Run it on Page 14, Section C!
UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

This is the UN saying this. You know, the body that the Left thinks is needed to legitimize everything. And they are finally admitting to Iraq having WMD over a year after the U.S. went in there to remove Saddam.

The blogosphere is going to be all over this, but I expect very muted coverage in the mainstream press.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 3:27 PM (Permalink)
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Why I Manage My Own Money

Money Manager Sought in L.A. Scam - The U.S. says Won Charlie Yi defrauded Korean immigrants of at least $36 million (link requires registration; remember to lie).

If you read the article, this crook's method is pretty standard: he promised investors ridiculously large returns with low risk because he had an "inside" deal on purchasing discounted stock. Once investors were in, he would send them statements showing huge growth in their accounts. As these things usually go, the thing fell apart when investors tried to cash in, at which point he promptly fled the country.

Now, for every crook stealing investors' money there are 1000 hard working professionals trying to make their clients a buck. I even have several relatives that work in professional money management, but the fact of the matter is that no one is going to treat your money like its their own unless they think it is their own. And since few of us can afford to lose our life savings and start over, I manage my own money.

I probably have an advantage over the average person on the street since, thanks to my MBA, I understand portfolio theory (CAPM), bond pricing (duration, etc.), options pricing (Black-Scholes), and other details of the capital markets.

But the truth is that the average investor has modest assets which aren't that hard to manage, and putting them to work doesn't require an MBA: put aside money each month, stay out of debt, balance your portfolio between cash, stocks and bonds. This isn't rocket science, so I am always surprised when I read articles like this where people hand over their life savings to someone they hardly know.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 12:48 PM (Permalink)
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Examples of Hollywood Idiocy and Intelligence
Like you need more examples of Hollywood idiocy, but in this case it was corrected by another star:

A week of "Russian Nights" in Los Angeles culminated with an awards ceremony on April 22 at the prestigious Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The gala event was held at the end of a weeklong "festival that celebrates Russian contributions to the world of art."

Scheduled to receive "narodney artyst" awards (cleverly translated as "the Russian People's Choice Award") were two Oscar winning actors: Dustin Hoffman and Jack Palance, both of whom trace their roots to Ukraine.

In accepting his award, Dustin Hoffman noted that his grandparents came from "Kiev, Russia" and expressed gratitude to the "Russian people" for helping defeat Germany. He thanked them for saving his grandmother who otherwise "may have ended up as a bar of soap."

Next in line for the Russian government's highest artistic award was Jack Palance. Born Walter Palahniuk in Pennsylvania in 1918, Palance won the Academy Award in 1992 for his memorable portrayal of Curly in "City Slickers".

After being introduced, Palance said "I feel like I walked into the wrong room by mistake. I think that Russian film is interesting, but I have nothing to do with Russia or Russian film. My parents were born in Ukraine: I'm Ukrainian. I'm not Russian. So, excuse me, but I don't belong here. It's best if we leave."

Palance and his entourage proceeded to get up and go. Palance refused to accept the award, even in private.

Dustin, the only time Kiev was part of Russia was when Ukraine was subjugated by those same troops you admire so much, who aided in the extermination of over 7 million Ukrainians. You might also want to note that Ukraine, whose capital is Kiev, declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 10:25 AM (Permalink)
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When Movies Ruin Great Music
I finally got around to purchasing Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, and it's an absolutely beautiful piece of music, especially the second movement. The only problem is that it has been used as background music in Spaghetti Westerns (a genre I love) so it keeps bringing up pictures of Clint on a dusty street about to start a gunfight.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to Amazon's excerpt (second track) here.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 9:02 AM (Permalink)
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Where Are You Most Productive?
Mike at Techdirt links and comments on an study that was done on where workers are the most productive.

Turns out workers are more productive while flying business class and in hotel rooms. Mike questions the basis of the study, but it's absolutely true for me.

If I had to rate where I am the most productive, it's in a hotel room. Most of the time this is because I am overseas and awake in the middle of the night, and the only thing on TV is in Korean or Japanese. I bring movies with me these days when I travel (the magic of the PC DVD), but after a blog entry or two, I nearly always end up doing email, working on action items, doing my expense statement (can't get behind on that), and other tasks. The same is true of flying business class, but without an internet connection, I do usually end up watching movies.

That leaves office and home, and between the two I am definitely more productive at home. So if my employers want more work from me, they should send me home from the office, buy me a ticket in business class, and fly me to an overseas hotel room. In this situation I would be unstoppable.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 3:32 PM (Permalink)
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No Instalanche, but I Evolved
I want to thank everyone for linking to and referring to my Carnival of the Capitalists entry this week. Unfortunately Glenn is on vacation, so I just happened to do the CoC that didn't get an Instalanche.

But I'm not complaining. Everyone else's links and referrals sent my traffic up quite a bit this week, and the additional links evolved me into a Large Mammal (see the cool picture below right I picked for this level).

Update: If you establish a permanent link to my site, let me know via email and I will cross-link to you. I try to keep up with links using various blogging tools, but none of them are very efficient.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 3:05 PM (Permalink)
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This Calls for A Major Economic Policy
From today's WSJ (link requires subscription):

THE U.S. SAID that 4,633 workers lost their jobs to "offshoring" during the first quarter, in the government's first attempt to count the number of workers who get fired when their jobs are transferred overseas.

Out of a labor force of about 142,000,000 workers, that is .0032% of all workers. I'll even take a yearly number and say it's .013%.

Should the U.S. enact major economic policy changes for 0.013% of workers?

posted by Director_Mitch @ 10:38 AM (Permalink)
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Taking an Opportunity Vs. Standing By Your Principles
I’m in Silicon Valley today for a day of sales calls. On last evening's flight up here, the former CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation who is now starting a VC fund came on board the plane and sat right next to me. This was a golden opportunity to make an important business contact and I had the perfect opening line “Hi there. I used to work for you!”

Yes, one of my CEOs from many moons ago was sitting right next to me on the plane. I was a low level employee in a corporation of thousands, and the two of us had never met, but the common background gave me the opening to start the conversation.

There was only one problem: I consider him a total, unethical scumbag and hate his guts. This particular CEO’s specialty was breaking up corporations, lining the pockets of himself and a small cadre of lieutenants at the expense of employees and shareholders. I got out of this particular corporation as fast as I could - just over a year - because of what was happening, but after I left I continued to watch as 1000s of employees were laid off and shareholders lost billions of dollars in value while he and a few buddies got ridiculously rich. The company was broken up into something like three or four pieces - I have lost count - and the remnants are still shedding employees all these years later in the middle of a tech boomlet.

It didn't take me long to make a decision. He closed his eyes and nodded off. I read my paper. An hour later we both got off the plane without saying anything to one another.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 5:13 AM (Permalink)
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For Relaxing Times, Make It Suntory Time
The title of this post is from Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. I know I seem to be referring to this movie a lot, but Sofia Coppola did capture a lot of the strange things Americans notice while traveling in Asia.

The reason Murray's character is in Japan is to get paid a ridiculous amount of money to do a commercial - something most major movie actors wouldn't be caught doing stateside. The fact is, this really happens. I picked up this little flyer in the Seoul airport for Lancelot Scotch:



In fact, there is a dedicated web site that chronicles major American actors doing commercials in Japan which allows you to search by last name.

People who have never been to Asia might not get the fact that the reason Murray is in Japan is a part of the movie's humor.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 1:35 PM (Permalink)
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Reagan Coin or Currency
As a currency collector, I was very interested when I heard about the proposals for putting Reagan on the $10.


(Photoshop courtesy of Outside the Beltway)

Putting him on the $10 makes sense (cents?) since most people have no idea who Hamilton was or why he was put on our currency in the first place (he was instrumental in setting up our modern banking system and was the first Secretary of Treasury). Personally, I think he was one of the more interesting Founding Fathers who lived a charmed life until he caught that bullet from Burr. But he was never a President. Calls for replacing Jackson on the $20 or Grant on the $50 miss the point that, no matter what people think about them today, they were Presidents of this great land while Hamilton was not (Franklin on the $100 was also not a president, but everyone would agree he was a greater Founding Father than Hamilton was).



Perhaps a better proposal would be to put Reagan on the $1 coin in place of Sasquatch, or whatever her name is who is on there now. The $1 coin has had the most turnover in portraits in the last 50 years having everyone from Anthony to Eisenhower. And to mollify the anti-Reagan crowd (of which there are many), it could be a commemorative issue, similar to what we do with State quarters today.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 11:54 AM (Permalink)
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Apple Martini Recipe
After noticing that Jim Carson blogged on a banana bread recipe, I thought I would add my recipe knowledge to the blogosphere in a area I know well: martinis. I always get compliments on my apple martini recipe, so I thought it would be the best one to pass on. It may seem very simple, but it took me many, many trials and errors to come up with just the right ingredients and ratios, a search for martini perfection that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Ingredients - Kettle One Vodka, Dekuyper Apple Pucker (don't use other Apple mixer liquors - this is the best one. Vodka is a matter of taste, but I think Kettle One is a good premium vodka that isn't extremely expensive).

Optional Ingredients - Illicit Cuban cigar (pictured above), Apple Schnapps

Ingredients Not To Use - I tried many, many ways to make this and recommend not adding real apple juice, using gin instead of vodka, or using a low-end vodka.

Instructions - Mix two parts Apple Pucker with one part Vodka. Mix in martini shaker (I prefer mine shaken, not stirred, to the point where small ice chips appear on the top of the drink after pouring). For an extra kick add a small amount (like a cap-full) of apple schnapps before mixing. Enjoy your capitalistic decadence with a socialist Cuban cigar.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 9:05 AM (Permalink)
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Carnival of the Capitalists
Welcome to Carnival of the Capitalists 101. Everyone find a seat. If you're looking for Carnival of the Vanities, it's across the hall.

I'm your instructor, Director Mitch, and I'm a real-life Marketing Director at an international technology company. I've broken down today's class by topic. Please hold all questions until the end of the lecture:

Marketing - My favorite business topic since it's what I do for a living.

o A boom in knitting? It's true. Small Business Trends looks at how this fuddy hobby is suddenly cool.

o Want to market your blog? Blog Business World has the ins and outs of the DMOZ Directory.

o Interested Participant makes me glad I turned down that marketing job at Maytag last year. Maytag's lack of a cost cutting strategy over the past decade means they are now forced to make a big change all at once, meaning big layoffs.

o Pricing is one of the Four Ps, and everyone hates the high prices of CDs. The Big Picture looks at why the planned CD price cuts went off track.

o The only thing people hate more than high CD prices is high gas prices. Steve Verdon notes that everyone likes to blame oil prices, but are missing many of the other factors contributing to high prices at the pump. Calico Cat looks at the political aspect of gas prices and wonders why politics gets in the way of a sound energy policy.

o Marketing includes sales, and a great way to improve sales is to read and understand the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Synergy Fest reviews the book and finds it very valuable.

Finance and Economics - Here we'll get out of the "real" world and get into theory and even some philosophy.

o Maybe this should be filed under Marketing: Curryblog explains how investment consultants and portfolio managers purposely misuse the term Tracking Error to make their portfolio performance seem better than it is.

o Catallarchy explores how markets allow selfishness to result in cooperation and uses everyone from Smith to Hobbes to explore how it has resulted in higher living standards for everyone.

o Wheat and Chaff fisks Orwell's book The Road to Wigan Pier and finds Orwell's criticisms of capitalism didn't take into account economic freedom, and how central planning of any kind results in losses of all freedoms.

o Consumption Taxes and how they tax dissaving is explored over at Tim Worstall

o How much do you believe in the economic principal of capitalism? Enough to go to a pro-capitalism rally? Ego suggests you attend one.

Corporate Governance - How is a corporation run? How are decisions made? Do you have a succession plan? What's the role of government in business? Those are only a few questions this area covers.

o One of my daily blog reads, Professor Bainbridge, looks at how hard it is to pass down a family owned business using the Mondavi wine family as a case study.

o Voluntary Exchange uses the example of the WMD recently found in Iraq to explain Framing Effects and their role in decision making.

o Leadership in corporations is vital and Photon Courier passes on a vignette on Eisenhower and his efforts to maintain positive relationships within his organization.

o My own entry this week asks readers for advice for when you find out customer is acting unethically.

o Jeff Doolittle examines FCC regulation and the long term plan for reallocating radio frequency spectrum

Entrepreneurship - Start-Ups are an area where I am 0 for 2, so a good topic for me do some reading on.

o The Entrepreneurial Mind looks at the need for entrepreneurs to find rest in their lives. I've yet to meet a successful entrepreneur who had any rest, so an interesting read.

o Which has created the most innovations: large companies with huge R&D budgets, or independent inventors? It's not hard to guess the correct one and Econlog wonders why large companies aren't the ones doing radical innovations.

That's it for today. Some of this material will be on the mid-term. Are the any questions? Bueller.....? Bueller.......?

Thanks for everyone's contribution. Next week's Carnival will be at We The People. Send your entries to capitalists -at- elhide -dot- com. Go to the CoC home page for more information on this weekly event and how you can become a host.

posted by Director_Mitch @ 12:01 AM (Permalink)
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