Building Models By Candlelight April 16, 2012April 15, 2012 NEED MORE TIME TO FILE YOUR TAXES? Form 4868. FIRST QUARTERLY ESTIMATED TAX DUE Form 1040ES, if you’ve had appreciable income in 2012 (like capital gains or freelance fees) on which tax was not withheld. TOUCHY, TOUCHY What are we to make of an email like this? Hi Andrew – I’ve been reading your books and columns faithfully for the last 30-some years. I used to buy copies of The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need for both myself and friends, although I stopped doing that lately since it’s equivalent to making a donation to the DNC now. I’m writing today because I was trying to assemble a model in my home office and needed more light. I reached over to bump up the three-way lamp to its 250W setting, and remembered, it’s not there anymore. And won’t ever be again thanks to you and your meddlesome nanny-state ilk, who think nothing of substituting your own judgement for mine, with the force of law behind it. I’ll be buying a second lamp for that room now (how much energy goes into production of a lamp anyway?), and a 150W bulb for it, with lots of backup bulbs. And I won’t be nearly as careful as I used to be about shutting it off when I leave the room. And I’ll be a lot less concerned about putting my thermostat at a comfortable setting as well. Why? Because fuck you, that’s why. Disgruntled I replied: Thanks. Here’s a simple cheap source for the bulbs you want. Let me know if you need more help. I thought of adding: “But as to your larger point (and leaving aside that none of my book royalty would go to the DNC, I’m already federally maxed): you are not the only one on the planet. For all 7 billion of us to make a go of it, headed for 9 billion, up from 2.5 billion when I was born — and for the generations that may follow — we may need to make some slight accommodations. Just as you blame me for the inconvenience of someday having to switch light bulbs, so someone else might blame you for, say, their family being killed in one of the increasingly frequent and violent tornadoes meteorologists believe our impact on the environment may be causing.” And so on. My guess is that he’s probably a nice guy with a good sense of humor — he did make me laugh — and that eventually he may come around. But in the meantime, do you see what we’re up against? If the Republicans tell him that climate change is a hoax and tax cuts are the way to balance the budget — that the sacrifice he is called upon to make is to go shopping — well, he’s primed to buy that message. If the Republicans tell him that people shouldn’t be allowed to freeload off the current health insurance system — if they can afford it, they need to chip something in (a Republican idea called “the individual mandate”), he’ll say, “HELL yes.” But once the Democrats adopt the idea and the Republicans tell him it threatens his “last shred of freedom,” he’ll say, “HELL no.” A REPUBLICAN METEOROLOGIST Paul Douglas writes, in small part: Acknowledging Climate Change Doesn’t Make You A Liberal … The root of the word conservative is “conserve.” A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly “global warming alarmists” are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed. … … My climate epiphany wasn’t overnight, and it had nothing to do with Al Gore. In the mid-90s I noticed gradual changes in the weather patterns floating over Minnesota. Curious, I began investigating climate science, and, over time, began to see the thumbprint of climate change, along with 97% of published, peer-reviewed PhD’s, who link a 40% spike in greenhouse gases with a warmer, stormier atmosphere. Bill O’Reilly, whom I respect, talks of a “no-spin zone.” Yet today there’s a very concerted, well-funded effort to spin climate science. Some companies, institutes and think tanks are cherry-picking data, planting dubious seeds of doubt, arming professional deniers, scientists-for-hire and skeptical bloggers with the ammunition necessary to keep climate confusion alive. It’s the “you can’t prove smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer!” argument, times 100, with many of the same players. Amazing. Schopenhauer said “All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally it is accepted as self-evident.” We are now well into Stage 2. It’s getting bloody out there. Climate scientists are receiving death threats and many Americans don’t know what to believe. Some turn to talk radio or denial-blogs for their climate information. No wonder they’re confused. …
TGIF April 12, 2012 I don’t know about you, but I’m going to take the day off to start thinking about taking the weekend off to start thinking about what’s wrong with me that I haven’t already finished (which is to say, “started”) doing my taxes.
Bees, Bats, and Butterflies April 12, 2012April 12, 2012 NOT A CHOICE A key proponent of the notion that you can change your sexual orientation has repudiated his own widely-cited 2001 study. For those of you hoping to turn yourselves gay, or vice versa, the prospects are even dimmer than before. Read it here. (Executive summary: Teenager enrolls at parents’ urging with a therapist who specializes in helping people change; it doesn’t work; he goes to Yale, grows suicidal from the pressure to change, checks himself into Yale’s psychiatric facility; eventually accepts himself; gets married; to a guy; is happy; writes this article in which he visits Dr. Robert Spitzer, author of the “explosive” 2001 study; Spitzer asks him to print that he retracts the thrust of his study.) POLLINATION UP CLOSE And other dazzlements of nature in four-and-a-half minutes. Amazing footage. (Thanks, Fain. Thanks, T.E.D.) IT’S MITT! Thorsten: “Re your column, and speaking as a registered Republican, even before yesterday’s news I had found it hard to believe that the four people left in the race were the best that our Republican half of this 300-million-people country would have to offer. The only reasonable guy in the mix, Jon Huntsman, we threw out long ago. Well, that will make it that much easier to vote for President Obama. Not that I necessarily agree with many of his decisions, but at least this guy is intellectually flexible and pragmatic, something that the Republican side has now proven, beyond any doubt, not to be. (Everybody knows that taxes on the rich must go up, but Republicans would rather see our country go over a cliff before admitting that). I noticed that many Democrats (not you) have complained about perceived weakness of President Obama in his political dealings with the other side, but to me this simply shows which side is the reasonable one, and I hope many other Republicans will see it the same way come November.” ☞ From your Republican lips to a million Republican ears.
It’s Mitt April 11, 2012 With Mitt Romney now the presumptive Republican nominee, there’s a real chance that for the first time in history (I think), two classmates will ascend to the American presidency — George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, both members of the Harvard Business School Class of ’75. How cool is that? And to go a step further, they were probably the only two members of their class whose dads were both prominent national political figures. (George’s dad was Chair of the Republican National Committee when he started B-School; Mitt’s had run for president himself.) Not to say that the two men come from the same mold. Yes, both favor shifting the Judiciary to the right (candidate Bush signaled this when he cited Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as two of his favorite Justices; candidate Romney signaled it when he appointed Robert Bork to co-chair his Judiciary Advisory Committee). And, yes, both men favor amending the Constitution to prohibit marriage (well, for some citizens, not all) . . . both men favor further cutting taxes for the rich. But where Bush denied that his tax cuts did favor the rich — responding that “by far the vast majority” of the benefits of his tax cuts would go to people at “the bottom of the economic ladder” — Governor Romney is quite clear: he favors cutting the estate tax rate on billionheirs from 45% to zero. And, as a proponent of the Paul Ryan budget, he would cut taxes on millionaires by an average $187,000 or so. Beyond that, it’s not entirely clear what he would do if elected. With the general election now effectively joined, we’ve been told to expect a “reset” — like an Etch-a-Sketch. Rachel Maddow’s take on the Etch-a-Sketch moment expands into something really harsh. If you missed it at the time – watch. And send it to your friends. (BTW: Did you know that manufacture of the Etch-a-Sketch itself was outsourced from workers in Ohio to Chinese workers making 24 cents an hour working 84-hour weeks?) The day after she aired it, responding to those who felt she’d been too harsh, Rachel made this point: There is a certain level of distortion “that everyone expects at all levels of politics and on both sides of the aisle. But there is something different about the Romney campaign.” Namely: it’s much worse. The guy, she says, just lies and lies and lies. Watch this, too. Some of the items she cites are – though untrue – not, I think, “lies.” For example, Romney apparently said we’re the only people in the world who place our hands on our hearts when we sing the national anthem. Well, that’s not true. But to be a lie, it seems to me, he needs to have known it was untrue, top of mind, as he was saying it. (In the immortal words of George Costanza: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”) Even if you’re just pretty much making it up to fit the moment, but not aware that you’re making it up, are you lying? Or just sort of getting carried away? (The man ran the Olympics, for Pete’s sake. If he thought back hard, he might well have been able to picture other nationalities putting hands on their hearts as their anthem was played.) And Rachel acknowledges that it’s uncomfortable to use the word “lie.” Still, if you find time to watch those two clips, you just might come down on her side. But whether you choose to be that direct or to airbrush it, Governor Romney does seem to be compiling quite a record. Here it is, week by week, compiled by her colleague Steve Benen, from just the start of the year. As I say, some are closer calls than others; but taken as a whole? MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME XI MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME X MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME IX MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME VIII MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME VII MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME VI MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME V MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME IV MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME III MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME II MITT’S MENDACITY – VOLUME I Is Mitt Romney a really nice guy? I expect that in almost every way he really is. So is George W. Bush. (I actually met President Bush a few weeks ago — completely charming. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t give us the Court that gave us Citizens United and a slew of other pro-corporate decisions. That doesn’t mean he didn’t wreck our national balance sheet and badly disadvantage the middle class. That doesn’t mean he didn’t mislead us into a disastrous war. And on and on.) But the policies Governor Romney espouses, as best they can be discerned, are mostly horrible. Whereas the President we currently have has shown himself to be consummately steady, wise — and, even in the face of unprecedented obstructionism, effective. As one bumper sticker puts it: General Motors Lives / Bin Laden Doesn’t. So, yes, no surprise: It’s Mitt. But, with any luck, only until November 6.
Special Characters April 10, 2012April 10, 2012 MORE BACON Chris Anderson: “Have you seen Theo Gray’s bacon lance?” I have now. The line I love: “I knew success was within reach when I was able to ignite and melt the pan using seven beef sticks and a cucumber.” Don’t try this at home, he warns. (But if you do, use prosciutto.) Tom Harrison: “I made the carmelized bacon twice this weekend! First on Saturday night as hors d’oeuvres for when my wife and kids came back from Spring Break at the beach (I have been deskbound preparing other people’s taxes all week). The second time with my two sons last night. Just trying to raise them right and teach them to cook like a guy!” FINAL EXPENSES Alan Wenker: “You recently mentioned the mail order casket idea. My mom passed away last November at age 88 from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. We had time to make funeral plans since her passing was not sudden. Somehow my brother had heard of buying a casket via the web and that is what we did. Saved about $2000 and the customer service was exactly as described. I think the casket arrived at the funeral home in less than 24 hours.” Kathryn Lance: “We sent my mom to her final rest in a beautiful polished-aluminum sugar canister. We had to buy the whole set — about $45 — but now we have the flour canister and two others for coffee and tea bags. BOREF In its (highly successful) effort to keep me in a state of constant hope — and what is life without hope? — Borealis last week reported that, with four airlines on board, they now “have 105 [Boeing] 737NG slots assigned, and 110 [Airbus] A320 slots assigned, with a Flag Carrier for each. Our on-aircraft demonstrator, M1, is coming along nicely! The Motors are assembled and will be delivered to Baltimore next week.” ☞ Should the thing work and the company be able to wring $50,000 profit per year from each of those 215 airplanes — not impossible when the annual savings per plane is estimated to be north of $500,000 — that would be $10 million a year. But the hope, of course, is that if El Al and the others are reaping big savings from WheelTug, what carrier wouldn’t want this? As always: highly speculative, NEVER to be bought “at the market” — with “limit” orders only — and only with money you can truly afford to lose. SPECIAL CHARACTERS Tom Anthony: “Here is something useful for writers and emailers. Just about any odd character that you can think of, including many hard-to-find mathematical symbols, yours, here, free.” ✄ ✄ ✄ ✄
Man With A Clear Conscience April 9, 2012March 27, 2017 I met Mike Wallace only once, at a National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association dinner years ago (he was already in his eighties but playing tennis every day and far too young in his thinking to decline our invitation) and like most Americans, I felt I had come to know him over the years, one “60 Minutes” segment at a time, as he championed truth, freedom, and the American way. Give the man a cape: until his death at 93 Saturday, he was fearlessly fighting for us. He was also the subject of this 1981 New Yorker cartoon that I liked so much I bought the original. He had a framed copy in his office; for 31 years I have had the framed original in mine. Titled MAN WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE, by Charley Barsotti, it depicts an old-fashioned mid-level manager — frumpy, balding, mustache — sitting behind an old-fashioned desk at what has to be an-old fashioned firm. I think he’s the comptroller. Over the intercom, his secretary is saying: “Mike Wallace to see yo Sir.” “Terrific,” says the man with a clear conscience, “send him right in!” BACON Barry: “Of course you’re aware of the wonderful Bacon Maple Bar offered by Voodoo Doughnut here in Oregon. Not to mention the Bacon Maple Ale, which is a collaboration between Voodoo Doughnut and Rogue Brewery, also based in Oregon. Voodoo’s entire menu is worth a look. And the shops are just as cool as you’d expect them to be, as they are dedicated to Keeping Oregon Weird.” Tommy Thomason: “Dilbert weighs in: bacon and financial planning.” IT GETS BETTER It’s not easy being one of the estimated 1,800 LGBT students at Brigham Young University. But even that is changing. Says one student in this moving video: “I decided to come out to my friends. And they’ve been supportive! Even here at B.Y.U.” Says another: “I don’t go to school with a bunch of hateful people. Which is what I thought before — I thought I was surrounded by homophobic people that would hate me if they knew.” There really are two different worlds, in part divided by the generations. My friend the openly gay Columbia crew coach had one of his oarsman show up a few weeks ago, distraught. He had just told his dad he was gay and his dad had given him a choice: enter a Catholic “reparative therapy” program to change his sexual orientation, and he would continue to pay his tuition; or not, and he would have nothing further to do with his son. They have not spoken since. Coach Parker called the financial aid office, got the young man an emergency appointment, Columbia arranged for a full work-study financial aid package — which means no time for crew, but beats dropping out — and I’m going to go out on a limb to guess that most Americans, in 2012, albeit not all, would be rooting for this kid and think his father is a dick. Or, to be less flip, think his father is sincere in his fears or revulsion or embarrassment — but misguided.) IT GETS BIGGER Type on this page too large or small? See the aAA at top right to match your world view.
Bacon! April 5, 2012March 27, 2017 RELIGION Tamara Hendrickson (responding to yesterday’s post): “My mom has a bumper sticker that says ‘Proud Member of the Religious Left.’ I’ve always loved it.” ☞ Blessed are the meek. Turn the other cheek. Love thy neighbor. Judge not lest ye be judged. Cut taxes on billionaires. Cut Medicaid. Bomb Iraq. Increase corporate power. Religion confuses me. All I know for sure is that the market is closed tomorrow for Good Friday. BRAVE NEW WORLD . . . I mean really — have you seen the video at the end of this piece about Google’s still-in-development glasses? I suppose they could become the next Segway — not quite the revolution that was planned. Maybe people will prefer to wait for the implant: Google Brain. And maybe the glasses won’t interact with us as effortlessly as the video suggests — certainly Siri on my iPhone is nothing if not erratic in her flashes of comprehension. But can you watch the demo and not be intrigued? And excited? (And perhaps a little exhausted?) What a time to be alive. We have hot water! And soon, maybe, these. . . . IF ONLY WE CAN SUSTAIN IT The thing is, with all the dazzle and comfort and luxury so many of us enjoy (electricity! zippers!) — many of them all but unimaginable until the last few generations — there’s also the growing risk we will hurtle off the rails. Here’s one cautionary analysis: MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030. We’re not on a sustainable path. As a species, we need to take control of our future and make sensible decisions. Our friends on the right who believe that the free market — unburdened by taxes and regulation, unguided by broad long-term goals — will solve all . . . or who believe that The Rapture is coming, so what difference does it make anyway? . . . and who increasingly distrust science . . . are not the ones to lead the way forward. BACON! So I mentioned the amazing carmelized bacon hors d’oeuvres a friend serves (“death on a platter,” as I called them), and one of you, generously describing himself as “my biggest fan,” wrote asking for the recipe. I refused. “Why on earth would I want to kill off my biggest fan?” I wrote back. “The truth is, I have no idea how to make them – just really thick bacon squares baked (I guess) in loads of brown sugar. Truly evil.” He then went and found the recipe (thanks, Bill!): Carmelized Bacon via Paula Deen Ingredients: 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons chili powder 8 slices thick-cut bacon Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Set a cooling rack inside the prepared pan and set aside. In a shallow dish, combine the brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge the bacon slices in the brown sugar mixture and arrange the bacon on the rack. Bake in the preheated oven until crisp, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate and serve. Another of you sent this amazing recipe for bacon taco shells (thanks Kevin). And yet another of you found this article on bacon coffins (thanks, Mark). Which – seeing their $2,995 price tag – reminded me that I had been meaning to offer you this sad money-saving tip: THE FRUGAL EXIT Aka: “If the bacon squares do kill you.” We are conditioned to feel guilty caring whether a casket costs $4,500 or $995; an urn, $350 or $129. And look: I don’t begrudge funeral home workers a good living — this can’t be easy work. Still, it’s probably tougher on the owners than the employees, and I’ll bet they get more of the markup. In any case, bestpricecaskets.com is open 24/7 and advises: Do Not Tell The Funeral Home About Purchasing Our Casket Before You Get Their Itemized Funeral Price List. Call Us Before Talking to ANY Funeral Home, Because Everything You Tell the Funeral Home Affects Your Funeral Pricing. We will tell you what to say. It Is Federal Law: Funeral Homes MUST receive our caskets and NOT charge you any extra fees! This cuts your funeral cost by up to 80%. We supply funeral homes and we also sell directly to you! Same Price. Buy Direct. All because you ate too many bacon taco shells.
A Catholic Reflects April 4, 2012 JEFFERSON AND JESUS Newsweek’s cover story: A celebration of Jesus’ teachings and a condemnation of modern religion — by a true believer. (I can;t say I fully followed the St. Francis of Assisi half of the piece, though he seems to have been one saint who would not have favored tax cuts for the rich or shock and awe for Iraq.) MISSING MONEY Andrea: “I thought you might want to let people know about missingmoney.com. It scans various state treasurer sites for notices of unclaimed property (not all states yet but most of them). LOSING MONEY: FCSC Doubled yesterday from its previous day plunge, though still 70% below what we first paid. Guru reports on their investor call: (1) The scary language in Friday’s 10k filing — “going concern,” “might be forced to file for bankruptcy” — can also be found in the 2011 10k and in fact back to the 2009 10k — all of which were issued before FCSC gained FDA approval. They have no plans to file for bankruptcy, but because of their precarious financial position, they are required to put in the language. (2) They are in discussions to raise more capital and expect to have an announcement in the next few weeks, but legally can say nothing more until then. (3) They gave out specific numbers for how many doctors have ordered and re-ordered Laviv so far and what their internal specific projections are in 2012 and 2013. For 2012, I calculate that their internal projections based on 4Q 2011 and 1Q 2012 should produce $4-$5 million in revenue. For 2013, they said they will be raising the price and expect revenue of $25 million and cash flow breakeven. As late as November 2011, Rodman & Renshaw’s analyst expected revenue of $18 million in 2012. I always thought that number was extremely ambitious. The current estimates look reasonable, based on their current experience. They indicated that they are currently at manufacturing capacity and one need for capital is to increase capacity to meet demand. (4) In their current FDA approved indication for wrinkles, their best market is in fine lines and wrinkles around the eye and lips, where botox and artificial fillers are contraindicated and no other alternative exists. (5) It would cost them about $4 million to repeat the very successful acne scar Phase III trial. They could then file for FDA approval next year and have the first product that actually improves acne scarring, a market with more than 15 million people whose only current treatment is laser (which doesn’t fill in a scar). Price would be the same as laser. Same doctors. Bottom line: FCSC is indeed in a precarious financial position (as they were a year ago) AND they have what appears to be a valuable asset. I assume that they will raise capital this year as they did last year. I can’t predict how quickly their sales will grow, but the product does look like it is gaining traction and it seems reasonable that there will be a key inflection point in the next 18 months. Like an idiot, I bought a little more. (What’s wrong with me?) Tomorrow: Bacon!
Pull Over! April 3, 2012March 27, 2017 [Daily email recipients: we hope soon to be delivering the full post, not just a preview. Stay tuned.] A NEW YORK MOMENT Three friends and I have piled into a cab after a Sunday birthday brunch down in the meatpacking district. One is a gay investment banker whose partner is home with their four kids; one is a philanthropist who was publicly pressing for equality before most people were even “out”; one is a high-end real estate agent I’ll call Robby. (Not with us – he left the bash before we did – is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who helped secure passage of New York’s marriage equality law. That’s how much the world is changing. I was seated between an adviser to the administrator of the Small Business Administration and the coach of the Columbia light-weight crew who’s taken the last name of his husband, CFO of a healthcare start-up.) “Four stops,” we tell the cab driver. It’s almost like a school bus, taking each of us home. We go all of one block, when . . . “Oh, there’s the shop,” says Robby, pointing up ahead to CHARLES NOLAN at the corner of Hudson and Gansevoort. He says it with a tone that conveys the loss we all feel. “Yep,” I say. “There’s the shop. Not sure how much longer.” (The Charles Nolan Reading Room should be open – and awesome – this fall at the High School of Fashion Industries, but the shop may be closing soon.) “Really?” says Robby, a Harvard MBA approaching his sixties, suddenly galvanized. “Yeah,” I say. “I think we may have to close.” “Oh, no! Well, I have to get an original Charles Nolan!” We laugh. Robby likes to dress up. He is actually kind of famous for it. “Are they open?” Robby asks? “Sure, they’re open,” I say. (Two of Charles’ sisters run the shop.) “Pull over!” Robby tells the driver, hopping out and leaving us to continue uptown. A few hours later arrives an email. Subject line: “Got a signature Charles Nolan dress.” Text: “I need to lose a tad of weight to fit. Also got some bracelets, a scarf, and presents for others. Had a good time. It was not cheap.” OUR APPALLING SUPREME COURT Pulled over for nonpayment of a fine that he was carrying official proof he had in fact paid; incarcerated for six days incommunicado; strip-searched . . . and our “conservative” Supreme Court finds in favor of the strip-searchers. This is small government protecting our individual freedom? No, this is the court that installed George W. Bush and throws open the campaign finance flood gates to give corporations and billionaires even more sway. Watch. FCSC What a disaster this one has turned out to be. Down 60% or so yesterday; 85% since first suggested here (and here). Friday’s S.E.C. filing may explain: As of March 26, 2012, the Company had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $4.7 million and our accounts payable and accrued expenses were approximately $1.6 million. In addition, the Company has approximately $7.0 million of outstanding debt which is due in June 2012. The Company’s current monthly cash run-rate is approximately $2.2 million. The Company will need to access the capital markets in the near future in order to fund future operations. There is no guarantee that any such required financing will be available on terms satisfactory to the Company or available at all. These matters create uncertainty relating to its ability to continue as a going concern. There’s always a chance the company will find a way to succeed. Having bought these shares only with money I can truly afford to lose, I’ll take that chance. This morning’s conference call may tell us more.
April 5 Deadline. You’re Joking, Right? April 2, 2012April 2, 2012 Thanks for the input. Tweak by tweak, we enter the 21st Century. E-mail delivery should have resumed with this column. For those who weren’t getting it that way but want to, see EMAIL DELIVERY at right. THE NEXT FINANCIAL DISASTER As usual, “UP w/Chris Hayes” was the most substantive thing on TV this weekend (although “Desperate Housewives” certainly made a bid for contention as the series nears its finale; and “60 Minutes,” as ever, was not to be missed). This segment, in particular, is worth the watch: on how the J.O.B.S. bill about to be signed into law will do little or nothing to create jobs – or perhaps do worse, as previous rounds of financial deregulation did. According to one of the show’s several impressive guests, the bill is an “atrocity” that could lead to the next meltdown a few years from now. (Note that this unfortunate so-called “J.O.B.S.” bill has nothing to do with the American Jobs Act that the President urged Congress to pass “right away” last September. That one was about jobs, not financial deregulation. It was about infrastructure. It cried out to be enacted. It still should be. It would have employed people through private contractors to do things – like repairing 154,000 failing bridges and modernizing 35,000 deteriorating schools – that need doing. It would have strengthened the economy and our future, and still would. The Republicans say: no.) BOREF – TOO SMALL TO BE THE NEXT FINANCIAL DISASTER Jim S.: “I received an email tonight from Borealis containing the following: ‘We are offering one share in WheelTug plc for every 5 shares of Borealis. This offer is open until 5 PM GMT on 5 April. There is a Private Placement Memorandum outstanding for WheelTug shares. If you are interested in trading Borealis shares in for WheelTug, you must email [so-and-so].’ I don’t own much – about 175 shares purchased when the stock was about $10 more than it currently is (ouch!). Since this would appear to be a chance to get in on the ground floor before a potential public move, maybe it’s worth it? I guess we have to figure out if we think Wheeltug will eventually be worth more than the parent to know if it’s something worth doing. Any thoughts/advice, given that this is money that I can afford to lose?” ☞ This offer is so bad (and so bizarre) it just adds to our little company’s delightful je ne sais quoi. WheelTug is owned mostly by its parent Chorus Motors which is owned mostly by its parent Borealis. According to this WheelTug page, Borealis owns 6,187,712 WheelTug shares (indirectly via its Chorus Motors subsidiary). There are 5 million Borealis shares (you, Jim, own 175 of them), so if all this is accurate, each Borealis share indirectly represents about 1.2 WheelTug shares. So in a sense, you currently “own” about 200 WheelTug shares. My math be off if I’m not reading the various websites right, but it’s something at least vaguely like this. They are offering to exchange your current holding for 35 WheelTug shares. (Of that math, I am certain: you get one WheelTug share for each five BOREF shares, so 35 for 175.) You’d go from an indirect ownership in about 200 shares to a direct ownership in 35 shares. And you would be giving up whatever other value Chorus Motors might have (if the motor actually works for planes, might its underlying technology have other applications?) and whatever value the several other Borealis subsidiaries might have. All for a chance to own 35 WheelTug shares directly instead of 200 indirectly. (“But hurry! This offer expires April 5!”) The mind boggles. PAUL RYAN’S BUDGET Matt Miller puts it in perspective: . . . The crucial thing to understand about Ryan is that he is not a fiscal conservative. He’s a small-government conservative. These are very different things. The fastest-growing federal program in Ryan’s new budget is interest on the debt, which nearly triples from $234 billion next year to $614 billion in 2022. He doesn’t even pretend to balance the budget until 2040, and then only under utterly dubious assumptions. These are not the choices a fiscal conservative makes. A fiscal conservative pays for the government he wants. Ryan wants government smaller than the one Reagan led even as America ages, and he doesn’t want to pay for it. Instead he adds trillions in new debt and makes no bones about it. . . .