The Conservative Light March 3, 2011March 22, 2017 LOST IN THE CROWD – NOT! I’ll bet you’ve seen this before. I may even have posted it here myself– horrifyingly, I can’t remember. But here is a photo of the Obama Inauguration so finely observed that you can zoom in on hundreds of thousands of faces. See anybody you know? (Thanks, Joe.) THANKS FOR DRINKNG Tim Couch: “Tell us how you did on Honest Tea.” ☞ Tim is referring to the news that Coca Cola bought the remaining roughly 60% of Honest Teas that they had not bought two years ago. The terms are apparently confidential but basically – though it’s a little convoluted by follow-on investments and such – it looks as though I’ll end up having made about five times my money. Wonderful, of course, but not spectacular because (a) going in, the company set quite a high price for the shares it sold; and (b) most new ventures fail, certainly including most of the ones I’ve backed. And that cuts deeply into the profits from the ones, like Honest Tea, that succeed. Still, it was fun, thirst-quenching, and – in hindsight – I wish I had invested more! USUALLY IT’S THE LAST NAME I KEEP ANOYMOUS Someone Else Named Tobias: “We share the same last name. Any relationship or similarity, likely, ends there. I have, any number of times, been asked by people with whom I have become acquainted, if I am related to you. I always tell them, ‘Don’t I wish.’ Then after a few obligatory moments of laughter and, perhaps, another quip or two, I add, ‘Y’know, my grandfather was a con man – not a family tradition we care to perpetuate – who married any number of women and ran off with their money. He managed to impregnate two that we know of and maybe more. So, who knows? Maybe I am related to Andrew Tobias!’ . . . Now, please take no offense. This email is not meant as a disparaging reflection on your ancestry. But during a recent conversation with a prospective new client for my business, it was suggested that you might find the story amusing. Thank you for the fine stock tips and here’s hoping you find the Conservative light someday.” ☞ The conservative light? I wrote back that I did enjoy the story, and that I absolutely do hold many conservative views: that government should not reach into a person’s bedroom or end-of-life decisions or interfere in a woman’s most personal decisions made in consultation with her doctor and her God, if she worships one . . . that the government should take us to war only as a last resort . . . and that government must act aggressively to conserve nature and the planet’s habitability. But, I told him, I just can’t abide the personal and national impoverishment that results from Reagan/Bushonomics and ineffectual regulation. The other Mr. Tobias responded graciously; but, no, we don’t seem to be related – by DNA or DNC.
If Abe Lincoln Started a Chicken Sandwich Business March 2, 2011March 22, 2017 TWO WELL-CIRCULATED QUOTES IN FELICITOUS JUXTAPOSITION “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” – Oscar Wilde’s last words (supposedly) “The problem with Internet quotations is that many are not genuine.” — Abraham Lincoln SEX AND A CHICKEN SANDWICH Why are our taxpayer dollars going to fund ineffective abstinence-only don’t-have-sex education programs? Smartly written/asked, here. THINKING OF STARTING YOUR OWN SMALL BUSINESS? Free step-by-step assistance from my friend Bryan Janeczko at wickedstart. I’m running this item a second time because small businesses need all the help they can get. Including wickedstart, a small business in which – full disclosure – I have an interest.
Paper Money, Paper Plates – China March 1, 2011March 22, 2017 CHINESE MONEY And to think that’s what we used to call worthless money – also known as “funny money.” Well, I marched up to the Citibank teller with 2,112 renminbi that Charles had tossed into bags when he came home over the years, and there was $287.86 coming back my way. (Chances are it would have appreciated over the next few years; but a birdnest soup in the hand, and all that.) Likewise a further $1,000+ in euros ($509.02), in old French francs ($349.09), old Italian Lire ($6.69), old Swissies ($40.71), Hong Kong dollars ($15.40) and British pounds ($114.82) – except that the bulk of my 2,080 Hong Kong dollars and British pounds she handed back to me – along with my 47,200 Indonesian rupiah, my 700 yen, my 33,000 won, my 240 dihrams, some Guatemalan money that had somehow found its way into the bag (Guatemala? I’m fairly certain Charles never went to Guatemala, but maybe I need to rethink that) – all notes were too old to show up on her screen. The pound notes, certainly, were right as rain. Queen Elizabeth, the Bank of England. Who could doubt it? But if my teller didn’t see a picture of currency on her screen that matched the currency in her hand, back it came. So there’s still a ways to go on this – a great project for a nephew who wants to navigate the shark-infested waters of Times Square currency conversion – but all told, including a smaller earlier stash I had cashed in, I’d say we had something a little north of $2,000 scattered around for a rainy multi-national day. CHINESE ENERGY CONSUMPTION James Stafford: “I work for oilprice.com. Our team has spent the last 3 months creating some excellent free financial widgets that cover almost all energy and metal sectors: Gold, Silver, Crude oil, Coal, Nat Gas, Copper, Aluminium, Solar Energy . . . as well as Government and Consumer Debt tables and charts. All are interactive and constantly moving. To see what we have please take a look. How we benefit is by getting a backlink from your site. As oilprice.com is still relatively new and we need a little more authority in Google, I thought providing interesting and useful financial content would help us achieve that goal.” ☞ Note how China will be catching up to our energy consumption (a dubious distinction, but still) any minute now.