Monday, February 2, 2009

Dipshit of the week: Bob Harvey

In this first of a series we take a look at those individuals whose achievements(or lack thereof) might score themselves a first place in the Darwin awards.

In this first instalment we look at that useless smelly pile of ratepayer sucking, evil lefty dung-hole, Mayor of Westieland, one Bob Harvey.

Apart from his whole career at his local council sucking on the ratepayer tit and spending rate money like a drunken gay sailor on "P" Bobby has lately been making a name for himself by spending millions on a failed attempt at an airport that nobody wanted, on the North Shore of Auckland, swimming naked for a dare and cooking bacon while drying salami on his teenie tiny wiener (I made the last part up).

The reason why this black hole gets the dip shit of the week award is that he thinks his achievements rate him another handsome pay rise this year:

"I consider myself grossly underpaid for the work I do 24 hours, seven days a week," he says.

"MPs get a lifetime pension when they retire, yet when I finish I won’t get a thing, even though I’ve done 16 years in local government. It’s grossly unfair." stuff.co.nz

The fact that the world is in a financial crises seems to have passed him by but it is probably no surprise to most because he would have to get his head out of his arse to see what was going on in the real world.

Furthermore this evil, greedy little lefty doesn't think his massive growing staff at the council should limit their salaries this year like we are all having to.

Its "grossly unfair"?

Yes it is, Waitakere ratepayers should get their money back.

Congratulations Bob, you are the inaugural Political Animal Dip shit of the week.


Related Amazon Reading

Do government wage cuts close budget deficits?: A conceptual framework for developing countries and transition economies (IMF working paper) by Nadeem Ul Haque


c Political Animal 2009



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Short-sighted critics of Warren Buffett wrong

There has been alot of criticism of Warren Buffett and his recent spending spree over the last 4 months or so and how that (so far) hasn't paid off.

One person in particular, Doug Kass, has said that Buffett's strategy is stale and This is the end of Warren .

Now Doug Kass has money riding on this by short-selling. He has bet that stocks will go down from here-and he is probably right-while Buffett has been buying up large for the long-term shot.

Everything from Burlington Northern Railways, BYD Auto, Goldman Sachs , General Electric and many more in between, Warren Buffett has been like a kid in one of his See's candy stores with 90% off the prices.

Now I am probably the wrong person to read if you wanted to read unbiased stuff about Warren Buffetts "buy good stocks for a good price and hold forever" strategy but I happen to agree with the great investor and follow that strategy as well-my portfolio is similarly down, well...duh!

Where I think Kass and other critics of Buffett have been shortsighted-and the word shortsighted is the key here-is that they haven't given Buffett's big bets a time to play out-the fact that Buffett has a long-term view seems to have completely escaped the critics!

Buffett's big spending spree began earlier in 2008 when he made deals related to the Mars/Wrigley Merger, the Anheuser-Busch/Inbev marriage and increases in his Kraft shareholdings, then continued past the September 2008 stockmarket meltdown when he made the quite audacious statement to anyone who would listen, in an Op-ed piece that he wrote in the New York Times, to "buy American" stocks, because he thought they were "cheap".

So far this has affected Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock price and his other company holdings in a serious way, he has lost billions in wealth as a result and all in a very short time-frame.

But, and it is a big but, Warren Buffett has faced similar stockmarket and economic meltdowns before, bet huge sums while stocks were affected by these meltdowns and always managed to come out smelling of roses and manifold more times wealthier.

After a 5 year absence from the stockmarket from 1969 because he thought stocks in that period were not cheap, he made a reappearance in 1974 just before the turn of a bear market, when he declared in a Forbes interview:

How do you contemplate the current stock market, we asked Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, Neb.

"Like an oversexed guy in a whorehouse," he shot back.

Buffett then proceeded to buy up cheap stocks in good companies like he had some kind of billionaire fever. He did it again after the 1987 crash and after the late 1990s tech meltdown.

To be sure even Buffett himself has said the current economic and market situation is like an economic Pearl Harbour and we haven't witnessed anything like this since WW2, so he hasn't got his head completely up the far reaches of his vast wallet.

The only thing that worries me slightly about his recent behavior is that he has been uncharacteristically vocal, giving lots of interviews and making numerous public comments like he never has before.

In one recent interview with Susie Gharib from PBS Nightly Business Report (which incidentally runs on Auckland's Triangle TV at 4.30pm weekdays and is very good) Buffett answered this question from Susie and I would have to agree:

I mean what is your most important investment lesson?

WB: The most important investment lesson is to look at a stock as a piece of business not just some thing that jiggles up and down or that people recommend or people talk about earnings being up next quarter, something like that, but to look at it as a business and evaluate it as a business. If you don’t know enough to evaluate it as a business you don’t know enough to buy it. And if you do know enough to evaluate it as a business and its selling cheap, you buy it and don’t worry about what its doing next week, next month or next year.

SG: So if we asked for your investment advice back in 1979 back when Nightly Business Report first got started, would it be any different than what you would say today?

WB: Not at all. If you’d ask the same questions, you’ve gotten the same answers.

Indeed, time to be greedy when others are fearful.

I would bet on Buffett's side long-term. Lets see what Doug Kass has to say in 5 years.


Recent Share Investor Reading

Scam Watch: List of helpful Investor tools
Long vs Short: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Housekeeping: Google Translate


Related Links

Everything Warren Buffett
2007 letter to Berkshire Hathaway stockholders
10 Basic Buffett questions to ask before investing


Related Amazon Reading

Security Analysis: The Classic 1934 Edition
Security Analysis: The Classic 1934 Edition by
GRAHAM & DODDS
Buy new: $37.80 / Used from: $29.93
Usually ships in 24 hours


c Share Investor 2009

Scam Watch: List of helpful Investor tools

Since there has been so much skulduggery and theft from investors, most recently and historically, from individuals and companies like your Doug Somers-Edgars, Eric Watsons, Bridgecorp, ANZ's ING and a whole host of other vagabonds and rogues, I thought it would be good to collect together a list of links to help the investor out there stop investing in something silly and if they have already where they can go to get help.


www.seccom.govt.nz - NZ Securities Commission: Report all dodgy investments.

www.sharescams.org.nz - Find out what share scams there are about.

www.sfo.govt.nz - Serious Fraud office.

www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/scamwatch/ - Consumer scams.

http://www.fpia.org.nz/compdis-reso/complaintsproc.htm - Complaints to the institute of financial advisors.

http://www.eufa.co.nz/ - Exposing unacceptable practices website: principally set up to advocate for investors who lost money in fiance companies.

www.iombudsman.org.nz - Insurance and savings ombudsman.

www.bankombudsman.org.nz - Banking ombudsman.

http://www.consumeraffairs.govt.nz/businessinfo/cccfa/cccfa-regs-formula.html - Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Regulations 2004

http://www.comcom.govt.nz/ - Responsible for enforcing the Fair Trading Act, the Commission's site has a guide to the act, and information about various scams which they have taken action on.

http://www.vcnz.co.nz/Scams.html
- Property scams outlined.

http://www.reinz.org.nz/reinz/index.cfm?80B3875D-959D-2F1D-48B4-BC1152088CE3
- Complain to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

These links are helpful but of course the best thing you can do is do your own research before you invest that hard earned money.


Recent Share Investor Reading

Long vs Short: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Housekeeping: Google Translate


Related Amazon Reading

Madoff: Corruption, Deceit, and the Making of the World's Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme
Madoff: Corruption, Deceit, and the Making of the World's Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme by Peter Sander
Buy new: $10.17


c Share Investor 2009

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Winston's Big Black shame

So Winston Peters has been milking the taxpayer to the last minute over his ministerial self-drive car, so what else is new, he has been stealing from the taxpayer for his whole political career.


...it was proving a rather useful shopping trolley for his partner. Jan Trotman, with whom he lives in Auckland, used the Ford Territory to get to coffee dates and the post shop... NZ Herald

In 2008 he got away with numerous thefts, misappropriations, bribes and payola scandals related to just the last 5 years or so.

He is still to pay back $158,000.00 stolen from the taxpayer to fight the 2005 election.

At least he is consistent.

Pass the banana.


c Political Animal 2009