Big fat Belizean bank accounts, Olympic Flip It and other Must-reads for investors and traders
Here are some headlines, links and deep thoughts to ponder today:ALEC seeks lower taxes for smokeless tobacco products marketed to teens, ‘tweens – The most outrageous part of this article is the part that quotes the Congress lady who “authored” the bill explaining that she didn’t understand what it was for and wouldn’t support it going forward. It reminds me of when the Republican Democrat Regime was cramming the original TARP bailout down the public’s throats and I asked dozens of Senators and Congresspeople if they’d even read the bill and not a single one of them had.My Big Fat Belizean, Singaporean Bank Account – The articles finishes, “Economists generally agree that the best tax system would be simple and strict, offering little incentive to lobby for loopholes.” I agree and even I once did a feature for Jay Leno’s Tonight Show where I interviewed a famous tax attorney who thought that the Frank-Dodd bill was “really going to help fix the banking industry and thereby, the economy.” I then asked him if he thought easier tax codes or more complicated tax codes were easier to better for the economy and he agreed that simpler was better. Then I picked up a 10″ binder, 33,000 page book that we’d printed up with the actual Frank-Dodd bill and threw it down on the table with a loud thud and made him read aloud from it. It was hilarious, but probably a little over the head of the average Tonight Show viewer’s head, so we never ran it.The Main Driver of GDP Growth: A Strong Rule of Law – Here’s something I wrote similar back in 2008: “They say they want to restore confidence? Just give us a government/SEC/FINRA that simply enforces the contracts and actually punishes those who lie, cheat and steal as well as those who protect those who lie, cheat and steal.”Apple iPhone 5: Reading the Tea Leaves – One of my analysts says to me on his new phone (with a new phone number and everything — I’m still wondering why he changed his number) “Am I right in thinking there’s gotta be about 20 million people waiting to buy the New iPhone when it finally comes?” My answer, “Yes.” Sticking with the outsized Apple long position which I even recently increased after earnings.
Sorry, but Olympic sponsors are on the wrong track… – Great “Flip It”. I agree that the ridiculous crack down on such things as fruit vendors who arrange fruit displays to resemble the Olympic rings and the overarching corporate-driven look and feel of the Olympics probably hurts a lot of the brands who are paying to control the Olympics.
Bankers found to have rigged Libor rates face jail – Looks like we really will get to see some bankers put in cuffs at some point. The question remains how high up the chain of command they’ll take the prosecutions. Speaking of which…
My thwarted attempt to tell of Libor shenanigans – “During 1991, at the London office of Morgan Stanley, the head of interest rate trading was a person who has been at the centre of the current scandal: Bob Diamond.” If it was common knowledge among everybody at MS that they were rigging LIBOR back in 1991, how can Bob Diamond, who just resigned in disgrace from Barclay’s over the LIBOR-rigging scandal, claim that he just found out about LIBOR-rigging a few months ago? Sticking with my financials shorts.
Keep the pedal to the metal. More to come in a bit.
