Blue Dog Democrats

The WSJ's November 14 letters section (A16) introduced readers to a Blue Dog Democrat, Jim Cooper. I am a registered Democrat, but am fiscally conservative, which makes me a Blue Dog Democrat.

Rep. Cooper makes the point that the federal government "is still using unaudited cash accounting despite the availability audited, accrual numbers. The federal government is the only large enterprise in the U.S. that is exempted from normal accounting rules. If you want the truth, check out the 'Financial Report of the U.S. Government' (available at http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/)."

That link leads to this one: http://www.fms.treas.gov/frsummary/index.html

A politician who isn't lying, and who's showing us where the truth is? Just doing the former would make him special in Washington, but the latter, too? Bless those Blue Dogs.

Michael Lewis on Wall St Corruption

Michael Lewis always has great stuff:

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom

My favorite parts? Here you go:

In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000...

He called Standard & Poor’s and asked what would happen to default rates if real estate prices fell. The man at S&P couldn’t say; its model for home prices had no ability to accept a negative number. “They were just assuming home prices would keep going up,” Eisman says.

Oh, the hubris.

Poem: How do you like them apples?

It's the weekend, so not much on the economic front to report. The government might take our tax dollars to give to GM and Ford, but that potential giveaway comes next week. For now, some poetry:

http://paulgoetz101.wordpress.com/2006/11/15/federico-garcia-lorca/ [Broken link]

Same poem, different link:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/gacela-dark-death

Federico Lorca, who wrote the poem above ("Gacela of the Dark Death"), had a fascinating, but sad life:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca

Bay Area Homeowners in Trouble

According to The SF Chronicle and Zillow.com, around 20% of California Bay Area homeowners have no equity in their homes:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/11/11/MNN0142MCG.DTL&

Zillow's estimated prices are not 100% accurate (that's the nature of an estimate), but it's very hard to price houses in this market; therefore, Zillow might be the closest thing we have to getting what I call the "misery numbers."

Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz for linking to the SF Chronicle article first.

Poem by Judith McCune

I keep this poem in my wallet. It's from The Atlantic magazine (March 2000, page 96), and I've kept it there for eight years. Like my eight-years-old wallet, it is fraying and may soon become unreadable. I wanted to post it here so that others may read this little-known poem. Click on the link below to read the entire poem:

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/poetry/antholog/mccune/theguest.htm

I can't post the entire poem because of The Atlantic's copyright (a question for the IP and copyright lawyers out there: once the author is dead, does the copyright to her work diminish in any way, even though the owner of the copyright is the magazine, not the author?). In any case, I will quote the last stanza only to entice you to read the poem:

Now when Chiqui asks me how I've slept, I lie: Just fine, I say, though by this time I've learned the Spanish word for shame.

Copyright © 2000 by The Atlantic Monthly Company.

The poem neatly summarizes my old-fashioned world view. It has hard-working immigrants, caring family members, and a continuity of time (expressed through different generations of the same family). It also juxtaposes old-fashioned values against modern values in a way that makes the new values subservient to the old ones. Whenever I read McCune's poem, I fall in love with its style and content all over again.

Ariel Investments

Ariel Investments CEO John Rogers, Jr. beat Michael Jordan in a 1-on-1 game back in 2003. The video is here:

Ball Don't Lie

WSJ Link

Just for this, I am going to buy some Ariel funds someday (http://www.arielinvestments.com/). I love the way Mr. Rogers Jr. calmly walks away after the game instead of getting excited or trash talking. That's the temperament--calm but determined--a good mutual fund manager should have.

CEO Lanni Leaves MGM Mirage

MGM's CEO Lanni is leaving MGM Mirage:

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN1338744220081113

Jim Murren will likely replace him. Here is an old transcript of a 1998 interview with Murren:

http://www.fool.com/foolaudio/transcripts/980813_mgg.htm

Mr. Murren seems much more candid than Mr. Lanni. Earlier this year, I posted a review of the 2008 MGM shareholder meeting--see 2008 MGM Shareholder Meeting--in which Mr. Lanni seemed far too sunny and upbeat about his casino's prospects. You can't blame the man for trying, though.

I hope next time I'm in Vegas, I won't get a horse's head in my hotel room after this blog entry. An experienced dealer in Reno once told me, "Back when the mob was running Nevada, things ran much more smoothly." I bet.