HAPPY NEW YEAR

Be careful what you wish for...

Dare I wish for the intractable, hateful, murderous conflict between Israel and everybody else to end and find a peace for all?

I am a Jew living in Canada and I am daily made sick to the stomach of the continuing news of death and the relentless hatred towards Israel.

Will some small ray of light appear on that stage in 2009? We can dream...

I wish our Canadian soldiers back from Afghanistan.

I wish for a friendlier, more relaxed, more open Canadian citizen, one who can actually smile and say, "Good morning," as you pass each other in the street.

I wish for more insulation and double-glazed windows for my lovely, but terribly energy-inefficient house.

I wish for some political leadership somewhere in Canada at any level.

I wish everyone gets home safely tonight from the revels.

I wish I could get past the Miser Within that keeps me from taking advantage of the Boxing Week sales to buy that fancy new camera I really covet.

I wish you all a year of good health, some coins in your jeans, and the warmth and companionship of friends, families and lovers in whatever shapes, sizes and colours they may appear.

Come on, Dance, You Cheapskates

Ballet BC details its debts to local businesses

168 creditors owed nearly $400,000, court papers show

There are the headlines that explain the entire story.

This is lunch money for Gordon Campbell. And for Gregor Robertson.

What are they waiting for?

Be a man. Be a mensch.

Step up to the plate, boys.

Totally corrupt bankers and totally inept auto makers can be rescued in the Billions of dollars, but we can't throw a $400,000 bone to the hardest working artists on show business.

Have you ever tried to dance?

It's more gruelling and, occasionally, much prettier than NFL football.

This is a cruel joke.

Pay off these small debts and let these people do their work.

You politicians speak constantly about "community" and "pride" and the "best place," blah, blah, blah...

Get real and get reel...

Still Hunting J.D.

It's good to know the old verities persist.

Tomorrow, J.D. Salinger will turn 90.

And that means that magazine and newspaper editors around the world will still be sending out cub reporters to the village in New Hampshire where the author of "Catcher in the Rye" has been hiding for about five decades now.

Gee, never on Oprah or D. Letterman?

What's the matter with this guy?

Hahahaha...

I salute you, J.D.

How Do I get in the Bail Out Line?

Former Merrill Lynch Exec takes bailout money to buy palatial digs

This is the headline from Crooks & Liars by way of Video Cafe.

Watch the video and read the text and study the floor plans, all here.

After you finish throwing up, contemplate the beauty of these "save-the-nation" bailouts.

The NPA Dumped

Last night, the NPA tried to reorganize and salvage some sense of the ruling party they had been for many years here in Vancouver.

If the detestable behaviour of the small cabal of cronies who conspired to control who would and would not be elected to the new board is any indication of where this group is headed, hide the silverware, kids.

It used to be said of fights in academia that they were so bitter and mean-spirited precisely because the stakes were so low.

That old gag applies here.

Shame on those petty nitwits who seem to only gather pleasure in whispering behind the curtains.

Freddie Hubbard, R.I.P.

The Bright Lights are Always on High

DO you think perhaps the wrong people are being bailed out? Do you think?

In the midst of the multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded rescue packages for Detroit, the Ford Motor company has unveiled its new "self-parking" car.

The CEO of Ford makes the personal admission that he found parallel parking the most stressful part of his driver's test.

The new technology will be available on some Lincoln's and new seven-passenger Lincoln MKT luxury crossover vehicle.

Is it called a crossover vehicle because it can cross over to the other side of town? Because it is trans(mission)-gendered? Or because it's really more a battleship or Panzer tank than car?

The Chronicles of Criminal Injustice - Basi/Virk

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman.

In yesterday's thetyee.ca, Tieleman published a most comprehensive study of the as-yet-entirely-unresolved legislature scandal. The piece is called "Railgate, A to Z."

I urge you as an informed BC citizen to read it and save it for future reference. The trial is supposed to begin - finally - sometime in the spring - if we ever have a spring.

It is also highly likely that this mess possibly involving the highest reaches of local government may, in fact, never reach a court room.

It is particularly likely that it won't reach a courtroom before the May election.

Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.

More Snow Job Stories

In response to yesterday's post, "Can You Dig It?" a commentor filed a wonderful story of his own. Please read it. It's terrific.

Can You DIg It?

On Saturday afternoon, my willfulness and stubborness reached its choking point, and I decided that I would dig my car out of the snow.

It was parked about two blocks away from my house.

"Enoough," I grumbled in my best Type A voice, as I set out with two shovels and steely determination.

O.K.

It only took half an hour and some nifty raised-on-the-prairies-nothing's-gonna-stop-me driving, but I did it.

Of course. Always knew I would, so there. Ha!

Swung onto the ruts of the street, promptly turned right up the next street so that I could then turn back down to the main road and go about my terribly important business. (I had to return three videos to a store many K. away.)

In less than a third of the way up the second street, I stalled and stuck.

My '93 Mazda, trusty as it is, has a low undercarriage and I was basically riding the snow tracks.

More shovelling, help from a stranger who lived on the street and half an hour later, nothing.

O.K.

So I walked back towards my house, knowing that I had now effectively blocked a residential street entirely and that if I phoned BCAA and if I ever got through, the wait would be about five hours.

BUT...

What do I find in the alleyway just a moment later?

But an entire family digging our their van.

O.K.

So I'll help you dig if you'll help me push.

Done and done.

But just as we start to push my car back, another five or six people come along and join in the fun.

Missions accomplished.

After I returned the videos and got some groceries, I headed back to the hood.

My car is now parked on a busy thoroughfare. I am hoping that it isn't snowplowed in this morning.

It was lovely to see people helping each other in these maddening conditions.

A World Gone Mad

In Victoria, the geniuses who oversee drug addiction problems have struck real gold.

For absurdity and sickness, that is.

Seems they had to close down their site for free needle exchanges for heroin addicts.

So for some time now they've been operating a mobile service.

i.e., Don't worry, Doper. We bring the needles to you.

Small problem.

That leaves thousands of dirty needles unaccounted for.

Which means that the very people who are charged with helping the situation are, in fact, making it worse.

But consider this more fundamental issue.

A man or woman who sincerely believes in his or her own little utterly misguided heart that he/she is doing some good in the world spends his/her day dashing about the city streets on foot or on bicycle trying to find an addict to whom he/she can give a clean needle.

Imagine instead that this same poor fool was scooping addicts off the street to take them to a clean and sober rehab environment.

Oh, what ever is the matter with me?

I forgot.

We don't want to do that.

We want to help people stay stupid and hopeless.

We have a name for this that make it an honorable approach. Harm reduction.

How sick is the delusional person who has this "job?"

The Wise Investor

“Prognostications 2009"

For Immediate Release

Vancouver, BC (December 29, 2009):

It’s time to dust off the crystal ball prognostications for 2009. None are for sure, but here are a few to contemplate:

• The global recession will continue in all corners of the world. Even China can slide into a rough patch. Commodity prices, like oil, will gravitate to lower lows. Hefty corporate losses will continue.

• President elect, Barak Obama will inherit a mess. The expectations of him and his team are beyond reach. His approach will be different. Look for the “Obama bounce” in the markets. Reality will set in when investors realize he can only deliver partially.

• Lower prices and interest rates won’t be sufficient temptation for cashless consumers to loosen their purse strings and incur more debt. Big ticket items, like autos, will struggle heavily. Keep a keen eye on the viability of commercial real estate.

• Governments will spend more taxpayer money they don’t have on additional wasteful workouts, bailouts and other projects. Government deficits will balloon trying to shore up disappearing jobs.

• Get used to shrunken automakers. Before they do, they will ask for more assistance. Nobody should be surprised that the loans they’re getting won’t come back to taxpayer coffers.

• Corporate earnings will soften. The spectre of more layoffs, mortgage defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcies will fuel added turmoil. Weak US financials will continue on the ropes. Finding new capital to replenish their balance sheets will be job one.

• Conventional wisdom has the second half of 2009 getting better, but it may take longer. While stocks seem like screaming buys, cheap doesn’t always equal value. Watch for market rallies that don’t stick. Not everything is a golden opportunity.

• There is always an optimistic side to economics. For instance, housing affordability will continue to improve. At least, that will help first time buyers. Another is more responsible lending practises.

Bottom Line. The economic landscape will keep shrinking. Consumers will hang on to their wallets. Follow what’s best for the personal situation. Don’t jump willy nilly onto hot bandwagons du jour.

Stay simple. Cash will be king. Allocate it slowly and methodically within your well-designed game plan. Make decisions based on fact and reason. Never on emotion.

No investing strategy I know has you making all your moves in one year. So, keep your priorities straight. Remember that your investing is a marathon, not a sprint. Slow and steady gets you there.

Be on the lookout for market sentiment to change one day. I can’t tell when, but until then, tread carefully. Very carefully.

Your comments are welcome.

Adrian Mastracci
Portfolio Manager, R.F.P.
KCM Wealth Management Inc.
"Fee-Only" Portfolio Managers & Financial Advisors
Suite 1500, Box 1078, 885 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 3E8
Tel: (604) 739-4500 Fax: (604) 739-0234
E-mail: kcm@kcmwealth.com Website: www.kcmwealth.com

Voices From the American Front Lines

The following is taken from "Crooks & Liars," a website which I peruse every morning. The text itself originated on a blog...follow the trail here...

I do not live or work in the USA.

I have had a ringside seat to the economic downturn this year. It is not an abstraction to me. The folks at the bottom are always the first to feel the pinch, when it comes. Clients of the agency I work at come through our doors every day requesting assistance with basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and medications. As the year has progressed and New York State has chosen to repeatedly victimize its most vulnerable citizens, it has become more difficult to help people meet these needs. I have visited food banks with empty shelves, been told clients were ineligible for help when I knew they were and had to challenge these decisions. I have sat with clients while their applications for public assistance were reviewed by fraud investigators at social services. Our local social services department actually hired fraud investigators at the same time that it was laying off child protective workers demonstrating conclusively where our values lie and how genuinely mean spirited we are as a people. At the federal level Social Security routinely denies people eligible for benefits in the hopes that they will not reapply. Many people who receive benefits must hire a lawyer before social security will concede that they are indeed eligible. As the resources have become more limited, the level of scrutiny and inhumanity has risen accordingly.

I have, of course read about the rising unemployment numbers and the ensuing uptick in applicants for public assistance and food stamps nationwide like everyone else. It seems the chickens of Bill Clinton's (Best moderate Republican president ever)welfare reform are finally coming home to roost. We always knew that the flaw of his plan was an economy without jobs and here we are. The reform has no provision for an unemployment rate like we are experiencing now. Once again, our policy in practice serves to punish most harshly children and the elderly. Perhaps, it is time to repeal the child labor laws and begin allowing them to work 12 hour days again.

For nearly 30 years we have done our best to dismantle the safety net for the poor and struggling among us. I keep praying that we have reached the end of this folly. At 42, these policies are what I have known my entire work life. I dream about social service programs and rules that would treat people like human beings, rather than as an undesirable applicant to be culled out. I want so badly for us as a nation to stop punishing people for being poor, or elderly or a child of poor people. This holiday season was hellish as I watched scores of our clients navigate the realities of a holiday with nothing but further grinding poverty. Some days I am just weary from the strain of witnessing the suffering that goes on around me. It takes a toll that is more than physical, it eats away at the soul to see people ask for so little and receive far less.

As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.

The Prosecco Wars

I love prosecco. (Pro-say-co)

And that's saying a mouthful, because I am basically a non-drinker. Can't get through a glass of beer or wine. Never drink hard liquor.

But, ah, prosecco...

Prosecco is that sparkling champagne-like drink from Venice that begins almost every evening in Venice. It is inexpensive (Here in Vancouver, you might pay as much as $16 for a bottle.), doesn't leave you with a champagne headache and magically makes everything seem alright.

I know I sound like a true junkie. But understand that I may drink this elixir once every three months and I certainly don't drink enough to become even mildly intoxicated.

Now, prosecco is in an authenticity battle.

People all over the world are making variations of it and marketing it in the strangest ways.

Check out the NY Times story this morning, and then buy a bottle FROM VENICE ONLY and enjoy with friends and loved ones over dinner.

Cannonball

Snowed In - Fed Up

Let's admit it.

The one good thing about this weather is the quiet.

Trudge through the sludge and snow to your nearest shopping district, as I have every day this week, and you hear........ well, almost nothing.

It's quite wonderful.

Very few cars or buses, just the usual crazy with no lights and a big American car with rear-wheel drive and summer tires. Don't you love it?

Everything else about this weather is tiresome and downright scary.

Will my pipes freeze? Will the roof or skylights collapse? Will I be killed or knocked out by falling snow, ice or tree limbs? Two very large branches of the pine tree in my front yard are already down.

Will the floods be inevitable?

Will the power be knocked out, thus making my home a dark icicle?

So far, so good.... so far...

As for the people who are rushing up to Grouse Mountain, well, I can't even get my car out from the snow-plowed little home its adopted two blocks away.

And the thousands stranded at Metrotown, who asked you to go shopping? Who asked you to leave home?

Yesterday, I saw two guts with shovels working diligently on clearing their car from its igloo and I thought, "Where are you going?"

Huddling, cuddling, cacooning...

Having said that, today, after a hearty breakfast, I will actually attempt to rescue my car and return the three movies I rented from the store that is about five kilometres from here.

As for the new Batman movie that I rented last night from the local video shop, I am returning it half watched. Puleeeze...Quel Dreque!

Boxing Day

By the way and apropos of absolutely nothing, I caught a few moments of the late night news on two local television channels.

Both carried stories about all the lovely people who lined up at midnight on a cold, snowy Christmas night and waited until the stores opened to buy handbags or whatever at Boxing Day sale prices.

Are there folks anywhere on earth dumber, more pitiable than these?

Outside of Fendi or D&G, do these sorry excuses have a life?

This is what universal education hath wrought?

Yikes.

Back to my tree.

Warm House, No Heating Bill!

Further to the post below on Walt Patterson's essay on "Managing Energy Wrong," read this exciting piece in today's NY Times about managing energy right!

How would you like - especially on a day like today - to live in a house with no heating system?

And stay warm and cozy!

When do we start building these here?

Managing Energy Wrong

My good friend of some 47 years now, Walt Patterson, is a renowned scientist, who writes and lectures world-wide on Energy and its managment.

I direct you to his website to learn a little more about him, but in particular to draw you to read his latest piece (among many, many books and countless articles and papers over the years), called, "Managing Energy Wrong."

In this essay, Walt has nailed perfectly, and in detail, the way governments and investors, looking always for the Big Solution, the Silver Bullet, create Top Down policies that don't work, when they should be looking to the field for Bottom Up answers that are more complex and that take more effort, but do work.

Read it and comment here please.

Victor on Eyeless in Gaza

You need spend only a few days almost anywhere in Europe to sense how deeply the media there have demonized Israel. Here is Victor's response to the latest hate literature that passes for journalism.

Victor is not a Jew.


The Israeli raids on Gaza top the newscasts. I have listened to two
reports this morning which inevitably add that some of the dead
"include children." Like we couldn't assume that.

In the last war with Hamas in Lebanon, Israel made a foolish mistake
and appears to have learned from it. The mistake was assuming that
careful, so-called surgical strikes would win media support on the
basis that civilian targets were sparred. Instead, Reuters performed
their time worn tactic of paying kids to pose as rock throwers and
then sent these cliched photos to a Pavlovian world media. Agence
France Presse photographed the same wailing Lebanese woman at three
separate sites. Hamas declared a pr victory. Enraptured Lebanese
awarded heroic Hamas with parliamentary seats.

This time, Israel has dumped the failed surgical strike strategy and
bombed Hamas mercilessly in their own back yard. It is doubtful that
Hamas rocketeers are looking heroic to citizens who have seen a living
hell brought to their neighbourhoods thanks to the the deadly games of
militants. Yes, the world community (read feckless Europeans) will
condemn Israel but they would have done the same thing had Israel
dropped food baskets and accidently killed a donkey.

I also think this is a message to Obama. People have assumed that
because he has hired a pro-Israeli psychopath, Rahm Emanuel, as his
Chief of Staff, that this signals a pro Israeli bias in Obama's
administration. That would require classic ignorance of the American
media (Israel' s arch enemy and Obama's fan club) not to mention the
deep anti-Jewish currents among segments of Obama's followers. ( Jesse
Jackson's son was Obama's co-campaign manager and as we all know,
Jesse is the black equivalent of Michael Richards when it comes to
anti-Jewish rants.)

None of which is to celebrate violence. Violence is a vile certainty
of the human condition. It is, I fear, a permanent reality in the
middle east. It will not disappear with lofty Presidential speeches,
UN calls for restraint or yet another photo op cease fire. It is an
endless blood war between two deeply disparate cultures.


Victor Godin