WAITING AND WATCHING

    

     Hurricane Sandy’s path is slated to take it right through the backyards of two homes occupied by our family members including sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren and a mother-in-law. 

   We are very worried about what lies in store for them and won’t sleep easily tonight. If their electricity goes out we will be in the dark as to how they are.

     Judy and I experienced Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and went without electricity for a week. It was like being back in basic training in the Army.

   I remember how uncomfortably hot it was in the house without air conditioning. Our cell phone was out. We used up some of the frozen meats in the freezer by cooking on the barbecue grill but a lot of food had to be thrown out. Often I had to get up at 5 in the morning to search for a line of cars at a gas station, hoping it would open later on. I don’t know why I needed gas because there were very few places open. During that week if you saw a long line of cars you just got on it. 

    We did find an International House of Pancakes that was open on the fourth day but the wait was an hour and a half. I refused to wait. We left but went back in an hour because we couldn’t find any other restaurant open. Judy was not too pleased. 

     I recall getting on a long line and waiting hours to get a few bags of ice and a box of food.  There was tremendous damage to trees all over Boca but we were spared. 
    The one frightening experience happened during the first night when gale force winds blew open the two glass and wooden doors in the courtyard. They were about to break loose and send glass chards whizzing into the air.  We took a flashlight and pushed out into the wind, it was like being in a wind tunnel. It took all of our strength to close the two doors and put a heavy rod through the handles of each door to hold them in place.

    The lucky ones in Boca got sick and had to by taken by EMS to the hospital, which was the first place to get wired up. At least it must have been cool in the rooms and they also had food. I know hospital food is not exactly rated 4 stars, but compared to the stuff we received in the free box of food it would have been a big improvement.

    At the end of the ordeal I ordered a generator. It cost a fortune and we haven’t turned it on yet. The same fate befell the portable butane two-burner grill.
      We hope and wish for the best for our kin and for all the other families that lie in harm's way.
     

GUEST ARTIST: PHOTOGRAPHER DONALD ROBINSON

     My good friend Don Robinson is an accomplished photographer and his work has been widely exhibited across the world and his achievements include the EFIAP award (Artists of Excellence) by the Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique, the Photograph Society of America's Galaxy Award, and twenty-five + gold medals for "Best of Show" won in various international photography salons.  

     Don is a native of Pittsburgh and has been documenting people, landscapes, animals and plant life as seen through his 35mm camera. His body of work reveals a searcher's eye, and explorer's sensibility, an innate delight of not just in faraway places and rare things, but also in his  "backyard" of light and wildlife found throughout Pennsylvania.

     I've asked Don to submit a few examples of his work with a brief comment on each of the photographs. Enjoy!

Norway – we were traveling up the Fjords and stopped at this boat rental place.  I loved the look of the boats with the accent of the early boat in the water.

Mumbai, India, Five Women – As I rounded a corner in Mumbai I saw these 5 women sitting on a bench.  I quickly took several photographs before they saw me.  I think it simplified the look of Indian women with their beautiful garments and jewelry.

House Pattern, Ireland – we were on a cruise ship and as we were coming into dock I saw this wonderful pattern accented by the red house.  It was a quick grab shot but it worked

Morocco, Blue Porch – This was the best photograph I made in 2009 when we visited Morocco.  I felt the color and composition were great. 

Penguins – photographed in Antarctica , second trip 1985.  These are Emperor penguins overwinter in Antarctica.  They are amazing.

Abstract – This is from a Chihuly exhibition at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.  I picked out this limited area for the color and design.


THANKS DON FOR A TASTE OF YOUR ART.

A CELEBRITY IN OUR FAMILY

     At long last someone in our family has gotten his or her name in the newspapers and it wasn’t on the Obit page or the Crime page. Nina Nestor, Judy’s older sister, wrote a letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times and it sparked a front-page story about CVS and it’s history of overbilling Medicaid (some $80 million and counting).

       Here’s how the front-page story started:

“Retired social worker Nina Nestor got an all-too-familiar phone call last week: Her prescription refill was ready at her CVS store in San Clemente. Trouble is, the 83-year-old cancer patient didn't ask for the refill or numerous others that CVS pharmacists filled this year without her permission. "The pharmacist told me after two weeks they put it back in stock and reverse the billing," Nestor said. "But I wonder about that."

      She wonders, and rightly so based on CVS’s track record, what’s going on and whether the pharmacy does in fact cancel the billing or perhaps CVS gets the use of the Government’s money during the interval.

      If you want to read the rest of the story go to:

http://www.latimes.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=nina+nestor&target=adv_all

If you want Nina’s autograph please let me know.

     I've arranged with CVS to provide all my readers with a Gift Coupon. Just print this out and take it to your nearest store. If you have any trouble using this coupon just show this Blog to the manager.

THE SEC IS A COWARDLY LION

       

     The SEC Commissioners broke out the champagne (see above) when Rajat Gupta, former Board Member of Goldman Sachs, was convicted of insider trading violations. The Commissioners had done the same when they reached a settlement on a handful of cases that were brought against Wall Streeters & others for their activities related to the preparation, packaging and sale of rinky-dinky mortgages (sub-prime) to unsuspecting customers all over the globe and that led to a worldwide recession.

My gripe with the SEC is twofold. First with the embarrassingly meager number of actions the SEC undertook, the Commissioners almost always FINED THE CORPORATIONS, NOT THE INDIVIDUIALS WHO HAD PERPETRATED THESE HIGH JINKS. And by fining the corporations they inflicted a double whammy on its stockholders - - - first the value of their stock declined because of the huge losses incurred by these public companies in unraveling and disposing of the mortgage securities they held and then again when the corporations’ coffers were diminished by the fines. 

IT’S THE INDIVIDUALS WHO DID THESE MISDEEDS WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUNISHED, NOT THE UNSUSPECTING AND LIED TO STOCKHOLDERS. (I guess you can tell by my vitriolic tone that I was a stockholder in one of these Wall Street firms whose stock went into the tank.

 These guys and gals at the SEC should be ashamed of themselves for their failure to bring to justice anyone in the credit ratings agencies who put their 
stamp of approval on mortgage packages that some people in their firms knew were just a time-bomb for investors, and for letting the hundreds of mortgage brokers and bankers go scot free who had feathered their own nests by pushing home buyers into mortgages that were sure to come home to roost, and for closing their eyes to the myriad Wall Streeters who packaged and sold these toxic instruments.  

      And even when the SEC settles a case with Wall Streets’ bankers it often makes a terrible deal, if the following case is any example. Only one person has been brave enough to raise an objection to the SEC’s giveaway. Judge Jed Rakoff, who was presiding over a lawsuit settlement between Bank of America and the SEC, called the $33 million dollar agreed upon settlement “unreasonable and unfair”. He sent the settlement deal back and the parties came in with a revised $150 million settlement. Rakoff still had criticisms over the new settlement calling the agreement "half-baked justice", but said that the $150 million settlement is "better than nothing.”

The SEC contends that it must settle most of the cases it brings because it does not have the money or the staff to battle deep-pocketed Wall Street firms in court. Maybe Romney, if elected, will take money from Big Bird and give it to the Cowardly Lions. The SEC claims it has to settle with these behemoths without their “admitting wrongdoing” because that can be used against them in investor lawsuits. 

Here’s another example when the SEC lashes put with a “slap on the wrist, instead of with a whiplash to the “kishkes”. The Treasurer of Citigroup was fined $100,000 for omitting to mention $ 40 billion of sub-prime mortgages to shareholders. (I can remember was $40 billion was a lot of money, but after listening to the Presidential debates I realize that unless it’s a trillion it’s chicken feed.) The executive paid this fine out of his piggy bank as he earned $10-20 million per year.

Let the Commissioners drink all the champagne they want. I hope it will help them to get their priorities straight and develop backbones.

READERS OF MY LAST BOOK AVOIDED FINANCIAL INDIGESTION

       

      Those of you smart enough to have bought copies of my last book, “The Adventures Of A Free Lunch Junkie”, certainly got their money’s worth ($10.99 on Amazon and $4.99 on E-Readers) especially if they paid attention to the chapters I wrote describing three of the free lunch seminars I attended. This book is likely to become a best seller after the recent article in the New York Times describing the penalties meted out to the “King” of the free lunch circuit, David Lerner. Read this excerpt from the New York Times:

          The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) said on Monday it had ordered David Lerner Associates to pay about $12 million to customers that bought into a $2 billion real estate investment trust and to those who were charged excessive markups.

FINRA, the retail brokerage industry’s watchdog, also said it had fined the firm, based in Syosset, N.Y., more than $2.3 million for charging unfair prices on municipal bonds and collateralized mortgage obligations. In addition, the firm’s founder and chief executive, David Lerner, 76, was fined $250,000 and suspended for one year from the securities industry, followed by a two-year suspension from acting as a principal, FINRA said.David Lerner boasted in his newspaper advertisements about the huge number of attendees at his free lunch seminars. I enjoyed going to several of them (and eating the free food) and listening to David and his assistants lecture about the firm’s investment vehicles (REIT’s). I wrote extensively about my experiences in my book. David seemed to enjoy speaking at these seminars as much as his audience appeared to get pleasure from his lectures. I described him as an “Energizer Bunny” who bounded excitedly around the room as he spoke.

St. Augustine is blessed with being the location of the “Fountain of Youth.” I don’t know what there is in the water in Boca Raton (where Judy and I reside in our Golden Years) but this town certainly seems to have more than its share of individuals who have had scrapes with various regulatory and law enforcement authorities, including David Lerner. It’s only fair to add that Mr. Lerner and his firm neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings as part of a settlement and paid the $14 million.

 The money comes out of David’s petty cash box. The firm raked in a 10 % fee on each of the $7 billion it has raised. That ain’t chopped liver.

I thought I’d add the aura of professionalism to Earl’s Pearls by providing a link a video so you can see David in action giving a lecture on "Enthusiam" at Stony Brook College. Just click :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjfT-skxgs

And now onto another free lunch seminar I attended in a private dining room at Ruth’s Chris in Boca given by a broker who was hawking “Life Settlements”. I had no idea what a Life Settlement was but I knew how juicy and delicious their filet mignon smothered in butter was so I     gladly accepted as soon as I received an invitation.

What was so memorable about this free meal was (1) I sat next to a couple I know quite well who got up and gave a ringing endorsement of the sponsor of the luncheon and (2) learning how much money I could make by buying a Life Settlement (an interest in a group of life insurance policies that had been sold by the owners to Life Partners Holdings, Inc, a NASDAQ-traded company). In other words an investor hopes that all the people on whose lives he had an interest died quickly.

Something sounded fishy about the whole deal, even though I was in a steak restaurant. And after my book came out the SEC evidently came to the same conclusion. The Commissioners rode in on a white charger and filed charges against Life Partners Holdings Inc. and three of the company’s senior executives over their alleged involvement in a life settlement scam. I’m not making the claim that there is any connection between my book and the SEC’s actions. I’ve always been modest.

To sum up the SEC’s charges the regulators alleged:

1) that the person making the estimates of the life expectancy of the individuals in the pool of policies, and on which the price the investor paid and his projected return was based was made by a medical doctor who lacked actuarial training and had no previous experience in this work. Somehow he materially underestimated the life expectancy and the SEC said this was a “NO, NO.” (Well at least the Company didn’t use a Veterinarian to make the estimates of life expectancy.)

2) improper accounting and disclosure violations

         3) two executives were involved with insider trading. The SEC claims that the two men improperly sold about $300,000 and $11.5 million of the company’s shares.

 Perhaps the SEC regulators attended one of these free lunches and got a tummy ache.

And now for the third and last free lunch seminar I wrote about and which caught the attention of regulatory authorities in various states. I was particularly peeved at this company (Stores Online, a subsidiary of a public company) because all they served up for lunch was a lousy cold deli turkey on a croissant (with all the fanfare at the seminar I expected at least a 2 pound lobster). The only beverage was a pitcher of water. In addition they offered a free MP3 Player that never came. I was peeved primarily because of all the comments I read on a website which contained the almost daily complaints of people who had invested many thousands of dollars only to find the claims of support and success the high-powered speaker at the meal had spouted go up in smoke. It was sickening to read the stories about people who had put their life savings into this deal and who had nothing to show for their investment but turkey on a croissant.

Thankfully, the company closed down the subsidiary engaged in these activities.

To summarize this posting I think you’ll agree that the proof of the pudding is in the eating and that anyone who bought my book was saved a lot of financial indigestion.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE/SEX - - - POST# 3

          
    

     During the middle of the night I finally figured out why so many of the early viewers of my Blog came from Russia. At first I thought it was because of the piece I wrote about Trotsky and that perhaps Putin’s henchman were trying to see if I was a Bolshevik. Then I conjectured that it was because my father’s family came from Minsk in Russia and somehow grandpa’s relatives were trying to track me down.

     But when I was finally able to trace back one of the websites that “hit” upon my site and saw that it was a porn site offering to sell XXX-rated pictures and movies I realized that the Russians had used a sophisticated device to troll the Internet looking for potential customers for their porn to spam by identifying those that contained the opening page “Content Disclaimer” (as mine does) that:

            "The blog you are about to view may contain content suitable only for adults." 

     And so I've  eliminated the disclaimer from my Blog to keep the Russian porn merchants at bay. I had only included the introductory Content Disclaimer to try and drum up interest in my Blog and I wound up, "hoist on my own petard."    

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE - - CONTINUED

    I previously reported how surprised I was that the largest number of my early readers came from Russia. I was delighted to welcome anyone to my Blog and wondered how they happened to tune in. I assumed it had something to do with the piece I wrote about Trotsky, but in checking out the website of one of the sites that had hooked onto my Blog I came across pages of the most explicit sex I have ever seen. I'd include a link to this site just to prove my case, but Judy would have a fit.

      I guess borscht contains important vitamins and minerals not found in the U.S. because Russian men are certainly very well endowed. I'm off to Publix.

Today marks an important milestone in the life of Earl's Pearls. In order to break up the monotony of my viewers having to read only my Pearl's of Wit and Wisdom, I have invited friends to contribute their thoughts to this Blog. Almost unanimously the invitees have refused, rather than having to be associated with this rag, but Alan Cohen has stepped forward and written the following pithy comments for your reading pleasure:

     Once upon a time in America there existed an unwritten social compact, viz., we, the people will overlook the shenanigans in Washington as long as we have upward economic mobility. 

   Unfortunately, the great recession coupled with the increased remoteness of our Washington representatives has left the system hopelessly broken with its attendant internal divisiveness. 

      If this compact cannot be restored it reflects poorly on the future of America for, as Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself can no longer stand." 

    The solution lies with the quiet wisdom of the common man---Vox Populi--- to open his heart and mind to diverse thought and to understand the needs and dreams of his neighbors because hateful invective is never a substitute for rational dialogue, and we well know where the former leads.

MONEY TALKS IN MANY TONGUES

What's good for Wal-Mart
 is good for America

Remember the furor a while ago when Wal-Mart was accused of bribing Mexican officials in order to expand its reach in that country. 

Their stock lost billions in value on the New York Stock Exchange before you could say, “Low prices. Every day. On Everything.”

I say, “Good for Wal-Mart”.

And Siemens paid $800,000 to Uncle Sam to settle charges that it had paid $100 million in bribes to Argentine officials, including former President Carlos Menem, to secure a $1 billion contract for Siemens.

 I say, “Good for Siemens and for all the other companies that have been and are paying bribes to do business in all the emerging markets and some of the developed markets. That’s the way business is done in China, India, Russia etc. etc. and why should our companies be handicapped?”

And before we turn our noses up at the way bribery is part of the fabric in much of the world let’s not brush under the carpet the fact that American companies spend hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars bribing U.S. public officials (and any one else they feel they have to) in order to further their own business.

 THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT WE CLAIM TO BE HOLIER THAN THOU - - - NO BRIBES UNDER THE TABLE. WE BRIBE RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN IN THE FORM OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS AND TO THOSE HOPING TO BE ELECTED.

And don’t tell me that there isn’t quid pro quo. How many “bridges and roads to nowhere” have been built in the U.S?

         And what about the mega millions paid to lobbyists to influence legislation. It’s just a sugarcoated bribe. Just think of how many billions Wall Street hedge fund managers have saved by the legislation that taxes their income at 15% instead of as ordinary income. It’s dead wrong, but there’s too much money sloshing around from the fat cats to do anything about it

     And does your son or daughter want to grow up to be an ambassador in a posh location. Please don’t tell them to study and work hard and eat their spinach. Just tell them to become a major political contributor, and learn a few words of French.

     And if you think Judges are beyond the pale, just listen to a few episodes of “The Good Wife” and similar TV programs.

     And do you, “wanna get your parking ticket fixed.” Ask your local “pol”.

   And, why in the world did Bill Clinton pardon Marc Rich who was indicted for tax evasion. His wife, Denise, was a major contributor and fundraiser.

     I say “Way to go Bill,” but I can’t say I approve his smoking cigars in the White House. It sets a bad example for the children.”

  And bribery is in our blood outside of the political arena as well.

     And does your son or daughter want to get into a prestigious school where there are only a limited number of openings. (Remember how Sandy Weill donated (paid) $1,000,000 to get two of his star employees' daughters into a highly regarded YMHA school in Manhattan. Yes I know there was more to it than that but that’s for another blog.”

     And how about the Super Bowl Junkets, trips to The US Golf Open, Wimbledon, where corporate executives pull out all the stops in keep getting business from their biggest clients and to win over new ones. I say,  “Good for them and I wish I’d been invited somewhere, anywhere, when I was working.”
     And I think it's great that generals and admirals who retire are hired within a fortnight by the very defense contractors to whom they had awarded billion dollar contracts.

      And I think it is great that public officials who commit illegal acts get re-elected. The public ain’t dummies. It’s better to vote for someone when we know what crooked deals he’s been involved in than vote for someone whose nefarious deals haven’t come to light as yet.

     I’m all for it. I'll give you a box of cigars if you recommend an advertiser to my BLOG.