MSN Encarta published an excellent list of the “10 Weirdest Inauguration Day Blunders” My favorite: Richard Nixon ordered Pigeon repellent to be spread along the parade route—it was supposed to make the birds itch and hence not nest in the streets. Instead, the birds ate the repellent and the parade route was covered with dead birds. An omen? Perhaps. On a more serious note… I was moved by the Inaugural address—while less of a soaring oratory than I might have expected, I thought it struck exactly t... [Read More]

In the last few months, I’ve had a large number of contacts get ahold of me because they were concerned about their job security, and wanted my advice on how best to proceed. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend much earlier this year—I thought I would share in the hopes that it will be relevant some of the techies out there who are concerned about where their next paycheck is going to come from. These are tough times—and now is the time to reconnect with your professional network and st... [Read More]

A little levity in honor of a crazy market, I thought I’d share my top-10 twitter comments about the economy over the last few months. For more, http://www.twitter.com/jrj Without further ado… 10 The Good News: We're all going to be millionaires! The Bad News: A loaf of bread is going to cost $229,000.00. Inflation is a bitch.  (10/29/2008) 9   I think we might want to consider declaring this Dow Jones character mentally incompetent due to bipolar disorder. (10/30/2008) 8    Went to the bank to final... [Read More]

CNBC had the following commentary: Silver looks attractive to Graham Bibby, managing director at Richmond Asset Management, as he believes it is slightly undervalued. He explains his investment rationale for this precious metal, as well as gold. I agree with all of this, except “slightly” undervalued. Silver is at historical lows relative to gold, and the situation has changed in significant ways in the last few years such that I strongly believe that the short-term volatility in the precious metal i... [Read More]

The major commodities indicies are being rebalanced again, which made me decide to sell a bunch of gold shares at around 860 knowing that most indicies would be reducing their gold exposure because of its strong performance in '08. Barry Ritholtz is questioning the timing of this rebalancing as well as the last one in 2006.   "...I have no clue what the motivation is for these moves, nor do I knows what what they were in 2006. But they are looking increasingly curious and ill timed. Once is a coi... [Read More]