Daily Thoughst 3/8/2009

Engraving of a Reader Source Octave Uzanne, Le Livre, Paris, A. Quantin, 1880.
Date 18th Century

Daily Thoughts 3/8/2009

Today was a bit frightening. There is so much political theater on the television going on. All of the pundits are spouting fear. I was at the deli and get a chance to watch Ann Coulter spout her brand of fear. Then later at night, while I was at the laundromat, I was watching 60 Minutes and they were putting out their own special brand of fear, how banks are shut down when they fail by FDIC. It was informative and very scary.

We are in for some very interesting times. Governor Paterson in New York is cutting library budgets. More people are coming in. Things were just going along. Now, I feel, I am going to have to justify everything I do in terms of money. This means lots more statistics and demands for greater results from the community with less money.

I spent some time printing out some of the poetry I had written from this blog. I am going to read it on Tuesday. We are having an open microphone poetry/spoken word event. We decided to add spoken word to our flyers hoping it will get some more people to come. I think I have at least three or four people with original material. One of them got their name in the paper at another poetry reading, he is a boxing poet. Another person has a spoken word cd. The last person has been coming to our library for over twenty years.

I am still reading Words In Your Face.

Ten Roads to Riches by Ken Fisher

The Ten Roads To Riches the Ways The Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too) by Ken Fisher with Lara Hoffmans

This book outlines ten different ways to become rich; start a company, become a CEO, ride along with the CEO (Charlie Munger rode along with Warren Buffet), become famous, marry into wealth, become a plaintiffs lawyer (sue people), manage other peoples money, become a land barron, invent things (songs, patents, books, intellectual property), and manage your wealth slowly and frugally. There is a chapter on each road along with an introduction and conclusion. The book is not rocket science but it is entertaining.

Ken Fisher is one of the richest people, he is on the Forbes 400 list and manages $45 billion in investments. He wrote this book because "he likes to write", not because he needs to make money. He should know a little bit about becoming rich.

I like the combination of humor, irony, and straightforwardness in this book. Ken Fisher said he had his lawyers go through the book twice to make sure he would not be sued for libel. He reminds us that not every way which people get rich is appealing to many people, a lot of people hate stock brokers, distrust plaintiffs lawyers (modern day pirates), and think it is tacky to seek out rich people to marry.

Each chapter also includes a section on how to not break the law and still make money. Carly Fiorina and Bill Lerach are two examples of how not to do this.

At the end of many chapters there is a reading list. I found two books that I plan to read, The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall and Beyond Entrepreneurship by James C. Collins and William C. Lazier. There is also a short bulleted list of the basic first steps you need to take down each path.

This book is not complicated. It is methodical and straightforward. There are no secret formulas, no complex charts, and no incredible promises. It is so real at times that it becomes darkly humorous. I can recommend this book for people who are interested in building wealth. It is currently on the New York Times bestseller list.

A Few Books And Comments On Money

US Silver Certificate Dollar

Money is one of those things which bloggers seem to talk about a lot. These are a few book recommendations on investing. The first four books are currently part of the Wiley Investment Classics series. The first book is one which most stock brokers claim they have read at one point or other, Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd. Benjaimin Graham is considered to be one of the fathers of value investing. The next book is called Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher. Philip Fisher is considered to be the person who came up with idea on how to invest in growth stocks.

The other two books are about the condition of wall street. They show how little has changed in the way people act around stocks and money. The first book is Where Are All The Customers Yachts: A Good Hard Look At Wall Street by Fred Schwed. This book is quite fun to read. Confessions of A Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre is equally entertaining.

The best book which I have ever read on the concept of value is an art book, surprisingly. The book is called Boggs: A Comedy of Values by Lawrence Weschler. J.S.G. Boggs is an artist who draws money. He draws single sided bills. These are variations of different types of money with fantastical elements, like flowers and pictures of children, or odd colors. He then tries to use the bills to buy things from stores. He tells the people he is attempting to buy the things from that it is not real money but art, and if they want the art, they should give him some change and a receipt for the thing he has bought. Watching the process is fascinating. This link has an interview and a video of him. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/egg/217/boggs

Please don't ask me about stock tips. I'm not great at this.. Two of my recent investments were near total disasters. I invested in HOKU Scientific, a fuel cell company which recently was forced to switch from being a fuel cell manufacturer to a solar cell manufacturer. HOKU lost its contracts for fuel cells which are basically pie in the sky in most cases and was forced to invest in a form of more realistic energy, solar energy.

I also am invested in Finavera, a company that recently had another total disaster. At the beginning of November, the wave energy generation buoy which they were working on failed its commercialization test. The buoy went from a commercial value of over $4 million dollars to being written down to $1. The wave energy generator proved to be commercially unviable. Luckily, the company didn't go out of business completely because they were heavily invested in wind energy, a more traditional form of alternative energy. They received financing to stay in business.

Now is not the best time for alternative energy in the United States. Also investing in the stock market is risky. I used etrade to make my trades. One day, because Citigroup investment analysts downgraded it, the stock fell 58% in value. I pulled all of my trading money out of there quickly. In the beginning, it looked to be an online stock trading company failure. Luckily, someone bailed them out. If Etrade had gone under, it would have had incredible impact on the market. http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/13/etrade_stock_falls_58_after_forecast/

Things in the stock market are very scary right now.