Burning Man 2006: A Week Away From the Markets.

Instead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; I was interacting with the Bureau of Land Management. It wasn't the NYSE open I was watching but the sunrise over the sand. It wasn't an earnings report I was chasing but an art car roaming The Playa. I wasn't in New York City; I was in Black Rock City. I wasn't waiting for the market to close; I was waiting for The Man to burn. I wasn't trying to figure out esoteric series of Ford Motor preferred; I was trying to figure out how to find the water slide at 2:30 and Eager. I wasn't waiting for the right moment to sell calls against my position in AMD; I was trying to looking for the right moment to take a photo of a 15 story Belgian Waffle at sunset. I wasn't busy being disgusted by out of control CEO ripping off shareholders I was busy holding my nose at a porta-potty in 100 degree heat. Instead of watching Wal-Mart management pretend to be Green I was AT Wal-Mart buying a week's worth of water and supplies.

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Ford Motor (F) Considers Going Private. What does this mean for FORD MOTOR CAP TR II (F-PS)?

As reported by Reuters via Yahoo Ford Motor is rumored to be considering going private. What does this mean for The Ford convertible preferred shares - FORD MOTOR CAP TR II (F-PS)?

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New International Small Stock High Dividend ETF

You've heard it before. I am a fan of stocks that pay dividends. I am a bigger fan of small companies that pay dividends. When a small company pays a dividend it usually means the company has been around for a while and management is not busy trying to figure out how to line their pockets with stock options at the expense of shareholders; instead they are actually thinking about how to return their hard earned gains.

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Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) Rising During a Fed Tightening: Doesn't Make Sense

As you can see by this chart of the Dow Jones REIT (RWR) rising throughout the recent interest rate tightening cycle. There are plenty of things these days in financial markets that can be explained but don't make sense. I like real estate as a long term inflation hedge. I also like REIT (Real Estate Investment Trusts) over holding real estate directly because I am a landlord and it's really hard.

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Microsoft Buyback

Microsoft got much less stock than they thought into their tender. The stock popped up right after the tender announcement. Microsoft is spending over $16 billionI did not tender but did sell part of my position at $25.19 into that first spike up in prices. I was over my normal maximum exposure in MSFT. And now will hold my position at my normal full position. Barring a dramatic price increase I plan to hold the position through the end of the year. Disclosure: I currently own MSFT.

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From the Fringe in Edinburgh

These are some of the highlighted shows I saw at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2006. Interestingly, blogging was a theme this year. Two Men Talking Blogging Arturo Brachetti Jane Godley's Blog - Live A Brief History of Scotland

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Off To Play Theatre Critic: Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland

Heading off to London then Scotland for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of Theatre. This is on my list of things to do before I die. So I guess going brings me one more happy step towards death not that I'm looking foward to making it there any time soon but I do want to make sure I enjoy the trip to the inevitable. When I was at University at Warwick, England. I was meant to study math. I took one class on number theory and then managed to get myself into the Theatre Criticism department as a first year. It was amazing. Ever since then I have fancied myself a theatre critic without an audience.

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More Money Does Not Make People Less Greedy: Moral Choice

More money does not make people less greedy. The case at Wal-mart of an ex-vice chairman receiving a salary of over a million dollars a year and with over $20 million in stock embezzeling $500,000 is typical of the behavior of people who get wrapped up in thinking money will solve their insecurities. I remember cases from my Wall Street career where we had to fire people being paid several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for falsifiying entertainment receipts worth a few hundred dollars. In all these cases, I found the perpetrator usually believes they are being ripped off by their employer and they are only getting back part of what they deserve. It's sad.

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Adding to Small Positions: Dow Chemical (DOW), Dell Computers (DELL)

Added to some small positions. As I don't have any major exposure to the Chemical Industry I decided to go with Dow Chemical (DOW). Dow sports a very low p/e ratio and a nice dividend yield of 4.15%. Dell fell back again to $21 where I picked up some more stock today.

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National Healthcare Makes American Business More Competitive

Recently, I posted the following comment on Wal-Mart Watch regarding healthcare: In most developed countries a public healthcare system means that employers do not need to offer healthcare to employees directly but rather provide it through employer tax contributions. I worked at a company that actually outsourced some of its IT development to Sweden because they were cheaper and very high quality workers. The fact that a quirk in the US tax code makes cheap health insurance available only those who work for big corporations (and not even all big corporations) is absurd.

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