Oldtent Archives 2007 - 2008

Do ya know Chuck Baldwin or a guy named Shamey from Berkley[1968 thru 76] popular streetvendors. Liven you spirtits if you know them they are right here at hotel.

interesting comment today, as follows:  “Figuring out how much an ounce of in-ground gold or in-ground uranium is worth is not an exact science, bust most people would agree that the non-extracted commodity does have significant value, especially during a long-term commodity bull market.  At the moment, however, the market capitalisations of some exploration-stage uranium stocks are roughly the same as the amount of cash these companies have in the bank.  The stock market is therefore saying that in-ground uranium is almost worthless, even though utilities are prepared to pay $90/pound for the aboveground stuff”

Seems like quite a sensible comment, and I suspect you and I and others can figure out  which companies might be in the stock price circumstance that Saville outlines.

 Best wishes.  Equiz.

As soon as I saw that post bells went off. I have a friend who is in Illinois public school 201 and his natural resource fund has been seriously lagging golds price with some decent shares in it. When he told me I expected to find Nova Gold in the mix but it was not there. So it too must be a slimy high load deal.

How those turkeys explain such an incongruous closing price in view of their ’shown’ SGDBX holdings.

Something else also triggered an ‘alert’ signal. ……………….

You mentioned “Smallish Company.”
Politely ask your Boss or HR person in charge to increase the ‘offerings’ and make some concrete valid suggestions as to which ones. The more employees who also join the bandwagon, the more likely ‘addition/change’ can take place.

Somewhere back in time I was reading about how ’some’ Funds get in bed with the “Smallish Business Owners” and develop specially tailored 401K programs with high expenses and front/back loads which are foisted onto the hapless prisoners of such 401K’s. Seems ’some’ also provide relatively handsome ‘fee sharing’ (aka kickbacks) to said ‘Smallish Business Owners’ for using their ‘captive’ 401 Services.

Maybe some others can dredge up a link or articles which shine a light on this dubious, unethical, un-fair, and most likely ‘Illegal’ practice.

Keep prayin , farmgal just told me we have a firm offer on the house. Oh lordy now I gotta move faster. But it is all coming together ..Moggy was right

I have a # down here now…011-501-661-9134. Also made a deal for some cell phones. If you stay more than 4 days it is worth it. But even so I could buy it back for some dough. The phones are new and of upper level in bells and whistles. 75 bucks U.S with the simm card and 10 dollars credit. Regular rental is about 12 bucks a day and a little charge for minute use on top of paying for minutes. I am thinking of just getting 2 more and having them ready when people come down and ya can pay what you want,at least they are ready to go.
Good Lord it felt good to hold the mining certificates in me little hand and have them locked up before the election. Election looks good though.
By the way this is a small country and when you come down don’t get into any conversations with strangers about what we have going. Even just pleasant chit chat. There seems to be a bit of a jealousy factor I didn’t account for ….great moves in Hui vs. Dow today ..dummies are still buyin 30 bonds like dopes.

“ah the taste of a fine affectionato….. ”

No, just the horrid memories of my folks monopolizing the B+W TV so they could bellow out old songs along with Mitch.  The ‘Duck song’ was always welcome ‘cuz it  ment the end of the show!   I have no taste…  so I’ve been told.

There was no shortage anecdotal stories some months back, read on the housing bubble blog. The discussion let me know that since most is fraud, most is going undetected until too late and they are gone. There’s not even an enforcement agency set up and one that’s competent to understand the mechanism of the fraud, (the FBI was worthless per a few) and then to prosecute, but prosecute who? Someone who scooted to …. not Belieze, maybe Mexico, Urugay ??? See. Like that.

It’s real estate related… and it involves a scam I have heard about.  There are lots of foreigners here in the US on work vistas, PRs, illegally, etc.  Many of these foreigners have gone out and bought houses during the mania.   They got the crazy expensive homes b/c bankers can be some of the stupidest people on the planet.

I heard there is a trend going on with some of these houses.  What some of the crooked ones have done is put as little down as possible on their home — when the free credit was flowing.  Then over the past couple of years they’ve borrowed the maximum they could with home equity loans.  Now they’ve liquidated their assets and moved as much of  it back to their homeland; and fallen way behind on their payments.  The next logical step is they get on a plane and don’t come back.  Of course, we’re stuck with their bill…    I would like to see some figures on this one…I suspect it’s a fairly common occurence right now.

from cnn money…mostly Ryans Steak Houses…private equity strikes again! You kind of have to read the fine print….they just bought Ryan’s in 2006…and it is already in BK.  That was fast.

Buffets Holdings Files for Bankruptcy

Restaurant Chain Buffets Holdings Files for Bankruptcy, Cites Weak Consumer Spending

January 22, 2008: 04:26 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Buffets Holdings Inc., one of the country’s largest restaurant chains, filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, becoming the U.S. retail sector’s biggest casualty of the economic slowdown that has spurred consumers to cut spending.

The privately held company, which employs more than 36,000 workers nationwide, reported debts totaling $1.15 billion and assets totaling $963.6 million. In documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., the company attributed its financial troubles mostly to “significantly depressed consumer spending.”

That slump, fueled by worries the U.S. economy is on the brink of recession, has put a growing number of retail and restaurant companies at risk of default in 2008, according to Standard & Poor’s. Analysts have said “casual dining” restaurants such as Buffets have been especially vulnerable as consumers’ preferences have shifted to cheaper fast-food restaurants.

Buffets, which is based in Eagan, Minn., said it has $85 million in loans available to finance its reorganization under a $385 million credit line provided by a group of existing lenders that includes Credit Suisse Group. The remainder of that credit line is considered tapped because Buffets’ lenders simply “rolled over” $300 million in senior bank debt into Buffets’ post-bankruptcy loan.

The company said it was unable to find new lenders willing to provide loans on “more favorable terms.” In a statement Tuesday, the company’s chief executive, Mike Andrews, said Buffets restaurants will remain open as the company works to reduce its debt. But he said the company will conduct “a thorough review of all underperforming locations over the next several months to determine if they can meet our long-term objectives.”

Buffets serves 3.8 million customers a week in restaurants that include the Country Buffet, Ryan’s and Tahoe Joe’s brands. Its largest unsecured creditors include HSBC Bank, the trustee for a group of bondholders who are owed $321 million, according to court documents. The company also owes $8.7 million to North Star Foodservice Inc., a big supplier to restaurants.

Buffets’ bonds have plummeted in heavy trading since the corporate credit markets ran into serious trouble in July 2007. At the start of 2007, Buffets bonds were selling above 100 cents on the dollar. On Tuesday, the company’s bonds fell to 8.5 cents on the dollar as distressed-debt investors headed for the exits.

Buffets was a public company until 2000, when it was acquired by a group of investment funds affiliated with the private equity firm Caxton-Iseman Capital. Six years later, Buffets acquired Ryan’s Restaurant Group Inc. in an $835-million transaction that some analysts say left it with more debt than it could handle.

“It was an aggressive capital structure that didn’t work out in a declining consumer environment,” said Mark Churchill, a senior research analyst with Piper Jaffray Cos.

___

“NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Short interest jumped 8.7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange in mid-January, rising to an all-time high, the exchange said on Tuesday, as short sellers sought to take advantage of a global sell-off in stocks.

As of Jan. 15, short interest was at a record 13.85 billion shares, up from 12.74 billion shares as of Dec. 31.

The 8.7 percent increase from late December to mid-January was the largest increase in short selling in recorded history, according to Dylan Wetherill, president of short interest tracking Web site ShortSqueeze.com.

“Short sellers on the NYSE have been dumping huge volumes of shorted shares on to the market and gaining from every tick down in stock prices,” Wetherill said. “The profits have been fast and huge for the short sellers.”

Short interest as of Jan. 15 was equal to 3.7 percent of the total shares outstanding on the NYSE, the exchange said.

The previous short interest record of 12.95 billion shares was hit on July 13, 2007, just before the stock market tumbled in August.

Investors who sell securities “short” profit from betting stocks will fall. Short-sellers borrow shares and then sell them, waiting for the stock to fall so they can buy the shares back at the lower price, return them to the lender and pocket the difference.

U.S. stocks have dropped below August lows this month, and the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index .SPX is on track to record its worst January ever, as investors fear the U.S. will slip into recession and drag other economies around the world down with it.

Short interest has been rising fairly steadily on the New York Stock Exchange since late October as short sellers sought to take advantage of the housing meltdown and resulting credit crisis.

The American Stock Exchange also reported a rise in mid-January short interest on Tuesday to about 1.13 billion shares, just below its November record of 1.14 billion shares.”

~ ~ ~ ~

JBI

Sunset - Sycamore Canyon

Thanks for your time especially!  Unfortunately all that is offered at my co. (A very small one at that) is the DWS Scudder family of funds.  So their precious metals fund is what I have chosen, although  I realize how “expensive” it is.  Still, it just does not seem right, so I will be calling them in the AM.  Again, thanks so much for your time!

Neo

Flinstones note; Have a possible good situation brewing in regards Excavator[which we intended to rent] may be able to go lease to purchase. As the first weeks of operation are concerned the excavator may take a higher priority  than we thought. I will e-mail everyone.

been pretty busy lately, but this is in response to your request a few days ago.

The investment of the new millenium!

http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$HUI&p=M&st=2000-09-01&id=p31701730114&a=128572102

tell me what ya think of it.

gold and silver is lost when it can be bought and sold in an instant”.  I get a genuine good feeling if I buy a silver bar or a gold Maple Leaf and carry it home, a feeling I would never experience if my computer said I had just been recorded as the owner of some GLD shares after I pressed the buy button. 

Since the introduction of gold-based exchange-traded funds I have been bipolar in my view of  them.  I liked the fact that they made it so much easier for  many more people to be exposed to the idea that they could have physical metals in their portfolio, at least if not in their personal possession.  But I disliked the fact that holders of PM-backed ETF shares  could flit in and out so easily, owning a gold-backed piece of paper (like a unit of GLD) today and not owning it tomorrow, and then maybe buying it back again next month.

Brrrmystr’s recent post mentioned that the Aden sisters suggested that GLD was a top choice “for stocks in 2008″.  I guess I’ll reveal my biases again.  The first is that the Aden sisters as analysts have never turned me on.  My second bias is the point I made in the paragraph above, namely that GLD, or the gold-based ETF approach generally, does not turn my crank either.   Just letting my biases lie bare here and also letting you know that I like your statement quoted above.  Have a good evening.  Equiz.