One way to beat the recession – winter clothes at 30% off?

If like me you’re a cheap skate and like to get expensive stuff on the cheapy cheap – then check this out out – Planet Traveller located at the upper most floor in the new Ion shopping mall is having a whopping 30% off sale on climbing anoraks – I don’t want to get too technical, but for alpinist and those who sail these are called outer shells – high performance garments have to be technical I am afraid –  so for those of you who just consider apparel nothing more than curtains that you just throw over yourself do bear with me – for you, in a nutshell, this will keep you warm, dry and very comfortable even in winter without the hassle of having to put up with the weight and bulk of a NASA (need another stupid astronaut) space suit – The end. Finis. Finito.

For those of you who are only too familiar with the serious business of braving the elements – and the black arts of gearing up for a challenge, let me dive into the technicals –  this is a two in one, comes with a inner liner -can be removed, the way I see it the inner can’t be more than a 100 spec, so this is definitely not designed for the uppereaches – it’s more for the weekend warrior odd country bog hike and climb minus the do and die spirit, but for sailing its good for all seasons – and as a travelling companion for business it fits the bill perfectly – (only please understand – I will always have a morbid fear of flying, so come to me, I will not go to you unless its a matter of life and death – period) – the outer shell is moderately abrasion resistant (but nowhere near the requirement of the serious stuff) – nonetheless, breathability, waterproofing and windproofing remains excellent – VAUDE (pronounced Fon-dee), the German based firm uses a proprietry technology they call CEPLEX ADVANCED – this guarantees very good breathability up to 20,000 g/m2/24h –so it’s good for everything from light snow to the high seas (but I will not recommend it for the serious climbs, it’s nowhere near that pedigree – nowhere close!) – the thing I really like about this jacket is they have provisioned zippers just below the armpit to allow for vents (this unfortunately is a feature that most manufacturers have dispensed with including North Face); that comes in handy especially when you’re exerting yourself  and don’t want your anorak to impersonate a waist slimming sauna suit.

The other thing I like about it is the hood; the detailing is professional and well thought out – so again, this makes for perfect weather proofing.

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with the purchase (below $300! Believe or not. It’s impossible to get the same discount any where in either Singapore or Malaysia….impossible) – but there is a kicker – the color is definitely dorky; but then again haute couture is hardly something stones and sharks will appreciate – and if I really get bored sporting it; I guess it’s one way to have some fun impersonating a traffic cone –  usually I loathe the idea of braving the crowds on a Friday night in Orchard; trust me, that’s the last place I want to be; rather go to some quiet place where I can be all by myself. Or just stay home cook and read a book – but this discount was simply too good to give it the fly by – discount will last only for two days – this Sat and Sun, after that it’s back to business as usual again.

Planet Traveller also retails one of widest selection of all weather gloves in Singapore (you really have to check it out – the selection is simply amazing, their selection of maps are pretty good as well) – besides the category 1 to even 5 blizzard proof mitts – there is also a whole lot of knick knacks about travelling, camping and hiking that you can get cheapy cheap, so go down there and check it all out this weekend – 20% store wide discount; but for the VAUDE, its a unbelievable 30% off – in my book, that’s a definite buy, buy, buy – please spread it around pronto.

Btw how was your recent investment in NBG?

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

Try to spot out Astroboy on some of the others who followed them.

Do you remember this Darkness?

A Beautiful Mind & A Beutiful Picture

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Most of the time we don’t stop; we just go right on like the Duracell bunny oblivious to what’s happening around us – and with the advent of the i age in all it’s endless forms –be it,  iphone, ipod, ipad et al – technology these days doesn’t look so cool to me – if you really want to know, I am one of those who consider it closer to perdition than to salvation.

In fact technology these days is starting to resembled mass hearing impairment, mass hypnosis and a form what I can only describe as zombification. As everyone these days is either cocooned in his or her own world or riveted to their i-whatever;  they’re so bubble warped, insulated and set apart from what’s really happening around them – and this makes me wonder sometimes: why do people have to build walls around themselves? What’s the point of it all? Millions of people in this world, all of them yearning, looking endlessly for stuff to satisfy their inexplicable craving, yet instead of searching it out; they fashion themselves as isolated islands in shark infested waters. That can’t be right.

There are times when that bubble gets pierced though; times when you just stop, watch and say to yourself; this is something that’s downright beautiful and miraculous – I don’t get many of those times – I guess it may have to do with vocation, I’ve spent a lot of my time measuring stuff, writing reports that only perhaps a handful of people read on this planet to make investment decisions – and usually I work alone; you could perhaps say that sort of existence is bound to make you slightly blinkered. To make things worse, I have a fetish for numbers – nothing gives me the keenest pleasure to tear through the numbers of a firm to see how well its doing; where it’s strenght and weaknesses etc – subconsciously, it’s even conceivable I may do the same with people as well; that is pigeon hole them i.e he is dumb, he is clever, he is just worth 5 minutes of my time, he is whatever… – but all these obsession with metrics isn’t really getting me any where; it doesn’t take me to where I want to go; neither does it beacon out the murk to render things clearer either – if anything my fascination with metrics; be it numbers that make up a firm, good grades, education etc is just one black hole  – we think so we are – that to me has to be form of leaching, chelating and scouring or whatever you wish to call it – seeing the world in black & white just means we are bound to miss out on a whole lot of other stuff – you’re either turned on or switched off, dysfunction or function, scholar or peasant, successful or a failure yada yada yada yada…life in short becomes binary; take the concept further an it even become generic instead of individualistic.

And keep that attitude up and I guarantee you – something precious within you will just curl up and die…

Maybe I am just growing old; perhaps I am just tired of life; but I know enough about the world to realize who can say what’s best? That’s why you need to grab whatever chance you have of experiencing the world for what it is and not what you want it to be – and if possible not worry about what other people think. My experience tells me that we get no more than a dozen such chances in a life time to really step out from our own skin – to see, experience, feel things that allows us to walk away and see the world slightly differently, and if we let them go, that just means we are dying somewhere in our soul.

That why it’s a diservice to see the world in just black & white term; we need to work hard to seek out the nuances in the grey zone – you could even say it needs to be nourished, in the way a good knife needs to grounded and oiled from time to time – and that place where everything comes together – and it just feels so right – could be something as mundane as the budding flowers during spring – or how the clouds seem to curl against the curellean skies, and even the sensation of the grass against bare feet – it doesn’t have to be shake up the world – as long as it moves your world, that’s enough.

But I am reminded these things cannot be measured; they can only be felt; but before one can even be aware of them; one first needs to work on soul – to nourish it maybe.

Like this wonderful kid I saw today; he paints beautiful paintings – perfectly orchestrated with a mix of colors that just allows me the privilege to peek into his wondrous mind – it’s a kooky world in all those swirl of colors; but it’s so beautiful that it enthralls me to the point of taking my breath away– his father muttered apologetically, he suffers from autism – I put a finger sternly to my lips and said, don’t ever use the word “suffer,” if you want my business; you are blessed – he smiled – and there I was taking it all in the colors,forms and shapes…. mesmerized by it all; a collage into a beautiful mind that simply makes me acutely aware of how narrow minded, blinkered and myopic I can be – I guess the lesson here is the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even felt, they can only be sensed with the soul.

Maybe I’ve got it all wrong; progress shouldn’t be measured in terms of GNP, GDP or for that matter a person’s net worth; maybe it should be measured by the number of smiles we bring to others in this whacked up world?

Thank you Tanzen, for showing me the way.

Darkness 2010

“If a bunch of autistic people want to impersonate a HAL 9000 unit online what is your problem?

Let me tell you this; if you shut them down – you are destroying their world – let me make it very simple so that all you motherfuckers can understand me; if you do that; you declare total war with me and I will take this personally. Am I threatening the Council? Yes, I think so!

My crew will fight this Council so hard, your blood will boil day and night.

None of you have ever spent time with the rubberband brigade; to you these people are all freaks.

You cannot understand why they call me Charlie Chaplin. Guess what I don’t wish to explain this curio. All I know is if some of you had your way all of them should be secreted in some attic far away from so called normal people; it’s the same reason why some incredibly stupid people in the internet call us trolls – it’s not that they dont understand; they simply dont want to understand – as understanding takes effort, patience and time – so they have resigned themselves to a state of ignorance.

That is why none of the rubberband brigade want to fellowship with any of you fuckers. That is why they have invented a language known as Cryptext that none of you can even decipher – and all of you feel uncomfortable –  but understand this; these are real people who I have learnt to respect, love and cherish all these years. And let me tell you motherfuckers another thing not a single one of them have ever back stabbed me like some of you. Or conspired behind my back, gossiped….or let me down etc – they are gentle, honest and trusting – and what do you sister fuckers want to do? You want to shut them down because you think this or that is not normal; and all they want to do is talk to Charlie Chaplin. You are all forgetting one thing, I have a you can go and fuck yourself switch somewhere in my head. All I need to do is turn it on. And that will be that, what follows will follow.

So  please don’t ever bring this subject up again; listen up! The rubberband brigade will always be part of extended family of the brotherhood – we are not an organization like Mensa or the Mickey Mouse Club – the brotherhood is only an indestructible idea- and it has survived 2,000 space years and the only reason why we have thrived and prospered where others have perished is simply because we have always been able to see beauty, value and worth where others simply cannot – take that away and all we will have is the empire of the bones…

Gentlemen has Charlie Chaplin made himself clear?”

Darkness 2004

Darkness during question time in the Great Hall in Primus Aldentes Prime – to a question concerning the rubberband brigade – The Book of Ages – Page 2,003- 2,004 – entitled: Charlie Chaplin – recorded by the Chronicler of the Brotherhood – The Brotherhood Press 2010

One cool way to get around – electric monster skateboard

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Seriously, with the gas expected to go up and up again – it makes perfect sense these days to go green. I think the concept of an electric car is awesome. Electric bikes are even better. But what about something that you can just lug around like a mini surf board without the bother of having to fold and unfold like a origami competition?

Check this out; a electric skateboard with monster wheels, this is what I tested out today – and the best thing about it; it’s sold here by a German firm – if you wondering where is the gas pedal; it’s all right in the palm of your hands  – and the best thing about it; it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.

One more reason to start using technology that’s renewable – just wondering where is the airbag?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

We have the ugliest bridge in the world – the Helix

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What do you think about the new double helix bridge in the Marina?

I don’t know about you; but this is has to be the ugliest bridge in the whole wide world (wonder why I am not posting a picture, it brings pain to me) – I am sorry but nothing about it appeals to me not the material, design or even the nervous way it twirls across the bay – just looks to me like a giant industrial drill bit that I have mounted on my Bosch.

I happen to be one those who really appreciate architecture beyond the dictionary meaning of “nice,” to me the perfect blend of form and function that makes a building, bridge or even something as everyday as a simple telephone booth can be attractive, appealing and even edifying – I also happen to be one those who believe modern art should be accessible to all – that simply means, it must have a conscience – a respect for the human scale along with being able to convey a thought or idea without too much fuss – to paraphrase; it needs to have a soul.

But this double helix bridge has absolutely none of that; it’s just one huge mess of twirling metal like some glorified polished barbed wire; and it doesn’t do anything to for me – I can see absolutely nothing in it; no inner expression of modern man; let alone figure out how it can be juxtaposed against the skyline to say how we have managed to arrive at some golden age; unless of course it happens to be some exotic Tibetan urination technique that I have never heard about.

That’s unusual; odd even; because I happen to be one of those few men who take immense pride in being able to find beauty in the mundane, ordinariness and sameness of life (could that explain why I spend so much time looking at myself in the mirror…mirror, mirror on the wall who is the…).

For example: I can ever recall vividly during my averagely miserable university days when I was dating a nice Italian girl who had a penchant for antiquities; chaperoning her to the Tate (Museum of fine arts in London).

And in one annex featured an Avant Garde exhibition – in one section a pail and mop was in the middle of the chamber; and there I was happily recounting to her how this was an allegory of the syntheses of modern life and functional form-making yada yada yada yada yada – till of course, the janitor came along and spoilt it all by asking us to move along he began to mop away – no prizes for guessing what happened after that – she said, I;ve call you; don;t call me – that could possibly explain why I wasn’t very hot with the girls during my Uni days.

The point I am trying to make is I happen to be one of those few people who can find beauty even if it resides in its infinitesimal form – I could for example have a conversation with even someone who most men would consider ugly and within a span of a hour; I could probably mined out 3 or 4 things that makes her so beautiful that I’ve probably want to see her again. Or spend maybe a half hour looking at something like a fire hydrant and somehow manage to glean some fundamental paradoxes about post modernist life yada yada yada yada – along with how art can be simultaneously an ideal, yet remain a politically and socially engaging expression in whatever context it choose to express itself.

But this double helix bridge over the Marina just takes the cake when it comes to taxing my creative juices; as I can see nothing there; nothing to even claim that it’s anything as it is so absolutely devoid of expressiveness, originality or imagination, except maybe to say:

“Did you know the genetic helix that separates a monkey and a human being is just 2%”

Bet you didn’t know that.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

“Darkness take a long look at Singaporedaddy….we are all wearing anoraks, tennis shoes and ear muffs; but look at him. He is wearing a pin striped charcoal Zegna suit; a pristine white shirt with button down collars; a luxurious velvet tie and shoes that sparkle…speaks 12 languages fluently writes 4 of them impeccably and you will find him in his element in either the Ritz Carlton in London or some Bedouin tent in some far flung corner of the world; the perfect diplomat….the perfect weapon fashioned by the Guilds…he is their Praetorian; always ready never missing a beat like a precision Swiss time piece; what I am trying to say to you my dear apprentice (Darkness) is this goes beyond elegance?

In other words to be really elegant you first need to cultivate grace – I worry about you Darkness especially when my time comes to go, as you are rough around the edges – that’s why the Guilds will always be suspicious of you and if you do not dedicate yourself to this study of elegance, my fear is the Guilds will never listen to you –  but if you notice, Singaporedaddy doesn’t seem to have that problem, is it because his demeanor radiates authority and calmness even in the face of great adversity? Or could it be what he embodies is just maturity, wisdom and knowledge? – I don’t think so, as any charlatan can accomplish that with the help of a couple of bent historians and academic derelicts to help him write his crooked memoirs – but when you look, talk and interact with him what strikes you like a diamond bullet is he may perhaps be one of those few men who have not only managed to successfully escape mediocrity, but perhaps he may also belong to the rarest of the rare; those who have already taken possession of their future without even bothering to ask for permission. That is beautiful Darkness….very beautiful….do you understand my apprentice?”

Vollariane 2002 / conversation with Darkness / captured by an auto-bot / recorded in the book of ages – the Brotherhood Press 2010

The Storms of your life and mine

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You’re bound to find yourself in the fix sometimes – and usually, it’s because you where just not paying enough attention; if you cut your finger slicing a carrot, 9 out of 10, your mind was elsewhere – if you make a stupid comment in a conference – 9 out of 10, you were probably so open minded you brains were spilling out.

Like today; my batteries are empty; that just means; if anything goes wrong; I am fucked; how did that happen? Well I just hooked it all up and believe it or not. I didn’t bother to turn on the switch! – So here I am now; right out smack in the Straits far from the smell of the land and nothing works (just wished I had an Opera Singer next to me, as only she can handle the high seas (high C’s) – sailing without batteries is like travelling back in time 14th century style – everything has to be done agak agak (intuitively) – the wind is against me (but don’t have any idea how many knots she’s blowing) and just to East somewhere over the horizon a storm is might be brewing (again dont have any idea whether she coming or going) – but you never know; things can change very quickly and get ugly in a blink of an eye – I take a reading off a brass sextant; check off my position on a good old fashion map with a compass and divider. I am good (I think).

Coming back to the question: why do we find ourselves in a fix sometimes? I think a large chunk of it may have something to do with how most of us unknowingly;  live our life’s either in the distant past or somewhere in the future and the furthest place we are from is the very place we should be – the “nowness” i.e the present – that’s the only reason I can account for why I didn’t hook up my batteries properly. Or do things half heartedly – I guess a large part of it has to do with living the modern world; the very moment we wake up, we are inundated with everything that is designed to distract and remove us from the “nowness.” Advertisements; background music and “what happened when I was asleep?” To exacerbate matters living in the digital world; messes up our brains – we need to multitask (which to me is just a polite way of saying please be as distracted and unfocussed as possible); we need to work faster, be more efficient and productive etc – somewhere in the nucleus of all that swirl; it just creates the perfect conditions for our ego to surface – the one thing that I really like about the sea is it doesn’t tolerate egoistic people – you scale a storm wrong and you die; you tie a rope the way you think will work just to prove a point and it can very well tear your arms off your socket if it goes all wrong – but the worse part of the ego is you’re never ever here even when you’re right here – your mind is always somewhere over the horizon; so it’s darn difficult if impossible to find that mythical line – when you are so comfortable, confidence and assured that it just feels right; as I said, the sea doesn’t tolerate egoistic people; so I don’t mind admitting my flaws to you anymore than a vendor bothers when he decides to splay his goods out for sale pasar malam style – the cure for all this is to simply shed the past and forgo the future and focus on right now! All it takes is presence and “nowness,” – once you switch your mind to this mode; everything acquires a sense of clarity and sharpness – you really begin to notice stuff that you never did before (like why do I look so funny in the mirror?) and in sailing; you begin to notice the slightest pitch and yaw; the chrome of the wheel and how it reflects the paraffin blue sky overhead – the forward glide as it slices through the sea like a hot knife through butter. You’re really alive, even your fingertips can sense the grain of the rope when it’s seeded out.

That’s something that I believe we need to be more mindful of these days –the nowness and the present, not the past or the future. Especially in the digital age; as it can only mesmerize us all with it’s endless hype and spin; drawing us further from the center of our being –worse of all; it takes away all the beauty life has to offer;  wind is just wind, water is just water and as for sailing it’s just a way of getting from A to B.

But once you throw that switch somewhere in your head – everything begins to assume the right scale and perspective – you begin to feel the pulse of the wind against your face; you’re suddenly aware of your sense of being – and you just know deep down inside you; the only thing that matter is the “nowness,” not what happened last week or who said what to you or what will happen next month etc – all those distractions just get blown away.

And with that state of mind; even if you have to face some symbolic storm – be it unemployment; working with an evil boss or just having to deal with some challenge in your life – it all just grist to the mill. Once you’re stripped yourself naked to your elemental being as to who you are and why you are placed on this planet – anything is possible; including going through a perfect storm – granted, once that storm is over you may not even know how you made it through the other side; for all you know she just spat you out like a seed

 

But one thing will endure. One thing is certain. When you come out of that storm you won’t ever be the same person who once found yourself swirling in it before.

 

That’s what sailing is all about; it’s not about cruising along in calm seas; is all about squaring off the storms in your life to make you a better human being; I don’t just mean physical storms but allegorical ones as well – shattered dreams, broken relationships, disappointments, what if’s etc that’s the one place that is often disregarded by most people IMHO. And that could also explain why most people these days can’t stand the idea of doing anything alone; they rather be distracted and removed from reality – but that’s like sweeping the dust underneath your carpet.

 

My gut feel tells me the best place to begin making the world a better place starts deep down inside you – only when you have sorted out that great mess can goodness really begin to radiate out and change the world in a meaningful way – as for talking, speeches and what a legend I am in my own mind, it’s just makes no sense to me – batteries not included.

That’s the first lesson sailing teaches the apprentice – humility.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

If you are in the mood for travelling, do check out the latest Brotherhood Travelogue – check this out:  

 Munich – A Diary of strange events

Munich – The Heart of Darkness – Travelogue

—————————————————————————————–

Let’s be clear abt Wayang Party. Was it worth it? Well it depends who you ask. If you ask the Council of the Wise. They will say “no” emphatically and probably label us a bunch of troublemakers albeit listing me as enemy No.1. But look here on record. I told WP not to play with fire repeatedly. On record I told them not to fake nonexistent cyber attacks repeatedly. Is that a big deal? Well you go figure it out because a firm that is worth 12 Billion called Google just happens to think the same. So you decide whether I was right or wrong.

But you are not going to get away that easily, because when all this shit was flying around; the only people who stood up and fought it squarely were me and my little crew. We took a position. We all realized the cost would be high.

And what was it all for – it was for the truth. The difference between me and my crew and the Council is this; to them the truth can be negotiated; I do not believe that is possible because one thing about the brother press is we call a spade a spade.

The rest of you just sat on your big fat asses and did absolutely fuck all – we on the otherhand put everything on the line and fought it as hard as we could – today, there are no more fake cyber attacks.

So my friend; this brings us to question: why didn;t you do anything? Let me share with you why? Because someone successfully sold you the stupid idea there is glory, dignity and wisdom in minding your own business and sitting on the fence. Surprise, surprise, there is none! Doing fuck all is exactly what it means in the literal sense doing fuck all! There is no glory there, unless you can convince me the goal in life is to impersonate a cactus.

And since you raised this subject let me smash another one of your fantasies; FYI, the type of people who regularly read the brotherhood press will always read the brotherhood press, rain, sleet or snow – don’t believe me go and ask, Majorie, Aurora, Francois, Inspir3d or even the Tim who runs Ekunaba – they are all the same crowd, it hasn’t changed – if the truth be known, we do not need quantity, that is a chimera – its chasing your own tail. What we need is quality not quantity. Approach any regular brotherhood press reader and the chances are he is a leader in his field of expertise; if he is as businessman, he is the top dog; if he is in the corporate world is the monkey who sits on the throne chair; if he is a student, he is the one that everyone aspires to emulate and so on and so forth – so you need to keep this screwed at the back of your head always –  sit a brotherhood reader down and ask him to write you a 5 figure cheque and the chances are providing you argue your case convincingly he will take out his bearer bonds from his safe and hand it to you!  It’s that simple.

You go to Temasek Review and past the hat around; and see what you end up with; all you will end up with is one tic tac, a strip of chewing gum, a toto ticket and probably a bunny’s foot.

That’s the difference that makes all the difference in a place called blogosphere – so don’t blame me if the servers are in Germany now and not in Singapore! I didn’t add anything to the water supply to influence the decision of the Confederation to vote against the Council!

If you want to blame anyone for this irreversible situation; go and find out who was the one who signed off on the whole idea of faking Doss attacks in the Singapore Blogosphere – I have a feeling the only net he will be managing once his bosses begin to tabulate the losses is a fishing net somewhere in the next Singapore Expedition to the North Pole.”

Darkness 2010

Recent conversation captured in Munich by an auto-bot crawler – recorded by the Chronicler in the book of Ages – The Brotherhood Press 2010.

Is the National Bank of Greece (NBG) a buy?

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Few weeks ago highlighted, the National Bank of Greece as a possible buy How the hell did Greece become the center of the global economy? The time has come. Now if you missed out on the 2008 rally; this may just be one stock that will take you back in time like a time machine and allow you make the same monster profits.

IMHO buying into NBG offers opportunities of a lifetime for a whole basket of reasons – firstly, its dead cheap, trading at just USD$3.00 and a bit. Secondly, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the bank; what you need to understand here they are really only two outstanding issues concerning Greece; the first part has to do with NBG’s exposure to government bonds and the second is ironing out the pesky details of the EU rescue plan along with how it’s going to handshake with the IMF package – and the third which I consider to be the main reason why NBG stocks are getting fucked is based predominantly on sentiment, sentiment and sentiment – you see the stock market is not so different from line of people queuing up for something or rather – most of them standing in line are clueless as to what’s at the end of the queue – for all you know they’re selling African Shrunken head key chains (like the one in the previously P65 blog) – and that really a pithy summary of why NBG is getting beaten down; the long and short of it is simple Simon; Greece has a bad rep because everyone thinks it’s a basket case and the floor boards are going to give way any time – but they’re wrong; firstly, they have a great hedge; 40% of the economy is based on tourism and the Euro is free falling; so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out there’s a big cushion there – unlike nations who have all their chips on commodities, manufacturing or share crops – no brainer there.

Nevertheless, I say hit the numbers; punch your calculator and put the numbers through the paces – and what you will discover is simply this, the National Bank of Greece S.A.(NBG) could be the best long term financial stock left to buy in the whole of the S & P 500 – I am not kidding, it’s a steal! The buy of the century even! 

Besides many of the problems faced by the Greek economy are not as catastrophic as the world may think. Furthermore, they are part of the EU and that means they are bullet proof – let’s face it; the Europeans want to contain this mess; the last thing they want to do is deal with a mushroom cloud – so I dont see ANY of the issues facing Greece as insormountable; they can be resolved and once Greece gets back on the rails and puts into place austerity measures; it’s very likely NBG will once again see its share price rise to renewed heights. I even took the trouble yesterday to run through some of my computations using our super computer; the Mordecai 51, guess what it checked out!

Pity, this baby was built personally by me (even good a jeweller to give it a touch of panache with mother of pearl inlays) – it cannot stay in Singapore and will be trucked to Malaysia soon (if we can move it as it weights about 8 metric tons – too many unknown cyber attacks courtesy of Wayang Party, Temasek Review and soon I suspect to be to the new online ST; that just means Singapore is a bad investment to grow tech enterprises – nothing personal, it’s always business – don’t believe just refer to Google vs China)

So lock and load; we are going in; the Germans are in, so are the rest of Guilds – the future is bright – just make sure when it tops USD$ 7.00 sell, sell, sell.

Don’t say you didn’t get it here and remember spread the mana around and give to some sites like theonlinecitizen; we are good. We don;t need it. But give to them and give it willingly! It’s better than giving to some church that is trying to impersonate Donald Trump. So give big (bc that is what we will do); give 5 figures! I may not agree with TOC all the time; but I am a gentlemen and if Singaporedaddy says there is value there – you know what? I actually believe him –  so your money is in very good hands as you’re doing people & planet a big favor. 

And if you give don’t be surprised if it just makes one huge circle and comes around this way again for you and me; then maybe we will start to see some changes!

Darkness 2010

Warning: Pls do not take any financial advice online, there are only lies and disinformation online.

“This may require a very long explanation…I think as long as no one can explain how Wayang Party (currently known as Temasek Review) was able to suffer 37 massive Doss attacks; each without leaving a single electronic trail….then it will not be wise to locate a Mordecai 51 here…first, it cost a bomb…secondly, each takes a year to built…we have conducted a thorough analysis and we have turned out nothing…so unless the MDA in Singapore provides us with a report….if they don’t think we are important, then it’s up to them….if MiCA thinks we are not important, then again, it is up to them…but at least as a matter of record, I wrote in, I asked and that stays….so Gentlemen when we look at all this……it is a very bad risk…..Gentlemen, I want to break the rice bowls of these people who signed off on this…that is to say in 10 or 20 years down the line, when this man or woman who approved this said, what am I doing with my life? – it would not be so different from a man staring at a loaded revolver……….we will move every single unit out!…..it’s a lousy risk….in life, you must learn never to put good money with the bad; like old and new wine…they cannot be mixed, it will always be a sad enterprise…..now we have a situation that will not go away…every time the confederation ask shall whether we should base this or that is Singapore…..the first question is how did the thing sinister (37 Doss attacks) happen?…..it will be last 3, 5 and even up to 10 years….as the internet has a memory like an elephant…so what we have here is a man who has just put a gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger…the world is cruel….if you want to compete, it is not enough to create the right physical conditions by just laying out miles of fiber optics and creating an island wide WIFI coverage….life is not so simple….you need the right attitude as well!…..so Gentlemen, now you know why we are all here in Germany and this conference is not held in Singapore…..life as I said is very simple….for ever cause there is always reaction…..only let us be very clear for the record, I did not start this. You may all not believe me, but I worked very hard to make sure this conference was in Singapore…but as you can see, it is a bad investment.”

Darkness 2010 – speech to the Munchen Guilds and the Confederation in Munich Germany recently – recorded in the Book of Ages under the Chapter – Saral – The Brotherhood Press 2010.

Is there Zen in Cycling?

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading pleasure – to do so hold down Ctrl and press + )

People these days just want to keep their life simple and grief free. They’re sick and tired of endless hype, spin and saccharine laced narratives – I’ve registered in my regular night rides – have been doing that a lot these days even when it rains. Don’t know any other way to smoke or drink less I guess.

These days if you really take the trouble to noticed bicycles are beginning to resemble the same make up of your off the shelves Bangladeshi expatriate single gear bike – that means, unlike my bike and probably yours that has 24 or 36 speeds and loads of stuff from disc brakes, shifters, derailleurs etc – it’s all stripped down to its elemental basic diamond shaped zen minimalist form.

Why have fixed gears returned? Well one reason may have to do with how complicated life is these days – the great thing about fixed gears they’re like blank canvasses; you ride as fast or slow as you want; you ride under your own terms and the best part of it is; it’s so stripped down and Spartan, it’s simplicity and purity in every sense of the word – it’s clean, uncluttered and provides plenty of room for self exploration.

Came across this one ridden by a pretty nice girl (she’s a head doctor, so I guess I can probably get free medical advice on the side as well); first thing she said to me was: hey! You look like a hummer  on two wheels! Are we at war? – I exclaimed sheepishly: well I ride cross country alot – she just shrugged her shoulders and mumbled you look like a paratrooper to me – what’s with all the stuff you’re carrying? They look industrial? – I just ignored her (that’s because I am no stranger to Siaow Char Bor’s) and just when I was ready to push off; this lady asked me to take some time to take a longer look at her single speed bike – so there we were two strangers sitting on a bench for a breather while she had a bike propped up against the railings beside mine.

After a while, I started to realize my tires looked more like motorbike wheels – and what’s with all the cables and stuff sticking out of it; a little while longer, the whole set up started looking more like a combine harvester; while her bike looked cleaner, simpler and infinitely much more fun to ride – maybe she has something there. Maybe, there’s a zen in bicycling after all. Maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Btw this is my Hummer…my shifter died on me on the return trip….maybe Miss head doctor is right….you decide.

Darkness 2010

If you are in the mood for travelling, do check out the latest Brotherhood Travelogue – check this out:  

 Munich – A Diary of strange events

Munich – The Heart of Darkness – Travelogue

 

The Stupidity of going after Goldman Sachs

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading pleasure – to do so hold down the Ctrl key and press +) Let’s dive right in, Goldman Sachs versus the SEC – who will win? First of all just because the SEC is making alot of noise means a big fat nothing to me – I am reminded:  Politicians are not so different from ships: they like nothing more than to blow their horn and make noise when they’re lost in a fog wonder no more why: politicians don’t seem to have all the answers until they write their memoirs.

Who will win? That’s a no brainer. Firstly, I don’t believe the average jury can even understand the complexities of these instruments; so sentiments, emotion and general feel will definitely play a preponderant role here; besides if you’re just earning $40K per year; why would you even consider voting in favor of bankers who typically get paid creamy bonuses. So my feel is this matter ever goes to court. It’s a done deal, GS will lose – but they wouldn’t be able to put a single dent on GS stellar financial record.

If you really want to know why the SEC is railing against GS – try political gerry mangering. If these instruments were really that toxic; all the banks will be implicated – a better explanation is the Obama administration wants to send a clear message to Wall Street – we will have our day with pushing though a plan for regulating the markets and if you stop us, we would just pulverize you like we did GS!

In other words its plain good old fashion Gestapo tactics. However what is missing from the Obama camp is brain power –  firstly, many of the so called double dealing instruments GS was peddling to investors are in every sense kosher – what many people don’t seem to realize is – the stock market is just a giant casino, so when someone makes money another loses – so many smart people, even professors and including economist, believed that tranches of collateralized debt obligations (CDO) Goldman Sachs used to deal with were not as evil as how it’s so often depicted in the MSM.

My money is still on GS. I believe this is one of the best managed bank in the world. And let me share with you why? Because unlike the rest of the Zombie banks who do nothing but shuffle paper and are just Legends in their own mind – GS is a REAL bank; as through the years have invested billions in terms of proprietry based trading technology and core competencies which simply makes them the Toyota Motors of the Investment Banking world – in other words, GS has such a strong beach head in the financial world; if you take them out; it’s like removing the hub on your wheel – the rest of the spokes just have no where to fit! So lets be clear this is not some shitty outfit like Citigroup or UBS! It’s REAL!

And that to me is everything; the alpha and omega of investing. Bc if you put your $ on the unreal – then it will be a long term investment like buying charcoal from 7/11 and waiting for them to turn into precious diamonds – you are fucked!

Besides at the current price its trading at, it’s a steal. If Obama & Co thinks Goldman can be taken down just like humpty dumpty, then he and his team has scaled it all wrong – as they will just run circles around him; one thing about intelligent folk is they are very hard to knock out and once they come after you – you’re as good as toast!

Obama & Co has definitely picked a fight with sixteen wheeler trailer – good luck to him and his presidential term; as for his dream pipe to push for further financial regulations – that’s a goner! By taking a cutlass to GS, Obama and Bernanke along with his entire motley crew have more or less alienated themselves from the very people who are most able to pull America out of the shit hole!

He has just dug a very big hole for himself along with killing the goose that lays the golden egg – this just goes to prove my point about politics and politicians – honesty in politics is like oxygen. The higher up you go, the thinner it gets.

Welcome to a bent world!

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

“The stockmarket is a casino (period). You talk about the morality; I say, that’s like talking about growing weed in a monastery, the stockmarket is a casino – if you walk away with $10,000 winnings, someone, somewhere is walking away minus that same amount – the only morality in a casino is nobody gives anything except an opportunity; neither should you expect a fair game either.

It’s all bent. Otherwise you wouldn’t get hucksters and charlatans confecting terms like long term investment or paper losses – that’s just a polite way of saying, “Oh dear, I fucked up! I am sorrry, please call me back when the Mayan calendar decides to run out!” If you cannot stomach that reality; then just stick to board games.

Besides when you talk about morality; you are forgetting one thing; just look at what Obama & Co did – they gave truckloads of money to super duper losers like Citigroup who ran their bank like a charitable organization – and they said to all of these two time losers, now that you have all fucked up big time; we are going to give you all more money to compete with the very clever guys like Goldman Sachs – so maybe you can tell me where the morality is over there?

Now Obama is going after the best bank in the world; in other words; he is sending out a message to the whole wide world; do not be smart, be stupid and if possible fail traditionally.

The real criminals who should be in the dock facing this SEC crap are the zombie firms like Citigroup, GM, AIG etc. Because they were the one’s who robbed billions from ordinary hard working folk – and you are never ever going to get your money back – not in this life time, at least.

So what does that say? Life is not fair, it has never ever been fair and if you want it to be fair, you better learn to stand your ground and fight for it! Or learn how to vote with your wallet!”

Darkness 2010

Recent conversation in a thread concerning Goldman Sachs vs SEC in Ekunaba – captured by an auto-bot crawler – The Brotherhood Press 2010

Why I hope this volcano will keep on spewing shit

(You may need to increase the font size to enhance your reading experience – to do this hold down the Ctrl key and press +)

This has to be a mini skirt, bc I am going night cycling – ask me why everyone who dabbles with stocks think they are Warren Buffet? That’s because none of them realize the market is weird. Fact of the matter is simply this: every time one guy sells, another one buys, and they both think they’re smart – so you go figure out who is the really stupid one.

I checked into our super duper high security computer to seek some financial advice – use it mainly to perform complex calculations; here is the hand recognition sensor (it’s supposed to be able to recognize nearly 16 million different hand prints, though to be real honest with you; one day I just decided to put a photostat copy of my hand and guess what happened – so fuck you Germans!)

The way I see it everyone thinks airline stocks are lepers; I have a different point of view. And my logic is simple, the airline industry has showed as much innovation of ten dwarfs trying to change a light bulb. In short there is virtually no impetus to innovate or create new products except perhaps how to die sitting in economy class – and the reason for that is simple; they don’t want to work with trucks, railroads or even ships – in fact, the airline industry is a stand alone, that’s to say, they are actually one of the very few industries who believe they don’t need to cooperate with other logistical lines.

The way I see it this volcano shit is good; trust me. I am compiling all this on a custom made high performance touch screen computer the size of a table that we usually use for gaming (fuck you germans again for not incorporating a keyboard!) – they way I see it. This event will compel many of these complacent airlines to seek out mergers, alliances and allies to complement delivery reliability. The problem with the airline industry is many of them are so flabby there is virtually zero incentive to forge alliances. This is one reason why most investors consider them heart attack and high pressure stocks. After this many things are going to change.

That in a nutshell is why I believe this industry is set to fly to renewed heights after this whole volcano shit blows over – just wished it continued for a while longer though.

There is nothing better than a dose of humility to bring down the heavies.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

DISCLOSURE: The author has positions in LCC

Why does everything have to be conceptualized, designed and built in Germany; why not ship all those people here so that we can copy them?

Darkness 2010

Recent conversation captured by the Interspacing Mercantile Guild in Primus Aldentes Prime – The Brotherhood Press 2010

 

Did Apple really lose a iphone prototype or was it just meant to….

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading enjoyment – to do so hold down the Ctrl key and press +)

Hey come on?…did Apple really lose another prototype iphone again? Or was it just another submarine product prelaunch stunt?

To what is what these days; you may need to first understand what product development means these days: firstly, it’s got nothing to do with product and the even less to do with development (unless its fungus or bacteria under your bed) – these days the most exciting phrase that’s guaranteed to pique the interest of any techie is not “Eureka!” but rather “hmm….this is so weird!”

Welcome to the kooky world of the marketig manifesto to the techie – weird is beautiful, weird sells and above all the power of weird makes perfect commercial sense!

How did we even reach the end times of consumerism you ask? Well if you ask me everything that needs to be invented these days has already been invented – the only difference lies in the details – these days the mantra is not what the customer wants – want to know the truth, he doesn’t have a clue (for instance, I never asked my phone to be a camera and music machine! I just want to say hello) – fact is, if the average consumer had his way with technology. We will all still be stuck with two cans tied to a string along with homing pigeons – the rule of thumb in product development actually requires a bit of prescience, luck and a dash of serendipity – what does that actually mean?

Well in Simple Simon language it just means: whether a product will succeed these days is not so different from shooting an arrow into the air and, where it lands, just paint a bulls eye – there are many reasons why prototyping has become so complicated; one is because it is darn expensive and secondly a lot of it depends on pure luck – as trying to fathom what the market really desires is not so easy these days, especially in a dog eat dog market.

So whenever I hear that some dork has left his phone on a bar counter and it has suddenly managed to find its way into some super duper reviewers shed who has as much cult status as Obi Wan Kenobi – to me it ain’t funny; it’s closer to art and less of a science. I just say, “Sureeeeeeeeeeee!”

Some marketers have a talent for not only entertaining people with how they lose a super duper high security prototype, and some just don’t – but one thing is if you have no talent for being funny, you always use that to screw up the competition.

That’s why I believe this whole I have lost my iphone episode is just a ploy by the Apple equivalent of Mosssad to mislead the competition – there are many wy they need to do this; firstly, too many firms have been cloning Apple apps along with their finger touch control etc – it’s only a matter of time before the gap between Apple products and what other firms have to offer gets blurred out – so what they need to do is throw them off the scent and what better way to do this then to deliberately lose a phone that goes against the design philosophy of the Apple chutpazh?

Now that the competitors think this is the future i.e what Apple is going to roll out this June – they are going to copy it lock, stock and barrel, sim card slots, giant batteries etc – while the real next Apple iphone goes the opposite direction.

Oldest trick in the book…tell your enemy you’re North and slip off in the night to the South, but just to make sure, they’re convinced, leave behind a big fat map marked with a X somewhere up North – sorry the fish aren’t biting here. Besides we all know all Apple products come with batteries that sucks.

What you have there is a rubber duck – a decoy!

Darkness 2010

Gentlemen all warfare is based on deception; was Wayang Party (currently called Temasek Review) infiltrated? Yes. Did we give them the impression that we are allies (Yes). Why is that necessary? As I said all warfare is based on deception…..only remember this is not over, their masters know it and so do their minions… and another thing, in Brotherhood parlance there is no such thing as forgivenenss, that is well known to all throughout the entire universe…when the time comes, we will see this matter to its logical end and expose it for all its worth….by that time the only net, those cyber monkeys will be managing is a fishing net somewhere in the Singapore weather station based in the North Pole…we break their rice bowls…we pull out every technology, research and enterprise…we make the cost of war expensive not only on a financial level but in terms of intellectual capital cost as well…at some point it will cut to the bone and someone at the very top will ask, “what is the cost of all this?” When that report is handed over, they will know the error of their ways..as I said, all warfare is based on deception…if some of you have no stomach for this, please go. I understand completely.”

Darkness 2009 – conversation to the Council of the Wise on board the deep Space cruiser les Enfants du Paradise – this conversation is captured by an auto-bot crawler – The Brotherhood Press 2010

 

Are Airline Stocks A Good Buy?

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading pleasure – to do so hold down the Ctrl key and press +) Is it a good time to invest in Airline stocks? Well it really depends. If you go by mainstream logic this is the last place where you should put your money – firstly the volcano shows no signs of slowing down as it continues to vomit out engine clogging shit – according to the Geneva-based International Air Transport Association estimated that the disruption is costing the industry some $200 million a day in revenues. But I think this is only the tip of the iceberg as it doesn’t factor in accommodation, delays, bottlenecks etc.

Just to give you a relative heads up of how bad the situation really is IATA estimates more than half of the airline traffic has either been delayed or cancelled.

So why is this a good buying opportunity? Simple – where there is crisis there is opportunity – if you notice the price of oil has been dropping – you know why? Most planes are grounded. May not make sense as the cumulative fuel used by commercial jetliners is less than 1% of the total oil output; but common sense doesn’t always need to prevail in the market; in fact, common sense is never the equalizer –  what’s important to me is the market believes the price of oil should go down and down; that may not make sense; but if you believe in angels; then it makes perfect sense to debate on how many angels can you fit on a pin head – get my drift? – and that simply means when air travel is back to normal again, we will all probably benefit from reduced oil prices.

The other thing about air travel is it plays an integral role in the global supply chain of goods and services – that simply means; to get around this act of God impasse airlines will be forced to cooperate with each other – they will share routes; enter into mergers and even combine their resources to get over this kink – what most people don’t fully understand is these events can take off on a Monday and get penned on a Tuesday –the case is pressing when you consider how so many goods and services we typically take for granted are actually dependent on air freight – sushi, cheese, tulips, diamonds, medicine and virtually every perishable product is vulnerable providing planes remain grounded.

 The way I see it; this is good for the industry as a whole; as till now the airline industry hasn’t really changed since the days of kitty hawk; with this volcano event, it’s going to be a leveler and it will probably send shock waves across the industry to compel many airlines to either merge or form alliances – that simply means the will get bigger, meaner and leaner and all that just make for a perfect investment – I hope that volcano continues to spew its shit – as this can only mean airline firms will be so shaken up and stirred, then may just be the perfect buy to make mad money!

Meanwhile check out the latest gift I receive recently from the Interspacing Mercantile guild based in Munich, its a lie detector built into a side arm of a chair – looks benign enough; but once you sit on it; it registers everything from heart beat to 10 other metrics that I am still trying to figure out – best thing is the person who sits on it doesn’t know this is the best shit snooper ever created. There are only two in the world; one in stainless steel trim the other in pure 18 carat gold fittings!

Slide a hidden electronic switch and what do we have? A super high tech control system all designed to detect shit at up to four gradations – told them on my last trip (and this was only a joke btw), that I was dealing with too many snakes these days; so I would really appreciate it if someone could come up with a shit snooper; they sent two versions, each weighing roughly one metric ton of these beauties – that’s just what a need in the age of endless age of hype, spin and lies.

If you want to buy one of the most expensive shit snoopers on this planet, just let me know, it comes with full connolly leather trim, and custom medical grade arm rest with even an option for 18th carat solid gold fittings – guaranteed to work (i.e smell out liars, or your money back) – sells for USD $50,000 – why do I have that sinking feeling, they gave it to me because they couldn’t find some one dumb enough to buy it?

But seriously, as soon as they came out with this prototype; the Germans claimed proudly (as they always have a habit of doing) they have already 5 firm orders from the Middle East.

Thanks for the fish! Now if only I can move it without a crane….

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

Disclosure: The author has positions in US Airways Group Inc – ticker: LCC.

Why I am not worried about Goldman, Volcanoes and even Greece….but crazy computers?

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading experience – to do so hold down the Ctrl key and press +)Am I really worried about the SEC going for the throat of Goldman Sach’s? Nope. What about the run away volcano in Norway? Nope. What about the financial crisis looming in Greece? Nope!

My immediate worry doesn’t even revolve around people – let me share with all of you why? Firstly, why did God create stock analysts and firms to predict market movements? Simple without these people there would be virtually no job security for fortune tellers, shamans and weather forecasting wouldn’t be taught as a degree discipline in school – so people are the least of my concern.

My real concern as to whether we will see a contagion effect pan out from the Goldman crisis may sound like something that is closer to sci-fi: but bear with me – consider this: what do you really see when you open up the hood of a big stock analyst firm? Want to know? – A giant, world-spanning electronic network where high-powered machines are making millions of mind boggling calculations every single minute – most of them run super duper secret algorithms that are really not so different from high-stakes battle games of you shoot me and I shoot you.

Except the stock market is not a game; it’s something that affects billions of people — and since the stock and commodities markets is inextricably fused to these psychotic computers these days; don’t be surprise just like modern day commercial jet liners; the real decision makers aren’t human as they remain very much the ghost in the machine.

The main problem with automated trading or what the industry refers to as high-frequency trading (HFT) is computers feature are so prevalent these days most of the buy and sell decisions actually pivots on the vagaries of a set of math equations written by someone who probably knows fuck all about how markets pitch and yaw – my point is you don’t need to be a member of Mensa to figure out what happens when everything under the sun is reduced into numbers, metrics, statistics and liner regression curves and is designed specifically to exclude the human condition – what we are doing is actually amplifying herd mentality on a mega scale – that’s really what I fear most.

As what I have just described is very real and spells big trouble in an already jittery market that’s set to either shrug this whole matter off or dive with it –and don’t be surprised if what we may actually be witnessing here is none other than the powder, ball and the flint that’s primed to explode – to paraphrase the sum of all our fears.

I could be wrong; I hope I am wrong.

Darkness 2010

 

“Do you notice Gentlemen that if you break a chair in the virtual; it breaks exactly the same every single time – do you want to know why? Because somewhere in that room where you have rows and rows of servers with blinking lights – there is one chip; roughly, the size of a parking ticket tab and written on it is a mathematical equation that calculates precisely the definition of how a chair is supposed to break….we can spend one hour breaking all the chairs here…just to prove my point, but I didn’t come all the way here to speak about furniture, silver hair brushes and side tables to the guilds…..now Gentlemen take that whole idea that I have just mentioned and blow it up a thousand times and put it beside the stock market – what do you end up with?

Gentlemen….a game called Armageddon. There is something very wrong with the Mordecai 51 program – I want you all to review my calculations and assumptions, as I believe we are headed directly into the eye of the perfect storm; the ASDF is wrong – the director of the ASDF should be taken out to shot! – if we do not recognize this, we will lose everything!”

 

Darkness 2008

This conversation was captured by an auto-bot crawler sponsored by the Interspacing Mercantile Guild – in a secret meeting between Darkness and some unidentified members of the Mercantile Guild at Primus Aldentes Prime just before the financial crisis in 2008 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

Motorcycling around the World on an electric motorbike?

(You may need to increase the font size to enhance you reading experience – to do this: hold down the Ctrl key and press +) We may well be living in interesting times; but trust me life only really begins to get real interesting when you’re saddled in a motorbike cruising along at 100 mph – in fact, one of my dreams is to retire before I hit 45 and as soon as I hit that marker – I want to travel around the whole in a motorbike – not interested in sailing the seven seas (nothing to see there) – same goes for planes. As for bicycles, that’s just not possible all the way – the best way to go around the whole is on a motorbike.

I am still a long way from that vintage (age is after all relative); but I ridden done enough to know that if a motorbike was a human being; his motto in life would probably be, work to ride and ride to work. He would also be a pretty rational person that you could probably reason with and have a really interesting conversation with – unlike modern cars drivers who have been reduced to playing computer games – since these days modern cars seem to gut out everything from engine noise, wind, climate, potholes and bugs that occasionally slam into your face – riding a motorbike is as real as it gets; there’s nothing that separates you from the elements and everything you do is directly translated into a result; If you ride like there’s no tomorrow, there won’t be one! If you ignore that loose bearing that keeps rattling away, it’s going to come back and bite you somewhere down the road; you never ever pick a fight with a 3 tonner on the road – and safety is definitely not an accident – like I said a motorcycle isn’t so different from a human being; for he functions according to the laws of reason and if there’s any emotion there, its misplaced – as when you get deeper into motorcycling it can be nothing short of a philosophy; a miniature diorama of study of life itself – to paraphrase, most of us aren’t mindful of the what we say or do; we are like car drivers hermetically sealed in our steel chrysalis where increasingly we become detached from the world; if we pass a motorbike real fast, we don’t realize, it leaves a wake that’s like a typhoon; if we don’t stick to our lane, we don’t realize that it ruins the rhythm of the motorcyclist and so on.

That’s one reason why everything that goes into a motorcycle fascinates me; to me it just isn’t a pile of steel, wires and cables that is supposed to make noise; there’s an art, symmetry and Tao to it all – you can even call it an allegory of life.

These days with the advent of electric cars et al, motorbikes have gone three pin – in the US, they’re even selling them besides ipods and the latest 3 D flat screens – just wondering to myself, whether its possible to make a trip a world trip on one of those dinky battery wonders?

That would really be interesting – check the vid out, the future is here!

Darkness 2010 – the Brotherhood Press 2010

“You people do what you want….as for me when I hit 45, I want to retire…that doesn’t mean I am a lazy, useless and a good for nothing – you watch your words! –  as that’s the official narrative they have to sell you – but I am not buying! – you dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure out a human being is not supposed to work till he dies standing – for one he doesnt have the right equipment; our joints aren’t supposed to last beyond X years, as for our teeth, then can’t even endure Y number of lemon drops and as for our brain, it’s definitely got an expiry date like a bag of crisp – nothing is supposed to last forever; it takes alot of humility to come to terms with what life is and not what you think it should be; it takes even more courage to say; that my ticket is up! – and someone else should be sitting here instead of me. My time is up!

Dont think for one moment this is easy – it ain’t! Some people live till they are well into their 90’s and they cannot even buy into that simple philosophy – IMHO, they’re no better than a drunkard or a drug addict, they’re so high on their own products; they actually believe without them the world will stop spinning! How much sense does that make? – As coming to terms with humanity can be so humbling that the natural reaction is to fight it tooth and nail – so to me what Vollariane did was not a weakness! This man walked away from it all at one drop of a hat and he didn’t even bother to look back – that’s wisdom, courage and real power – real power – mastery over yourself –  any man who cannot see it is simply so dumb that he has probably never ever lived even one day.

So you hold you tongue when you say the things that you say about Vollariane, or I may just take it very personally.”

Darkness 2003 / Kendo session / Recorded by the Chronicler / The Book of Ages – Chapter entitled: The New Beginning – The Brotherhood Press 2010

If there is a God, he is probably a bicycle

(You may need to increase the font size of this essay to enhance your reading pleasure – to do so hold down the Ctrl key and press +) Physical discomfort only rubs if it’s purposeless. When you screw physical discomfort to a cause – be it climbing a mountain, getting a degree or just something as trivial as cycling – then it all suddenly makes perfect sense and physical discomfort doesn’t mean very much  – cycling may not be much of a cause in the greater scheme of things;  but that could be said about babies as well, they do nothing but eat, shit and talk gibberish all day

May sound crazy, but I am one of those who really believe if you just stop and take the time to look long and hard enough at something or someone; you will probably find God there – I am not referring to God as in the context of faith God, rather the God that manages to unite mind, body and spirit (I used to believe in a Christian God, these days, I believe he has more to do with Titanium building materials, IMHO, they’re just so full of shit – so as far as faith is concernerd – I am a goner – I am never ever going back! Never! And even if I really wanted too, I wouldn’t know where to begin!) – the way I see it God can just as well be found snuggly placed neatly between two co-axial wires in a digital computer or somewhere in the gears, sprockets and chain of a bicycle as he can be found at some snow cap mountain, or even in a way a plastic bag decides to dance in the wind – it’s all up there in your head.

One of the things I really like about cycling is – you make it all up as you go along – sometimes you go fast at other times slow, you’re always the boss – there are no rules – when you cycle alone that is – I wasn’t always like this – I used to cycle in a pack; still do from time to time – only when you’re pedaling in a pack, your whole attitude transforms. To me these days, that has to be a form of reductionism – as you’re not so different from one of those birds that make a wedge shape fly to where you are supposed to fly too – in other words, your sense of being just get overwhelmed by the group. Next you thing you realize; everything becomes a competitive game – you have to win, beat the other guy, be the first to cross that line yada yada yada yada yada – in other words you become a perfect asshole.

I am not blaming the pack; If I anyone is to be blamed, it’s me – somewhere down the line, I’ve realized satisfaction comes from deep within; it doesn’t come from others and even less from what they may choose to regard you, those things aren’t real – it’s still work in progress; like shrapnel that once lodged beneath the skin, it’s slowly making its way out – I still have some niggling bad habits like I want my bike to run ultra smooth, so I tend to carry everything from industrial grade spanners to hex keys that most sane people never bother with; and whenever I don’t get that crispy feel, that’s just me – I can’t help it; I stop; asses the problem and fix it right there (I don’t think that part will every go away as I am really one of those guys who can spend hours wandering in hardware stores) And I still derive some childish fetish about carbon fiber featherweight bicycle frames, frictionless ceramic bearings, and the luscious feel of exotic materials when they are all personally fitted on my bike – don’t even allow the bike mechanic to touch it; do it all myself – and when it comes together and I feel that sure footed forward glide as the chain sucks up the sprockets, it’s just immensely satisfying and edifying –but one thing is for sure, I am less pernickety these days – I only carry one third of what I use to back pack; these days, I don’t even mind the odd rattle; the loose drive train and the slight slack of the chain – those things don’t bother me so much – it’s strange how when you begin to learn to be less intolerant of mechanical perfection something immensely greater is released – the whole wide world seems to open up to you .

Cycling may not mean much to people as I said, but that’s only because they haven’t really found the God in the small; in my little way, I may have discovered him there, then again I could be wrong, I have even been wrong many times many things, but this time, it feels just right – that cannot be denied – and it’s a telling lesson – as somewhere between two lamppost when you are just cruising along – the first lesson cycling teaches anyone who really wants to know it deep down is this may actually be the very place to start improving the world first; that’s to say it has to FIRST begin somewhere deep inside you BEFORE it can assume a useful form and shape that can radiate out to affect others; that is the first thing cycling alone teaches you – I hope you find that mythical line and drop me a line if you do!

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

Is Goldman Sachs Good or Evil? Buy or Sell?

(You may need to increase the font size to enhance your reading pleasure – to do so hold down the Ctrl button and press +) I hate to say this, but I told you so….didn’t I tell you whenever Bernanke & Co opens his mouth and says anything good about the US economy – do the direct opposite! – and if you took my word for it there and then (fortunately all the guilds acted on it pronto): Why when Bernanke’s talks about the road to recovery – I am out of the market!  – and sold of all your US financial positions, that would have saved you a whole lot of grief today – you are sitting so pretty! Give yourself a pat on the back!

If you didn’t then go join the internet is full of lies and disinformation brigade.

As yesterday Goldman shares Ticker: GS nose dived 13% to USD$160 something! – as for Citigroup, they took a 7% fall! As for Synovus Financials it was 7% plus!

As I said, it’s a no brainer and I try to keep things very simple here (that’s why you see no bells and whistles on this blog, no clocks, no RSS, nothing except the essay, it is very zen) – So one more time please, whenever Bernanke & Co opens their mouth to say they have save people & planet – sell, sell, sell! You can never go wrong with that rule!

Now Let’s set that all aside and dive into the deep end: why is the Securities and Exchange Commission charging in on Goldman with guns blazing?

Well it has to do with securities fraud in the underwriting of collateralized-debt obligation backed by subprime mortgages – now if you’re just a simpleton like me – this is very easy to understand – in casino lingo it’s called double dealing on the wheel – just imagine that I am croupier and I manage to sell you the idea that if you win, we split the profits – I tell you to put your money on number 18 – you do that – the kicker is I have rigged it, only the number is not 18 but another number and I even get a fat commission, if you lose  – so what we have here is a just a more polished and refined version of the classical Nigerian goldmine scam. That’s it – it doesn’t get more complicated than that.

But I am not so sure this matter is cut and dried – that’s to say, I am not entirely convinced Goldman Sachs is out to con ordinary folk. Or they are evil. Firstly, the whole deal is transacted by another firm –secondly, Goldman did not benefit from it- in fact, they lost money – and finally, this isn’t a criminal case as it remains a civil matter. Fourthly, the mechanics as I see is kosher (it’s not 100% but it’s 70%)

But there is one thing that you as the investor need to know – what happened on Friday was NOT simply a knee jerk reaction by the market; that’s to the say, the pull out came directly from the clever money segment – the definition of clever money is the direct opposite of stupid money i.e these people are the professionals – why did the clever money pull out? Because what you need to understand is the clever money is always thinking two or three steps ahead of the stupid money – these are the chess players.

For starters; they don’t see this SEC move as simply a reaction to a financial transgression by a big firm – rather to them, it’s a prelude that may lay the ground work for Congress to slap further restrictive controls on Wall Street – in other words, it may be a set up.

The fear in the clever money camp is simply based on this: whatever government touches turns to mud; so the sum of their fears is summarized in these terms: they fear that proprietary trading will be banned, lucrative customized derivatives will be curbed and that more derivatives trading will be forced onto exchanges where instead of a free market what we will probably end up with is a corseted centrally controlled soviet styled command and control system.

Are their fears valid – I don’t think so – but what you need to understand about clever money is they operate exactly like the Mafia, Jewish Lobby and the Freemasons are rolled up into one nasty piece of goods – because when they pull their money; they’re sending out a message to both Congress and the Senate – don’t mess around with our hunting ground!

The $64 million question (that sounds like loose change these days) is will the US government pick up the phone and tell someone in the SEC to hold off the dogs or will they press on for the kill? If they go for the latter, then what the SEC is likely to uncover is what Goldman Sachs did wasn’t a practice confined to only many of their mind boggling derivatives that they used to collateralized-debt obligation relating to the subprime crisis – in truth (and many people may not know this as the intricacies of these instruments can be so complicated it’s like the cockpit of concorde), many other firms are equally culpable as well – as there is so many ways to rig the roulette wheel –this is just one of many ways. So what are they going to do? Sue everyone and put them all in jail?

My bet is this Goldman Sachs affair is going to blow over like a bug on a windscreen at 100 mph –I have absolutely no doubt, the clever money will get right back in (besides they have already made their point); the wild card remains the stupid money i.e the people who don’t know how markets really work – my fear is they’re going to sell, sell and sell – and this may even spread beyond the financial sector –let’s see what happens; only if you were out before the 13% dip on GS or 7% fall out in Citigroup – get right in again; even at USD$ 160 GS, still has one of the lowest price/earnings ratios of any large company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index – but remember this is strictly a hit and run play – and as far as the stock market is concerned it’s just a giant casino – on that I have absolutely no illusions.

Ultimately, it’s your call. However, please note due to recent developments: the buy recommendationsFOOD, FEAR AND GOLD – What do they have to do with the economy? is still valid for those who wish to take a long term position / if you’re in for a spot of drive by shooting (like I am, as I see maybe a good 20% return) then do consider pulling your bumper up to the financials in the US market – but please note you don’t have to go for goldman, Synovus financials or Citigroup could just as well fit the bill, they have all been pulverized – just make sure you time your entry and exit -it’s your call – remember you’re always in control here.

Darkness 2010

“I want to make one thing absolutely clear to everyone; once you step into the stock market. You are a gambler. The guilds want to talk to me about long term investing, then I say go down to 7/11 and buy a bag of BBQ charcoal  and wait for it to turn into valuable diamonds – as for paper losses that’s just another way of saying, I fucked up, so call me up next year for your money – that’s as good as it gets – the sooner we drive out illusions the better – if you really want to talk about real investing, then I say, you go and build a firm like General Dynamics or Toyota Motors – but as far as this is concerned its gambling – anyone who tells you different has absolutely no respect for himself, his customers or the market – this man doesn’t need any enemies – he is in every sense his worse enemy – as he has absolutely no idea of how to manage himself and others – that is reality. You laminate this, carry it in your wallet….so do not come down here and lecture me about risk management, that’s like talking about parking tickets in a F1 racing circuit – it’s a casino and the goal is to break the house in half!”

Darkness 2004  – response during question time at Primus Aldentes Prime ? The Great Hall / Extracted from the Book of Ages – under the chapter the Age of Reason / Page 2399 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

The very Curious case of MFA and Dr Ionescu

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Recently a MFA spokesman said: “Dr Ionescu is not hurting Singapore. If you follow what Romanian netizens are saying, it is clear that even his own compatriots do not believe him. He is only hurting himself and embarrassing his own government and all Romanians.”

 

I have absolutely no idea where the MFA is getting its intelligence from; one thing is clear, the onus is not on me to prove the case otherwise because what I have to say is simply couched as a very reasonable question –  besides I have always been under the impression (based on what our charming MSM has to say) the internet is just a cesspit filled with only lies, disinformation and now populated by astroturfers? – so why should the MFA even consider using a “dodgy” platform that just happens to be height of moral turpitude and everything that is so undesirable as a basis of lending credence to its case? I mean let me put it another way; how far do you think I would get if I asked you invest in some Nigerian gold mine if the CEO mentioned in the sales brochure just happens to feature Bernie Madoff? Get my drift?

That’s odd to me, very odd indeed.

My point is simple, make up your mind and be consistent, don’t flip flop, if you really believe as a statement of fact, the internet is full of lies and disinformation; then stick to that line as a matter of policy – don’t even consider using it as a basis of attributing a rumor let alone substantiating a case on a factual basis –  that only serves to contradict your position and undermine your credibility.

The other lingering question at the back of my head is how did the MFA derive that conclusion?

“If you follow what Romanian netizens are saying, it is clear that even his own compatriots do not believe him.”

Have they parachute any cyber troopers into the Caucasus? Do they even know that most forums in Romania operate out from Greater Russia? Do they even have any idea that Russia has as many virtual platforms as ten China’s put together…yada yada yada yada. Something to consider again – when you decide to make far and wide sweeping statements – my feel is sometimes it’s good to have friends who may be able to help you, sometimes it may even be a good idea for governments to make friends with netizens and sometimes it makes far more sense to build rather than to burn bridges – that way at least some good Samaritan could point you to the right direction where you can at least make an informed decision – that way you may even be able to conduct a SWOT analysis, undertake a trade off / pay out calculation on how best to determine your strategy to maximize your return on energy. And that way, you will know not only your enemy from the inside out; but since you know precisely where you stand in competitive chess board and you will win! – as it is you just like a blind man looking for his cane.

It’s a nice day, I am going cycling and trying my level best to fix by dodgy brakes, my gut feel tells me what I need to do with my pliers this afternoon may have far more value than trying to figure out a pointless mystery as to who is really rambling here.

Darkness 2010

Darkness: SD What do you think about those break away states that used to be part of the USSR? You spent time there…

Singaporedaddy: Well they are all supposed to be capitalist these days, but they’re still communist right down to the marrow, so it’s where east and west clash and it’s a right mess.

Darkness: What does that mean precisely?

 

Singaporedaddy: That means exactly what it means, it’s a mess. You have absolutely no idea how open minded they can be? They even believe we are aliens. And some of them have even travelled to Dotseng in Russia just to be con by farmers who make crop circles to earn a few roubles. 

Darkness: That open minded huh? Till, their brains are spilling out?

Singaporedaddy: Especially, when their brains are spilling out Darkness, but what do expect from a country, where the traditional greeting happens to be Doamne ajhuta.

Darknesss: WTF does that mean?

Singaporedaddy: God help us all!

This conversation was recently captured by an auto-bot in Primus Aldentes Prime – the Brotherhood Press 2010

FOOD, FEAR AND GOLD – What do they have to do with the economy?

(To enhance your reading pleasure, you may have to increase the font size of this essay – to do so, hold down the Ctrl button and press +)

If you want to know the health of the general economy – there is no need to pour through tomes of economic indicators and data – if you really want to know the truth and nothing but the truth – that’s just an expedient way of securing a high paying job – being able to rattle off acronyms, formulas and crack brained theories no one has ever heard of (because this is what I regularly do) is actually one of the most reliable ways to get ahead in the corporate world and appear really intelligent.

Only don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in primary data as I firmly believe sometimes taking short cuts can back fire – I even study numbers carefully in the way a scientist puts a specimen in an electron microscope mulling over producer price index, consumer price index, jobless claims, consumer price index, new factory orders, durable goods reports, inventory levels yada yada yada yada.

But I am not about to get complicated here because my point is to prove to you – if you really want to know how a nation’s economy is doing – you could just as well derive a prettty reliable summary using the same brain power it takes you to tie your shoelaces – for example: if you really want to know how the economy is really fairing – look at one indicator: FOOD.

My point is you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that FOOD is the clearest manifestation of economics in motion; what happens in your alimentary canal is directly proportional to the day to day well being of a nation. I mean if gangsters with sawn off shot guns walk into Long John Silver and don’t even bother with the cash register and instead start demanding for a double serving of salmon with chips – then you don’t need to a member of Mensa to figure out the economy is probably in the shit hole.

Conversely when people start to spend money on food – then by the same token things might be improving. I mean if you really want to get really complicated, you could even use it to extrapolate stuff like how food consumption reflects the producer price index (PPI) and the consumer price index (CPI) – these twin heads are really two heavily watched indicators that gauge the economy’s inflation and general health. The PPI measures the change in the costs of producing a good while the CPI measures the change in cost of buying that good. Rising PPI or CPI numbers suggest that inflation is rising; if it goes the other way that means inflation is in control.

Why am I talking about inflation? Because these days politicians and economist are really clever at glossing over the truth; instead of calling a spade a spade; by telling us all our currency has collapsed – what they do is use technical jargon like “hyperinflation.” The same applies with mind boggling words like “stagnation,” all that means is zero growth and they are going around in circles – and the same applies to fuzzy terms like “tighter fiscal policies,” which is just another way of saying higher taxes. And the list of gooble d guk just goes on and on.

So my point is to demystify all these really double talk and to keep things really simple Simon.

And here comes the kicker – what has food and fear got to do with gold? What’s the connection?

Simple: what most people don’t seem to realize is when they hear politicians talking about “the good times are back!” –  is somewhere against this narrative what is usually seldom discussed is why has the price of gold rocketed from about $250 an ounce 10 years ago to about $1,150 today!

The only reason is FEAR, to be more precise the FEAR that most ordinary folk rather keep useless gold bars underneath their bed because they have absolutely no faith in their paper currency – so how can the economy be really recovering given those conditions?

It cannot!

So the way I see it is simple; for the economy to really recover; three thing need to happen like tic tack toe – firstly that FEAR (real or imagined) needs to diminish – the price of gold needs to go down (people need to have faith in their currency). Secondly, it’s only when people begin to spend their money on real food instead of mud pies, that’s when you really say for certain – the economy is getting right back on track – simple analysis – nothing complicated there, even a $3,000 per month ISD officer who is trawling the internet for terrorist can understand how FOOD, FEAR and GOLD are all linked together like the holy trinity.

And this brings me to three long term stock recommendations that I believe is directly linked to the frontline of the US economic recovery – along with the dynamics that links food, fear and gold to deliver a real economic recovery. 

However, if you look at ALL of them, they all have one thing in common; they’re are unknowns. And why is that important, because the last thing you want to get yourself involved with these days when politicians are trying to hard sell, “the good times are well and truly back!” is a highly politicized counter like Goldman, Citigroup, UBS, Ford, GM or Pfizer – my feel is politicians will showcase those counters as their success stories and that can only mean those counters will simply be super magnets for stupid money – you need to be clear here; there is nothing wrong about following in the wake of stupid money ONLY you need to know when to get out! Let me give you a real life example of the get away strategy – yesterday I wrote this: Why when Bernanke’s talks about the road to recovery – I am out of the market!Last night Citigroup plummeted 7%! How did that happen? You go figure that part out! My take is simple: no one believes him! Not the clever people at least! Because if you really sit down and think about it; Any proclaimations Bernanke makes cannot be so different from what Count Dracula has to say if he was the CEO of the National Blood Bank!

So the name of the game is to ALWAYS keep ahead of the stupid money – and NEVER ever believe everything your read or hear –  that simply means following where the clever money goes.

But I am digressing, let’s get back to FOOD  – firstly, food just doesn’t grow – it needs fertilizers, combine harvesters, silo’s etc – I have choosen these two stocks precisely because they will never be picked up by the Bernanke and Geinther Mafia spin doctors – so they are as boring as grass (no politician is going to say fertilizer stocks are going up, the economy is recovering, unless he wants to commit political hara kiri.)

Following the clever money is never easy; firstly, the people who manage clever money usually keep ultra silent and they never ever follow the crowd. Never!

This brings me to some of my buy (hopefully, they turn out to be the clever ones) recommendations:

The first is Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA) NYSE: POT – this stock is currently getting hammered, but the way I see it; it’s only a matter of time before the demand for premium grade fertilizer will pick up – the timing is just perfect as the tilling season is right on the mark; POT is not cheap, but considering how much ground it has given way since early March – I consider it to be a bargain.

The other is a relative unknown based in China, Yongye International, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:YONG) – again it’s the same story over there.

And finally to put entire food supply chain together to fit into the market you need the people who have core competencies in this area – and here we are talking about nut and bolt firms that can guarantee delivery reliability at the upstream of the supply chain i.e heavy lift stuff – this is where Manitowoc Company, Inc. (Public, NYSE:MTW)

My gut feel tells me, if you have only have one bullet for one shot; then go for MTW, you cannot go wrong there – it’s a head shot!

However, please note: these are long term hold stocks – that means we are looking at a 6 to 8 month horizon.

P.S: BTW please stick with Banco Santander as well, I know the ride is rough, but hold on! It’s good to go!

Happy Hunting

Darkness 2010

WARNING: PLS NOTE NO ONE IN THE INTERNET KNOWS HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE. THERE ARE ONLY COMPULSIVE LIARS AND FIBBERS ONLINE – PLS DO YOUR RESEARCH WHEN INVESTING.

DISCLOSURE; THE AUTHOR CURRENTLY HAS POSITIONS IN MTW

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N.B MESSAGE BY MISSY DOTTY (owner of this blogsite):  DO BOOKMARK THIS SITE, IF SOME OF YOU CLAIM, YOU ARE MISSING OUT, BOOKMARK IT, THAT WAY WHEN WE DECIDE TO TAKE OFF SOMEWHERE ELSE, AT LEAST YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO CONT READING SOME OF OUR STUFF . BOOKMARK, IT AS WHEN THEY TAKE OFF, AS THEY DO, AT LEAST, YOU WILL HAVE A LINK, DO IT NOW!– ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE IS THIS HAS HAPPENED  RECENTLY – http://singaporedaily.net/2010/01/11/daily-sg-11-jan-2010/#comment-7611 , THE BP HAS BARRED ALL FUTURE ESSAYS TO BE POSTED BY THE SINGAPORE DAILY. I DID ASK BABY DARKNESS ABOUT THIS AND THIS IS WHAT HE HAD TO SAY, ” There are two ways to read, one is you let someone spoon feed you like a baby. The second is you choose what and how you want to eat.  Remember, if your body is a temple. Your mind has to be the altar piece; it’s the linchpin that makes possible the grand idea of La Convivencia with you and your community, spirit, mind and perhaps 7 million other things- without this one thing, the power to choose, you are simply a cactus on a window sill! 

So understand this little rich girl, there is reading and there is reading, there is a world of difference, if you dont even bother to argue with the belief, you are what you eat. Then you would have absolutely no problem understanding – why, you are most definitely without a shadow of doubt what you read and dont read.

You can certainly categorize what I write, but you have no right to judge ……that was what Singaporedaily did – a broad line has to be drawn, otherwise, dont be surprise, if someone decides its card blanche to give you and me the mushroom treatment, “feed you shit and keep you in the dark.” So this has nothing to do with Anime 3 and her rubberband brigade. I value her readership and support, but this is a bigger sphere we are dealing with here – so this is where I will draw the line…it will hurt…like that other fake site, Temasek review that kept faking doss attacks; but how could they let the real wolf out without first planting the idea in peoples mind, “if it can happen to me, it will also happen to you,” Think about it – they cried wolf – we helped, but this time, I am not going to stick my neck out for no one…its everyman for himself….I dont even care, if the whole house catches fire…call it tough love, but if you aren’t a hard man, then you shouldn’t be in the ring and that’s the only way to deal with people who cry wolf, its all here, the explanation

http://singaporedaily.net/2010/01/12/daily-sg-12-jan-2010/#comment-7618 – dont worry dotty, the readers will eventually pick up the scent…they always do, you just wait and see, dont ever sweat the small stuff, life is too short – Darkness 2010……”Missy Dotty

Why when Bernanke’s talks about the road to recovery – I am out of the market!

(You may need to increase the font size to enhance your reading pleasure – to do this: hold down Ctrl and press +)

A good rule of thumb that has held me in good stead is bear out what Ben Bernanke et al has to say about the US economy –  and do the direct opposite –recently, this was what Benny had to say about the health of the US economy – Bernanke Sees Moderate Recovery

As soon as Bernanke proclaimed the US economy was on it’s way to recovery, I sold all my shares in Citibank, Sirius XM, Synovus Financials and a few others – I am now completely cleaned out, except for a few EU based shares – What’s my beef with Bernanke? Do I have an axe to grind with him? Not really. In fact, I happen to think he is a great guy – just one problem – he doesn’t know how to call a spade a spade.

To cut to the chase, I just think it’s premature to proclaim that we are well on our way to economic recovery and the good times are back again!

The way I see it, it’s still early days– one reason for this disconnect is simple: the US economy is not Wall Street / that’s to say the stock market should never be confused with the actual state of a nations economic health – granted, it may well be a barometer, bell weather or even the equivalent of sticking a licked thumb against the wind, but that’s all it is, nothing more or less – reading more into it is like studying pig entrails to figure out the weather tomorrow  – besides what’s the big deal if the S & P managed to punch a hole through the mythical 1,210.65 level? – to me that’s just a big zero (it’s all up there in your head!) – for all we know it could all go the other way next week – now you know why I refer to the stock market as a glorified casino! (and I will never retract that statement!)

What a lot of people don’t seem to realize when they’re uncorking the champagne and digging into the caviar is Bernanke’s so called recovery is as real as silicone tits and it all came at an exorbitant cost!

To put it in allegorical terms, it’s reminiscent of the last chapter of story around the world in 80 days – when the main protagonist, Phileas Fog decides to strip every single plank from his steam ship just to keep the steam engines running at full throttle during the last leg of the race – this naturally begs the question: when is the pay back time coming?

I am trying to keep this simple Simon so that even the average Joe can understand the math – my point is a major unknown quantity is how will the markets continue to fare once the Fed decides to reclaim some of the unprecedented amounts of cash it once foolishly pumped into zombie banks and dead beat firms to the prop up the US economy?

In a nutshell, it’s this part of the narrative that’s missing from the ticker tape mission accomplished boast of Ben Bernanke.

The long and short of all this is simple – investors will still have to keep their ears close to the ground to figure out how the Fed is going proceed to cash out of the market – and just to put it all into the right scale and perspective – we aren’t talking peanuts and loose change here – the exact sum hovers somewhere short of just USD$ 2 trillion! – so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out no matter how or when the Fed decides to siphon back some of this money, it’s definitely going to be disruptive – unless you can convince me the freemasons, Mickey Mouse club and Jewish lobby have already figured out how to plug that hole.

IMHO you need to always keep your eye on the ball, fact ALWAYS needs to be separated from fiction – for example: the only reason why the US economy appears to be recovering is because part govt moneys is still circulating to around the system to either keep the housing market, zombie firms and deadender enterprises from taking a nose dive – in the case of housing, this is accomplished when the Fed keeps mortgage rates ARTIFICIALLY  low by purchasing back mortgage-backed securities – if that sounds complicated, its like opening a restaraunt and standing out in the street handing out $100 bills to passerby’s providing they eat there – and when all the seats are filled – you say whoopeeeeeeee!

Facts will always be facts; at some point tighter monetary policy will have to feature – and to exacerbate matters if the Fed keeps on procrastinating by side skirting the time table and methodology as to how to reclaim back the money they once pumped into the market; it risk opening up another ten more cans of worms – it could even trigger an inflation flare-up since interest rates can’t be kept low in perpetuity – that in turn could very well spark a rise in long-term interest rates that could hurt the housing market – and take us all back to square numero uno – what I am trying to say in economic terms is the head bone is connected to the neck bone and so on and so forth.

So what we are really dealing with here is a very complex matter – HOW THE HELL IS THE US GOVT GOING TO GET OUT OF THE MARKET!

Another thing that rubbishes this whole idea of a recovery is what many people don’t seem to realize is most corporations aren’t what they were prior to 2008  – those who have managed to survive did so by literally pursuing a policy of corporate anorexia; by either peddling off their crown jewels at fire sale prices, cutting back their budgets for R&D, mothballing costly innovation and creativity and retrenching highly skilled workers. Yes, that means many of these firms who are on the so called road of recovery are really not so different from walking skeletons – they may have survived , but let’s be clear, if you take for example Citigroup – it’s never ever going to regain its financial primacy in the global market again (not in my life time at least) – the same holds true for a basket of firms – and all this will have a direct effect on GDP and GNP somewhere down the line.

Again this is jugular metric is missing from Bernanke’s recovery narrative; and the reason is simple; the Fed for some curious reason doesn’t seem to see the wisdom of tracking R&D, human skills and other intangible business investments in the whole calculus that makes up national output.

To them all these things (that I consider to be real value) count for crud and you don’t even have any idea how much I am holding back – as what I have mentioned is only the tip of the iceberg (let’s not even get into employment figures; the deficit and cost of capital against the Yuan – as my mission here is not confuse you as it remains the simple task of sharing whatever I have in between my ears) as to why I believe we are still a very long way away from recovery beyond the dictionary meaning of what it really implies in the economic sense  -that simply means, when Bernanke talks about recovery – he’s not so different from one of those really dumb automobile consumers who will plumb to buy a car just because he likes the cup holders (in short, Bernanke and his brain damage dream team have the wrong end of the stick!) – as stuff like long-term product development, prototyping and the whole gamut that makes up the whole competitive advantage chess pieces mean nought to Bernanke and his team – all Bernanke and his motley crew are really doing is trying to sell the idea the machine that was once supposed to change the world is now humming again – and that unfortunately is going to be a very hard sell in this part of blogosphere.

Sorry, the fish ain’t biting.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

“Why do we need another meeting? I may look like a young man, but I feel very old Gentlemen! So I am not going to fly to Beunos Aries for a dumb meeting with Confederation – the brotherhood has a 2 rights to a veto and 3 including the Guilds, we will use it!

Why do we need to complicate our already complicated lives? This is a simple calculation….do you notice, if you ask ANY politician, economist and even a high class call girl in the US, why it makes perfect sense to support too big to fail institutions……they will have no trouble rattling off 10 good reasons why it makes perfect sense…the really funny thing is the flip side of the coin….if you ask any of those same people how the hell is Uncle Sam going to get all his money back without destroying the same market he was trying so hard to save….all you get is a wall of silence…..no one can flesh out the plan B, the great escape….so gentlemen what I see is a one way ticket; what fucking recovery are we talking about here?

You can only talk about real recovery, if you can sit me down and explain to me like a baby – how the hell is Uncle Sam going to get all his money back without busting the machine that could have changed the world!

Gentlemen, it is conceivable, what we may have here is a man who has decided to walk into a kiosk with a rubber gun….he’s got that part “right.”

The money is in his hands. But let’s be clear…this guy ain’t going anywhere except maybe to the local morgue…as what he hasn’t done is his homework – he hasn’t sat down and thought out the details of the get away plan….never forget, it’s like a bank heist, the entry is 1%, the exit is the 99% that makes a perfect 100%. Without a copper clad get away…there can be no road to recovery….that idea is still born, it’s a sterile debate….all I see is a bunch of cheap pirates who are trying so hard to sell you and I the illusion of recovery that there are even foaming in their mouths to persuade you and me the best thing you can ever do right now! Is to to put our hard earned money into the market….you know why don’t you?….that’s the only way they can get their’s money out…that’s the only way for them to legitimize higher taxes and squeeze us all dry….and these mother fuckers even have the gall to call that the road to recovery…I  call it a Ponzi scheme…..these people actually think we are stupid!  You know what, this is not going to be allowed to happen under my watch…I have instructed the ASDF to resight our investments in the Eurozone!

Fuck them!” 

Darkness 2010 – Meeting with the Interspacing Mercantile Guild recently on board the starcruiser les enfants du paradis – captured by an auto-bot crawler – the Brotherhood Press 2010.

One day while pretending to work

For some strange reason people all over the world send me stuff ( I see at least 3 0r 4 a week) – most of the time. I have absolutely no inkling why they consider me an authority on new inventions – but that’s how it goes.

I start the day early, usually at day break with coffee: that’s the period of when I begin to organize how I should ideally spend my day. I write it all down in a moleskine note pad with a good old fashion pencil (the best part is if it gets too stressful, I can even chew on it – 20 minutes in and I have the day all planned out start to finish)

A group of gamers sent me a new invention to evaluate – it’s supposed to be a high tech cheese cutter – I say to myself again and again (be polite)

In a while, I am there in some basement where crates of wine go to die and there I am looking at this so called  great invention.

It’s made out of wood; hard wood; the variety that requires industrial tools to fabricate – will it fly? Hey you decide. Like I said, this is how I usually spend my day. No prizes where it’s designed – Germany – where everything has to be so over designed that it’s supposed to survive at least 10 nuclear attacks.

 But you know what? There’s a humanitarian twist to this project – it’s supposed to be manufactured somewhere in South Africa by really poor kids – so I turn to Singaporedaddy – he tells me the Mercantile Guild will bankroll it (I roll my eyes mumbling to myself, as if they have a choice to say no) – to be really honest with you; why the hell would anyone want something so complicated to just slice cheese?

But the idea is good to go as I believe the real market is Japan; where I am sure this new invention will probably acquire a cult following with the Yakuza – this way cutting off fingers to prove loyalty will probably guarantee a steady market for this new invention – I can’t think of a better invention to do the job!

I approve it. The rep of the Interspacing Mercantile Guild looks at me hoping that I will say no; he stands like a Preatorian with his clipboard- I say bankroll it! He nods his head.

On my way back to the car, I find this: fresh young mangoes – it will be nice Missy Dotty, if you allow me to cook you my killer curry with these beauties; you have absolutely no idea what you’re missing’; but she’s too preoccupied with Mr Dentist. That’s a pity.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010.