by Diane Tate

Can we please read the fine print and learn?

A friend recently shared how her dad says that whenever things head south, there’s always a way to make money. Enter poster child Warren Buffett.

Just days after buying $5 billion of Goldman Sachs (“perpetual preferred” stock…ah….), Buffett shows he has a soft spot for those kinds of shares and buys $3B more of GE’s.

The perpetual preferred stock carries a dividend of 10 percent, and can be repurchased after three years, at a 10 percent premium. Berkshire Hathaway will also receive warrants to buy $3 billion of common stock at $22.25 within the next five years.

So when Americans becry a “bailout” I wish they could do some Buffett primering. Specifically, there are bailouts…and then there are deals. Congress needs to strike the latter. Unfortunately, these involve a bit more complexity than the average person has an appetite for (dangling preposition and all).

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by Diane Tate

Timing


Isn’t that the key to everything?

Last night my friend Tony noted the strength of the beta of real estate in NY. That is, as the markets go, so does real estate to a vast degree. Then this morning, his words are vindicated:

“This is the company town for money,” [Richard Lefrak, patriarch of a fourth-generation real estate family that owns office buildings and apartment houses in New York and New Jersey] said. “If there’s no liquidity in the system, it exacerbates the problems. It’s going to have a serious effect on the local economy and real estate values.”

Anyone have any liquidity to spare…purty please?….

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by Diane Tate

Yiddish lesson


Mensch =

He acted in more than 65 movies over more than 50 years, drawing on a physical grace, unassuming intelligence and good humor that made it all seem effortless.

Yet he was also an ambitious, intellectual actor and a passionate student of his craft, and he achieved what most of his peers find impossible: remaining a major star into a craggy, charismatic old age even as he redefined himself as more than Hollywood star. He raced cars, opened summer camps for ailing children and became a nonprofit entrepreneur with a line of foods that put his picture on supermarket shelves around the world.

Ok fine fine – I know he left his first wife for Joanne Woodward…but then proceeded to clock FIFTY YEARS with her…in addition of course to the above….in his honor, I’m watching some of his old flix and discovering some gems. CHECK OUT THESE LINES from “The Hustler” — and we think people were repressed back then? ah no….

Bert Gordon: Sure you got drunk. You have the best excuse in the world for losing; no trouble losing when you got a good excuse. Winning… that can be heavy on your back, too, like a monkey. You’ll drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. One of the best indoor sports, feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all, especially the born losers.

…and, while you gotta see the whole Minnesota Fats scene to appreciate this one fully, it’s still worth quoting given its broad applicability:
Bert Gordon: I don’t think there’s a pool player alive shoots better pool than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.
Fast Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?
Bert Gordon: Character.

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