Once I built a railroad

The days of buy and hold are yet to come. Get ready for the 1930's bonus armies of the ought 2000's to march soon. I exited C and JPM two trading days ago, taking a loss, but convinced they and other financial names will become wards of the state, wiping out shareholders. As Judge Smails said about sending young men to the gas chamber, "Didn't want to do it, felt that I owed it to them."

Profits these days are like the fabulous angel Moroni appearing to the upstate New Yorker who made his way to Utah believing that Jesus somehow came to these shores from Palestine to live with the Indians. Makes as much sense to me, a man who says a Hail Mary before bed and every golf shot, as anything else.

After all, American car companies have been diligent, in my view, only to be suckered by the globalization cheerleaders and the offshore fellows who have a leg up. Oh well, their central banks buy our debt, so let's not bash those who play with the axe that can wound us all.

No how many Hail Marys I recite, things will will only get worse before they get better, but I'm sticking with F.

JFK said: "I have just received the following wire from my generous daddy: 'Dear Jack -- Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary -- I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.' "

Don't pay for a landslide, friends. I have been duly chastened by more than a couple of my own miscalculations. I have made dough in precious metals (SLV) and a few tech names (PALM and S), ans still holding on; and lost in financials (duh! as the kids say) and a sentimental buy (NYT).

Have to get back to the second half of the OU-Texas game. Could life be more unfair still?

It's a Festivus Miracle

What an exquisite chess game the Fiesta Bowl proved to be. Texas 24, Ohio State 21.

First, Ohio State using Beanie Wells so effectively until he left the game with a concussion. If he could have stayed in, OSU would have won, I think.

Then Texas putting the Buckeyes on their heels with the Big 12 no-huddle offense for which a Big 10 defense, used to climbing up slowly after three yards and a cloud of dust, is ill prepared.

Then Ohio State using Todd Boeckman at quarterback throwing to fellow quarterback Tyrelle Pryor for a touchdown. What a twist on the wildcat! But with Pryor taking the snap, Jim Tressel has to start considering the triple option to really expand his offensive game.

The offense wins games these days. Defenses, given the rules, must rely on athletes, not deep thinking, no matter what Longhorn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp thinks of himself. I don't fault Ohio State for putting everyone in the box on Texas' winning play.

My only quibble with Ohio State was scoring too quickly late in the fourth quarter with McCoy lurking slack-jawed on the sidelines. Herron, the OSU halfback who replaced Wells, should have fallen down at the one, and Ohio State should have leisurely taken its time pushing into the end zone, but who among us thinks of that when all one sees is green grass ahead?

And, of course, the Texas QB. Over 400 yards passing and unflappable. My heavens, the man has it all, except the Heisman. I'd give it to him or Quan Crosby, who scored the winning TD on a dart from the real McCoy (couldn't resist the obvious adjective).

Great game, but now I must sing because I dread the beating Florida will give the Sooners in Miami, thus giving the evil empire ensconced in brutal Sparta (also known as Austin) its right to stand over shining Athens (aka Norman):

"Don't send my boy to Texas, the dying mother said. Don't send my boy to Texas, I'd rather see him dead..."

And whether OU wins or loses Thursday in the BCS championship game, the one or two mourners at my burial plot, or the lone drunken Irish priest if there should be no one else there, should intone:

"O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A
Our chant rolls on and on.
Thousands strong, join heart and song
In alma mater's praise.
Of campus beautiful by day and night.
Of colors proudly gleaming red and white.
'Neath a Western sky
OU's chant will never die
Live on University."

OK, I'm done. It's been a great bowl season. Just hope the BCS championship game is uninteresting. I like 66-0 games. In any event, I'm voting for Utah as the national champ.

I'll take my bonus in okra

Bankers rank right up there with politicians, lawyers, journalists, serial killers and know-it-all bloggers (like me) as a species to be reviled. But, like it or not, they are essential to the maintenance of commerce.

Vikram Pandit and his carefully coiffed, sleekly suited and over perfumed brothers and sisters in the paneled walls of finance at Citigroup realize who butters their bread (the United States) and have manfully refused bonuses for 2008. What a blow for egalitarianism. They could take bonuses only at the risk, nay, certainty, of opprobrium at the hands of shareowners (again, the United States).

But to retain talent, as oxymoronic as that may sound in view of the train wreck that C, MS, GS, LEH, JPM and BSC are part and parcel of, requires some dough to be passed around. Fair? No. But life is unfair and if you want the bank to open for business in the morning and not lose your dough ya gotta pay up.

It's a free country, so you don't have to like it, and I'm sure you won't. Be comforted, though, that the bonus-less Mr. Pandit and his ilk will not miss any meals or be forced to ride the subway to whatever they call work these days, which I suspect is buying Treasury paper at zero percent interest with TARP funds and laughing at the guy or gal who wants to buy a house or start a business. Nice work if you can get it.

Whoa! Now I'm riled up. Can't wait for the bowl games to begin.

I expect Penn State to give USC a battle today, but then I expected the ACC's Georgia Tech to beat the SEC's LSU last night and woke up this morning to find the bayou tigers had romped over the ramblin' wrecks 38-3. I guess Les Miles had too much time to prepare for Paul Johnson's potent option offense.

This does not bode well for loyal sons and daughters of old OU against SEC opponent Florida in a week. I think Sam Bradford and the valiant Sooners will have to score on every possession to have a chance against Tim Tebow and his direct line to God.

Remember to eat salt pork and black-eyed peas today for good luck. It's a southern, hillbilly thing. I'm also fixing fried okra (rolled generously in corn meal). Y'all will be assured of a great 2009.

Charmer and the Charmed

It is convenient to divide the world into two camps. I do it often as a way to explain success, failure or just the amount of enthusiasm one has for getting up in the morning and facing Miss Market (I prefer to think of it as a she, not Mr. Market, for some vaguely sexist reason, I'm sure). But Mr. Madoff is off the charts. How he kept all those balls in the air for so long without Miss Market walking out on him will likely be studied by psychologists and fledgling con men for years to come.

I've tried my two-camps trick, as in "the world is divided between the suckers and the wise guys," or, "the world is divided between those who play by the rules and those who move their tee shot from behind a tree when no one is looking." But this guy separates himself. Your run-of-the-mill swindler fleeces and flees. Mr. Madoff stuck around, with a public profile as big as the Ritz, apparently never believing everybody would ask for their money at once.

Perhaps the lesson for investors is that you can't have it one way all the time. Take your best shot, and if you lose (hopefully fewer times than you win) chalk it up to fickle Miss Market and soldier on. If a money manager appears to be saying his trees grow to the sky year after year, take a look at the rest of the forest. Like picking football games against the spread, if you're right 60% of the time you're a genius, 100% of the time and the fix is in.

By the way, played at Dyker today. Putted well, tee shots were inconsistent, approach shots were atrocious. Oh well, the worst day on the golf course is better than.....Sadly, it looks like the last golf day for a time. Instead, I am devoting myself to analyzing the BCS championship game and trying to come up with a way for OU to score 60 points against Florida. I think that's what it's going to take.