d dial (646) 500-8620. I listened – actually, half-listened – to a 12-second ad for the University of Phoenix, then pressed 1 to dial my number. I plugged in 011-44-20 7806 1000, the number for the Covent Garden Hotel in London. I just picked a hotel at random because I knew I wouldn’t be waking anybody up. The call was placed instantly, and the sound quality was fantastic. I asked the attendant with the cute British accent for the nearest Tube station. Leicester Square, she told me. I tried a couple of other international calls, my mind buzzing with the new paradigm that had suddenly opened. Frankly, I can’t see why anyone would ever use a calling card again; by the time you’ve fussed with typing in your authorization codes, you’ve spent more time to place a calling-card call than you would listening to a FreePhone2Phone ad . . . ☞ After nine-and-a-half minutes you get beeps every five seconds until your 10 minutes are up. And your next call to the same number that same day is limited to just 5 minutes – so it’s basically ‘just’ 15 free minutes per day to any one phone number. But Moscow? Rio? Sydney? Free from your cell phone while you’re riding in a cab? Not bad, mate. In most of the 55 countries, the free calling only works to landlines. But in some – China and India among them – you can call any local cell phone as well. Full disclosure: I have a small interest in this company. If you post this on your Facebook page and it goes viral, I may someday get my investment back, which, unlikely as it is, would . . . be . . . thrilling. GABBY GIFFORDS Former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, to his list: A reporter called me a little while ago, and told me that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot at a public event. She is in critical condition. I’m going to let others comment on what this means for America. I just want to say what it means to me. Gabrielle Giffords and I served together on the House Committee on Science and Technology. She was the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, and I was a member of that subcommittee. Her D.C. office was one floor above mine. I saw Gabby dozens, if not hundreds of times, during our two years together. And nearly every time that I can remember, she was smiling. Gabby is one of the most cheerful, charming and engaging people I have ever known. She’s always looking on the bright side. She has something good to say about pretty much everyone. Bad news never lays a glove on her. She loves life, and all the people in it. No matter what is going on in your life, after fifteen minutes with Gabby, you’ll feel that you can touch the stars. Everyone knew that Gabby would have a tough race in 2010. (She actually won with 49% of the vote.) But I always thought that if each of her constituents could spend that fifteen minutes with her, and see what she is really like, then she would win with 99.9% of the vote. You would want her as your Congressman, because you would want her as your friend. I know nothing about the man who shot Gabby, and what was going through his mind when he did this. But I will tell you this – if he shot Gabby out of hatred, then it wasn’t Gabby he was shooting, but rather some cartoon version of her, drawn by her political opposition. Because there is no way – NO WAY – that anyone who really knows Gabby could hate her or hurt her. She is a kind, gentle soul. My heart goes out to Mark Kelly, Gabby’s husband, and the many, many people who love her. Gabby, we don’t want to lose you. Please stay here with us. Alan Grayson ☞ I barely know Congresswoman Giffords, but within an hour of meeting I had gone on-line – unasked – to contribute to her campaign. You can’t meet her and not want to join her team. THE SALLY FIELDS BUTTON One of you was actually kind enough to request a ‘Like’ button on this page. I’m not clear what a Like button does, but within hours my able webmaster had it up (see it? next to the quote of the day?) and 147 of you had liked me. Does this refer to today’s column alone? Does it accumulate over time? Do I win a prize at some point? Do you win a prize? Whatever. I like you, too.
What They’re Not Telling You January 7, 2011March 21, 2017 “I don’t think anybody in this town believes that repealing Obamacare is going to increase the deficit.” That was House Speaker John Boehner yesterday, reacting to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimate that repealing the health care bill would increase the deficit – and by $200 billion, no less. The Republicans brush this aside, simply asserting “everybody KNOWS Obamacare is going to cost more.” The CBO analysts must be idiots. And because it’s intuitive, and we tend to be cynical about government, it resonates. But the Republicans are not telling you the whole story. The health care bill really WILL reduce the deficit – not necessarily because it will cost less, but because it adds a tax on high-level investment income to cover the cost (and then some). THAT’s how it works. THAT’s why the Congressional Budget Office expects it to lower the deficit (even BEFORE the additional savings in improved efficiencies and preventive care that we hope for down the road). And THAT’s why the Republicans want to repeal it. What the Republicans want is to keep millionaires and billionaires from seeing the tax on their dividends and capital gains go up. THAT’s why they want to repeal this bill and go back to the bad old days of tens of millions of people uninsured, the “donut hole” for the elderly, and all the rest. Sure, they wouldn’t mind if everyone had coverage – just so long as rich people didn’t have to pay more tax. Yet before you feel too bad for our rich friends – and we Democrats do have rich friends – please note that the tax rate on dividends and capital gains in Ronald Reagan’s day was 28%. After all his famous tax cuts. With the health care bill, the Obama rate is brought back up from 15% only to 19.8%. A third LOWER under Obama than under Reagan! But our Republican friends never tell you that. They can’t stand to see the billionaires who finance their campaigns take any hit. Better, they feel, for tens of millions of Americans to lack health care insurance, and for an estimated 45,000 of their fellow citizens to die each year for lack of health insurance, than to see the rate on investment income for higher-income individuals go back up from 15% to 19.8%. They say, they have better ways to fix the health care system. Really? They controlled all three branches of government from January 2001 through January 2006. They didn’t even try. Not a priority. The rich were doing fine. HATE OBAMACARE? Wayne Furnweger: “I thought your readers might like this cartoon.” ☞ Indeed. But – in fairness – it leaves out at least two other things some people don’t like about Obamacare (beside the “Obama” part): First, as noted above, the tax levied on the best off to pay for it. Some of the best off are okay with – or may even feel good about – being part of the solution. Others, being human, hate being taxed under any circumstance. So that’s number one. And second, there are those who don’t like “the individual mandate,” currently being challenged in the courts. Why should they have to buy insurance if they don’t want to? Especially the young and healthy. They don’t have to buy auto insurance. (Well, they do; but that’s a state requirement, and only if they choose to drive.) They don’t have to register for the draft. (Well, they do, actually.) They don’t have to “buy” Medicare (except that they do, via the payroll tax). So why should they have to buy health insurance? It’s certainly possible that much the same court that found as it did in Bush v. Gore will decide that they don’t. According to this analysis, the decision may hinge on whether the mandate is “necessary and proper.” But if we can conscript people into the Army for two years – which we don’t any more, but Constitutionally could – it being deemed necessary and proper for the common good . . . and if we can imprison them for not complying . . . then surely we can require that everyone carry health insurance and impose a $750 fine for not complying. (Indeed, that $750 is a bargain, because it then entitles them to sign up for insurance, despite whatever egregious preexisting condition they then might have, when suddenly they do need it.) A decent health care system that covers everyone is necessary and proper for the common good – a matter of life and death, no less. And such a system, of necessity, will require healthy people to chip in to subsidize those less fortunate. As Ezra Klein argues well here.
Historical Footnote January 6, 2011March 21, 2017 BEST AD BANNER OF THE MONTH “Have to use your abs to count to six? This ain’t your gym.” (For a chain called Planet Fitness.) AFOP Okay, now AFOP really has more than doubled, up from $8 to $17.11 last night. I’ve sold all the shares in my tax-free account – who can resist locking in a three-month tax-free double? – but am happily holding the rest. GLDD This remains a long-term hold (and a nice success, at $7.89 last night, up 65% from September’s mention). They just made an acquisition, prompting research coverage from Stephens (“GLDD’s recently announced acquisition of L.W. Matteson looks to be a good addition to an already commanding player in the domestic dredging industry”), which think the stock is fairly valued here (but no bargain); from Barclays Capital (“We think the L.W. Matteson acquisition is a positive step in expanding GLDD’s marine service market as well as geographic reach”) and puts its price target modestly higher, at $9; from BB&T Capital (“We like what we’re seeing from new management”), which aims for $10 within 12 months; and from D.A. Davidson & Co., which rates the shares “neutral” with a 5-year price target of $15. So it’s not going up 65% again next month, or anything remotely like that. But the silt just keeps accreting, the Panama Canal is been deepened to allow bigger ships to pass through (which means any ports they dock at have to be deepened, too), and new management is smart. So I’m not buying more here, but very happy owning what I do. HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE Oh, and by the way? Gore won. I don’t mention this in the sense that there’s anything to do about it . . . or even to be mean. All the misery that resulted was certainly not intended. But – just as we’re fascinated by other aspects of our history – so this article offers a fascinating view of what really happened a decade ago. . . . Gore won under a strict-counting scenario and he won under a loose-counting scenario. He won if you counted “hanging chads” and he won if you counted “dimpled chads.” He won if you counted a dimpled chad only in the presence of another dimpled chad on the same ballot—the so-called Palm Beach standard. He even won if you counted only a fully punched chad. He won if you counted partially filled oval on an optical scan and he won if you counted only a fully filled optical scan. He won if you fairly counted the absentee ballots. No matter what, if everyone who legally voted in Florida had had a chance to see their vote counted, then Al Gore not George W. Bush, was elected president. . . . ☞ Some will read this and weep; others will revert to “get over it.” (As in, “We started an unnecessary war, added $4 trillion to our Debt, further shifted wealth and power to the wealthy, and handed our successor a near-Depression – get over it.”) But isn’t this question as interesting, and in some senses as historically important, as, say, what Kate Middleton will be wearing to her wedding?
YOUR Book Filling the Page January 5, 2011March 21, 2017 JANUARY 5 Greg Lawton: “Some thirty years ago, I picked up the first edition of The Only Investment Guide . . . and discovered a radical new concept in investment ideas, i.e., spend less than you make and save the rest. Surprise – it works.” ☞ I was going to take an Andy day – busy week – but how can I fail to note that today is the official publication date of the new edition? But that Amazon has a policy of displaying the cheapest version of any book it sells, so if you search on mine, you get the 2005 edition. Until they fix this, the only way to find the 2011 edition is to really hunt for it – or click here. And do beware the Kindle edition they offer. Though it bears a July 2010 pub date, it is also the 2005 edition. The publisher is rushing to get them the new one. Meanwhile – tired of my relentless self promotion? PUBLISH YOUR OWN DAMN BOOK It’s easy. (Except perhaps the writing part of it.) Mark L.: “Go to dtp.amazon.com, and log in using your Amazon account info (email and password). From there you can upload the content (in Word or better yet html format). You also have to supply the text for the ad on Amazon, set a price, etc. You have to give them your bank account info or where to send the check. And make sure you did not sign off e-book rights to your publisher [if you already have a publisher, which if you just decided to write the book after reading this post, you do not]. Doing this is pretty easy and cuts out the middle man. Plus you get a 70% royalty if you keep the price between $2.99 and $9.99. Your publisher must have done this for the 2005 edition. You really should tell them to remove or update it, since a lot of people (like me) are disappointed about getting the old version. At least Amazon refunded my money and took the e-book back.” ☞ Here’s Amazon’s self-publishing FAQ. NOTHING TO SAY? In Word, type =rand (7, 3), says Toby Grundtner of Toby’s Tips, and then press ENTER. Out will come seven paragraphs of three random sentences each. Or type =rand (25, 2), say, and get 25 paragraphs of two sentences each. Why would you want to do this? No one knows.* *Actually, it can be helpful in dummying up layouts. And now, if you type =rand (200, 9) a few times, you would have written a more or less standard-length book ready for e-publication in under a minute.
Government CAN Work January 4, 2011March 21, 2017 SINCERITY – IF YOU CAN FAKE THAT . . . A friend has an ad in one of those sites where you seek dates. He notes that the most important quality he values in another person is honesty. He then lists his age as 55. (He’s 73.) GOVERNMENT CAN WORK A considerably younger friend takes his seat in Congress tomorrow, a freshman from Rhode Island elected to fill the retiring Patrick Kennedy’s seat. Until moments ago, he was the two-term Mayor of Providence, reelected in 2006 with more than 80% of the vote – not bad for an openly gay mayor, I’d add – and then elected president of the association of all the Democratic mayors. He sent supporters this exit memo of sorts, which made me even prouder to know him. I offer it not because you likely have Providence top of mind, but because it suggests that – for all its limitations – government really can work: Passing the Baton in Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline It’s funny. When you look back in time, you can see every single mile you’ve traveled, all the peaks and valleys, all the wonderful vistas you’ve enjoyed, and all of the storms you’ve weathered. When you look to the future, though, it’s natural to see blue sky, the limitless horizon, and the promise of everything that’s possible. Eight years ago, I stood on the steps of City Hall taking the oath of office as Mayor of the City of Providence and I saw so clearly what was possible for this great city. It has been the honor of my life to serve the residents of this city as mayor. The two terms I had the privilege of leading city government spanned the most rapid progress our city has seen in generations as well as an extremely deep and painful national recession. They also coincided with the era of severe cuts to cities and towns by state government. I am extremely proud of the way our city responded to both prosperity and adversity, and remain very confident about the future of Providence as a new administration prepares to take office. My administration arrived at City Hall at a time when the City faced many basic, structural challenges that required long-term fixes. Coming in after Operation Plunder Dome, we had to begin to change the culture of government to make it work for all residents again and not just a small number of insiders. Additionally, the 2000 Census revealed that Providence had the third highest child poverty rate in the nation, so we made the healthy development of children a critical priority. Also, a longtime focus on downtown had come at the expense of our neighborhoods, and they needed major investment and attention. Fundamental to achieving all of these priorities was an effective police department, so we restructured the Providence Police Department based on the successful New York City community policing model. We gave our officers the tools and latitude to deepen relationships with longtime neighborhood residents who were invested in a stable community. The men and women of the department embraced this strategy and made it work. According to the Providence Journal, the crime rate in Providence is now at its lowest level in 40 years. As part of our youth development effort, we identified middle-school-aged children and the hours after school as the area of opportunity for the greatest impact. This was the time of day when we began to “lose” young people to violence or teen pregnancy, adding to the vicious cycle of urban poverty. We pulled together the youth services community to re-imagine how we could better organize around kids’ needs and wants, resulting in “campuses” of after-school offerings we call AfterZones. Now, we not only enroll fully half of the city’s middle-school-aged children, we also offer top quality programming that helps supplement school learning. Nashville, Buffalo, New Orleans, and Omaha are all replicating our AfterZone system. Improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods was the mission of nearly every department and policy. We helped steer billions of dollars in both private and public direct investment. Some of this was new, high-quality, affordable housing stock, which has made a profound impact in our neighborhoods. We eradicated the notorious trash and rat problems with the Big Green Can. We supported neighborhood merchants by launching “Neighborhood Markets” and new loan and assistance programs. We created the graffiti task force. We expanded our parks system. And after years of planning for expanded public transportation, this work is bearing fruit. If I could take visitors to one place that epitomizes our comprehensive approach to neighborhood improvement, I’d take them to the Riverside Park area in Olneyville. Once it was so lost to crime and violence that it was the one place our police were afraid to go. Now, families stroll down from high quality affordable housing to the streamside park for family cookouts or community gardening. These are some of the initiatives my administration took before the recession I’m most proud of. But there were many others, too, including facilitating the downtown building boom and attraction of new corporate headquarters, helping to launch the knowledge economy effort, implementing ProvStat to measure the effectiveness of city departments, developing a resident-based planning process with Providence Tomorrow, professionalizing finances and earning straight A bond ratings, closing the annual pension deficit, reforming labor contracts, cutting permitting process time in half, building 21st-century schools like the Career and Technical Academy, keeping the branch libraries open and more. I am especially proud that all of these were achieved despite steady and severe cuts to our city budget. When the recession and foreclosure crisis came and brought devastating unemployment with it, we had to make a major shift in focus. Our longer-term, structural efforts to ensure that Providence was poised for success in the coming decades had to yield to more immediate demands. City government was mobilized like never before to create employment and give residents job-ready skills. We brought banks and distressed home owners to the table to help prevent foreclosures. We not only fought for and received help from the federal government to support our most hurting residents, we also worked around the clock to ensure the funds passed through the bureaucratic pipeline as quickly as possible. Times are still extraordinarily difficult for many of our residents, but Providence is going to move forward. This city will overcome this recession and be stronger than ever. The foundation is strong and the emergence of a Providence poised for greatness in the 21st century will continue. As I hand the reins to a new mayor, I feel nothing but optimism for this city, the same blue-sky feeling I felt eight years ago. I am deeply proud of the City of Providence and honored to have devoted to it eight years of my life. Finally, I have tremendous confidence that the talented new leader of our city, Angel Taveras, and his administration will do great things for our magnificent city and I wish them well. For a public transition document detailing some of the city’s achievements over the last eight years, please visit: www.progressinprovidence.com
The Codicil You May Never Sniff at 0.25% Again January 3, 2011March 21, 2017 The days are getting longer, Spring is in the air, and even a guy with no arms or legs can find joy in it all. Isn’t that annoying. (Or inspirational. Have you seen this quick video? No arms, no legs – no worries, mate.) AFOP This one is just about double where it was when Aristides’ Chris Brown suggested it in September, up from $8 to $15.60. He thinks it has the wind at its back. “It appears to have the golden triad of operational momentum, share price momentum, and undervaluation,” Chris writes. It’s perfectly reasonable to take some profits; but also perfectly reasonable to hold on. I’m holding on. BEN FRANKLIN’S WILL It was probably something I should have urged you to do last weekend – very much a New Year’s Day get-organized sort of thing to do – but . . . do you have a will? You should. And assuming your situation is fairly simple, here is one of the several free sites that make it easy to do on your own. (You can also prepare other documents you should have, like a living will.) Not prepared there – but on display for your interest anyway – is Ben Franklin’s will. (And Walt Disney’s, Napoleon’s, Michael Jackson’s, etc.) You’re probably already familiar with its two most famous provisions, but just in case: they’re near the end, in the codicil, and they leave 1,000 pounds each to Boston and Philadelphia, each to be lent at 5% interest to worthy young people (and then re-lent again and again, upon repayment) for 200 years . . . with 100,000 pounds disbursed to each city at the halfway mark to fund good works, just to keep things interesting . . . such that in 1989 there might be more than 4 million pounds to be used by each city for capital improvements, whereupon the fruits of these two original £1000 bequests would have been exhausted, “not presuming to carry my views farther,” as Franklin puts it. Here’s what actually happened over the course of the 200 years. Basically, it worked, helping countless young artisans and medical students along the way. If you decide to do this yourself, you’ll need something considerably more complex than doyourownwill.com. And you should consider setting a 6% interest rate instead of 5%, as it would make each dollar grow not to a mere seventeen thousand dollars after 200 years, but to a hundred fifteen thousand. Add another quarter percent – make it 6.25% – and that same single dollar grows to a hundred eighty-four thousand. Which will all be for naught if we render the planet uninhabitable in the meantime. But there’s always the chance we won’t (vote Democrat). Or even that Kurzweil will be right, and some of us will be around in the Twenty-Third Century to applaud your foresight, as we applaud Franklin’s in the Twenty-First.