I haven’t heard this much swearing since I saw the outtakes of the RV Salesman

One Hundred Dollars?

January 14, 2013

If only US Treasuries came with this kind of warning label. Poor time to be buying longer duration USTs (loaning money to the government); on the flip side, it is a GREAT time for the US Gov. to borrow money / refinance their debts. Keep in mind, over the long haul the 10 year UST averaged about a 5% yield (with some pretty massive swings). Even if rates get halfway to their long term average you’re looking at an 8% discount to par. Pretty lousy returns for what is widely viewed as a “risk free” asset.

Source: WSJ

Free Nights & Weekends

January 10, 2013

Everything Else

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According to my phone, over its lifetime I’ve logged 4.29 billion days of call time. That’s 11.7 million years of call time. I do have free nights and weekends + roll over minutes so luckily that kind of usage hasn’t resulted in overage charges.

Best Trade of 2012

January 4, 2013

Economics, Finance, Investing

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Looks like the long Lumber short Orange Juice trade would have made you a bundle in 2012. Was there anyone out there that saw that coming?

Also, it looks like the Japanese were much better at debasing their currency / inflating their stock market than their American counterparts. Oh well, better luck in 2013!

Postscript: it turns out the chart embedded below updates automatically, so it is no longer illustrative of the post above…

PSA: Huge Solar Spill

January 4, 2013

Everything Else

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Nyan Cat

January 3, 2013

Everything Else

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Just when you thought you’ve seen everything, someone goes and makes a web site like this (the running cat is in fact a link). Apparently it’s been around since 2011 and the original incarnation, a YouTube video, ranked as the #5 most viewed video in 2011.