World Monopoly let's have a Look

A real game player Mr. Buffett

 If you really run some recon on the financial markets by what is offered from large investment groups like Goldman Sachs, (you need to read that) well your best interest is not at hand. This is the world of the Monopoly game and we're all on the board, oh the creatures of this legal gambling own the board and run the game.  The tools created are made up by man, just like anything else that comes knocking.  What you don't get to see in this game is the time of inception (until it hits the market) and when the plug will be pulled, a bubble if you will.  The Banks and investment institutions create all this crap and from their web of business and influence have weaved their way into the US Treasury (Federal Reserve) and governments around the globe.  Now with that in mind, you only want to work with a business you can stomach no need to be nerve racked by an institution who is only going to rip your guts out.

Education is expensive of any end play but what's important here you can certainly participate in the game.  Market timing is not so much of when to get in or out but what you are buying, this is most important for the long run.  Just look at a stock like McDonald's (I'm loving this)  had nothing to do with the Subprime, Swaps, Derivative and all the other crap that will come down the pike.  Move away from what you don't really understand and certainly, don't let some investment group steer you.

We all see today what the games interest really is and has always been, profit for the board of directors, hell we all need profit from our efforts but not at a point where you screw your customer to get ahead.  Now if you look at some of this those who cause such crap are paying for it.  The Feds and SEC are using JP Morgan Chase as a punching bag to a point the board of directors is asking "when is this going to end", oh the poor dears!

So let's move into a better light of financial strength and growth and what better role model than the man himself, Warren Buffett who is chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century.  Even as a child, Buffett displayed an interest in making and saving money.  He went door to door selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, or weekly magazines.  For a while, he worked in his grandfather's grocery store.  While still in high school he was successful in making money by delivering newspapers, selling golfballs and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means.  Filing his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.  In 1945, in his sophomore year of high school, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within months, they owned several machines in different barber shops.  

Wow, a true businessman from the core and today his stock trades @ $173,530 BRK-A the most expensive on the exchange.  You can also get into the BRK-B @ $115.80, by the way, Berkshire Hathaway owns 200,000,000 shares of Coca-Cola just his idea of investing in what makes you feel good instead of what grinds your gut Pod.

Some advice from Buffett, "The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as business, use the market's fluctuations to your advantage and seek a margin of safety.  That's what Ben Graham taught me.  A hundred years from now they will still be the cornerstones of investing". 

Berkshire Hathaway  (a no thrills kind of a guy)

Warren Buffett News

Bill George 


A fine dynasty, investing with Goldman Sachs

US Senator Carl Levin, questioning Daniel Sparks - Former Goldman Sachs Mortgages Department Head. 

 Attention101

 

Ethics in The Marketplace

Native Advertising, You In?

Markets are a system, and systems have structure. The structure of a well-functioning market is defined by the theory of perfect competition. Well-functioning markets of the real world are never perfect, but basic structural characteristics can be approximated for real world markets.

There exists a popular thought that free markets would have a structure of a perfect competition. The logic behind the thought is that market failure are thought to be caused by other exogenic systems, and after removing those exogenic systems ("freeing" the markets) the free markets could run without market failures.

As an argument against such a logic there is a view that suggests that the source of market failures is inside the market system, so the removal of other interfering systems would not result in markets with a structure of perfect competition: capitalists don't want to enhance the structure of markets, just like a coach of a football team would influence the referees or would break the rules if he could while he is pursuing his target of winning the game. The capitalists are not enhancing the balance of their team versus the team of consumer-workers, so the market system needs a "referee" from outside that balances the game. The role of a "referee" of the market system is usually given to a democratic government. (We're still learning)

The Mind of The Market Place is a book by Michael Shermer,  he considers the morality of markets in a discussion of what he calls virtue economics. Although we are selfish and altruistic, cooperative and competitive, peaceful and bellicose, in the main the balance is heavily on the side of good over evil. For every random act of violence that makes the evening news, there are 10,000 nonrandom acts of kindness that go unrecorded every day. Markets are moral and modern economies are founded on our virtuous nature. The Enron model of business is the exception and the Google motto of 'Don’t Be Evil' is the rule.

Google Code of Conduct:

"The Google Code of Conduct is one of the ways we put 'Don’t be evil' into practice. It’s built around the recognition that everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct. We set the bar that high for practical as well as aspirational reasons: Our commitment to the highest standards helps us hire great people, build great products, and attract loyal users. Trust and mutual respect among employees and users are the foundations of our success, and they are something we need to earn every day".

Many companies use the phrases 'ethical code' and 'code of conduct' interchangeably but it may be useful to make a distinction. A code of ethics will start by setting out the values that underpin the code and will describe a company's obligation to its stakeholders. The code is publicly available and addressed to anyone with an interest in the company's activities and the way it does business. It will include details of how the company plans to implement its values and vision, as well as guidance to staff on ethical standards and how to achieve them.

Our market is evolving as much as we are, New York was inhabited by various tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian speaking Native Americans at the time Dutch settlers moved into the region in the early 17th century. Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage marked the beginning of the European involvement in that area. Sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year. After his return word of his findings quickly spread and Dutch merchants began to explore the coast in search for the profitable fur trade.

We've come a long way and not to have it ruined by a couple of bad apples. Remember, we're once a tribe, all of us, anywhere. 

Enjoy this clip.

Cameron Michael