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Keep #6 and his family in your thoughts and prayers tonight as he battles the Great Sandy Storm Surge of 2012 from the burgeoning tides of the West Village.  He’s currently okay, although I think the water made it up to the ground floor of his place near the newly enlarged Hudson River.

And all the rest of my boys up there in the Northeast, including Monsieur le Docteur du Fly, take care of yourselves up there and don’t do anything crazy like trying to drive out of a flooded area.  And beware of downed power lines in puddles.  Bad combo.

The good news is that the market will likely open with a fresh wave of Bernanke Bucks sluicing its clogged bowels.  Silver is my trade here, and I will likely be adding on Wednesday.

Best to you all, especially all of you dealing with this Sandy Hurricanoe.

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Soon, soon I will be a plunger yet again. Morsels are looking tasty already, and I don’t think gold and silver have too much farther to go here.  There’s a lot of support for physical silver at this $31.80-ish level and I may choose to nibble there tomorrow if we get one more rip to the downside. Then stuff will be on sale like you read about.  SLW at $37?, AG at below $22? RGLD at more than 15% from recent highs? Are you kidding me? These are the times when men can be gluttonous, in a sippy-cup kind of way (small sips, gradual like).

I will have time to speak about the recent Obaminations when I’ve got ten minutes to assemble my thoughts.  Needless to say, last night was more revelation.  I think I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that the guy is just not very bright after all.  The consistent throwing of constituency after constituency under the bus…. when will it end?  Last night, he gave up Virginia by blowing up Newport News and its naval stronghold.  Ah well, who needs those bayonets, save our own guts?

 

Maybe he’ll talk about how he hates Buckeye nuts, next? One can only hope… (for change?)

Best to you all.

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vinI2Dqj9hc 450 300]

(Comedy gold, and Bowie is a conservative, btw)

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Naaaaw, really?

Say no more, no?

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Silver looks to be giving us another opportunity here. The miners are not taking too much of a hit here, so you may want to give the stronger stories more of a look, or you may want to take advantage of the actual pullback in fizzical silver itself by jumping on SLV right now in the form of long term options, the farther the better.  Let’s say January 2014 or 2015’s LEAPs which have pulled back nicely here for my benefit and yours.  Accumulate slowly here, because eventually you will wish you had been quicker.

Things are going well, and I appreciate my market meandering here a bit.

Best to you all.

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After tonight’s “debate,” I offer a brain re-set.  You’re welcome:

 

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpZhZAr1cQU&feature=related 450 300]

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Look you, I don’t want to hear any shit.  Do you know what it’s like to have every client you’ve worked with over the last 36 months wanting to get out the door by Christmas? No, of course you don’t, because we’ve never had a bizarre set of economic circumstances like this before, where the difference between getting a deal done in this tax year and the next are approaching 30% of the value of a transaction.

Let me explain…  A lot of people don’t understand that, Fiscal Cliff aside, there’s already an additional 4% Obamacare tax  that’s going to be added to capital gains on any deal that has the misfortune of closing in 2013 instead of 2012.  Then there’s the possibility of the Bush-era tax cuts lapsing, and you add another nickel, minimum.  That’s nine percent more than what you’d be paying on this side of 2012, or a 60% increase in your gains tax burden.  And most of my clients are people who have close to zero basis, since they tend to be folks who started their companies, or took them over from pop at some pocket change transfer price.  So if we are talking about a $100 million dollar sale price, that’s $9 million extra you have to pay Uncle Barack next year if things stay where they are right now.

I don’t care how freaking rich you are, a nine million dollar delta is a ball sweat inducing bill that you’d want to avoid.  And that’s been the consensus of everyone I’m talking to right now.

The other problem with rising capital gains rates is they depress valuations by cutting into after tax returns on capital.  That means not only does one’s purchase price get taxed at an increasing rate, but the multiple paid on a business will be lower also.  Can you say “double whammy?”  (That’s why the public markets will get rocked if Obama wins as well. )

As a result, my life has been a nightmare as of late.  If I’m not on the road doing management meetings (with dinners, lunches, breakfasts, etc) , I’m doing back-to-back-to-back conference calls.   I’m just hoping I can get some of these guys through the funnel.  I already know they all can’t fit.  Such is life.

So I’m sick of apologizing, but please do know I’m keeping an eye on the market enough to signal to you when I think it might be time to get in or out.  Despite the fluctuations and the newest Romney Ryan positivity, I don’t think it’s time to get back into the precious in a giant way.  I think there’s gonna be a nice scare here before Turkey Day to shake some folks out, and then it’ll be time to pounce for the Santa Claus Cokefest and a Smile.

I liked TC’s move today, as I have twelve boatloads of that radioactive shit, having ingested a tonne when it dropped to the $2 level (averaging down, don’t cha know?).  I remain solid in my thinking that miner will become trade bait for some large, cash-rich insitution.  Also, RGLD just did a 5 million share offering with Goldman at $91.  I think this will knock the price down over the next couple of days, maybe even below $90.  If so, that is a huge gift, of which you should take full  advantage…

Best to you all.

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The amount of whining I’ve seen on this site recently is only rivaled by that of ESPN’s Steve Young and Trent Dilfer after last night’s hilarious game.
Suck it up, Trebeck, it’s a bull market!   Benjamin Bernanke has decreed that all asset markets should rise in honor of Grand Marshall Obama and, well, you know what they used to say to Yul Brynner in pajama pants, right? “So it is written, so it shall be done.”  And that’s it.

So get in the Unimog.  We’re gonna let Arnold drive, and roll over some bears even as the world collapses.  And don’t worry about Romney.  He’ll be fine, especially after the debates when he shows President Empty Suit what an economics degree looks like.  Maybe some of you fanboi’s might take notice as well, though I’m not holding my breath.

What do you know? One of my favorite “grandmama” stocks has broken out — Urstadt Biddle Properties (NYSE: UBA).  Why? Because they own scarce retail real estate in one of the richest areas on this earth outside of never-fail-land, Washington, D.C.  That would be Westchester, Fairfield and Putnam counties, otherwise known as the fully developed northern suburbs of New York City.  It never fails — when scare resources are chased by too many dollars, their value rises.  Just like gold, just like silver.  I love the management as well.  The eponymous octogenarian CEO and majority owner, Charles Urstadt, is an old school Dartmouth athlete, who still swims around the island of Manhattan in his spare time.  He is a pisser around the bourbon bar as well.  Go up to Greenwich and see him, why don’t you?  Buy and hold forever.

Almost all my gold and silver favorites are approaching buy levels again, and these will hold til Santa day, minimum.  I really like AUY here on the gold side.  For silver, I like AG.  A lot.

If you are going to cry about something, don’t let it be for stocks or a stupid replacement ref.  Let it be for some light that has passed from the earth.  Like the bright light of Luciano Pavarotti, the angelus.  I saw Puccini’s  Tosca last weekend and it was sublime, but the first opera I ever saw (only some six years back) was another Puccini masterwork… Turandot.  Check out this famous aria from that classic, as sung by Luciano… give it a second and you will recognize it I have no doubt.  Does it not transcend all boundaries, all tastes?

It is a blessing, there’s just no other description:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW1w1ryYQDw 450 300]

Best to you all.

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In the end, “Robocop” was too kind. 

Forgive your loyal, unpaid servant, but not only was I trying to send out a hastily assembled marketing book for one of the finest companies I’ve ever had the privilege of introducing s, but I also had a long scheduled string of appointments in Michigan this week as well.  Nothing like starting in beautiful, well capitalized, conservative Western Michigan on Monday and then working one’s way across the state, only to end up in moribund, corrupt and ultimately failing Detroit in Eastern Michigan.  It’s not overly exaggerating to compare the two sides of the state to West and East Germany… they are that different in their economic viability.

Detroit is a wreck, and it’s a damn shame. There are hundreds of thousands of very smart people populating that Southeast Michigan region– engineers, technicians, deeply skilled manufacturing personnel, etc., etc.  What hope have they, however, arrayed against the institutional, long embedded machine politics-corruption that destroys the rule of law and therefore any hope that a level playing field might be established for investment capital?  Let’s face it, you’d have to be nuts to try to start a business in Detroit.  There’s more atmosphere on the moon.

That said, I had a great time meeting the private equity personnel operating in that region.  And the Tigers game was fun too.  But nothing was as important– or moving– as my meeting with the esteemed, venerable Detroit Patriarch, Mr. Cain Thaler.  It took a number of phone calls with his “people” to arrange a meeting, but let me tell you it was worth it. It’s not often you get to meet one of the guys who hung with Edsel Ford and the Dodge Brothers “back in the day.”

I had to wait outside the Marriott Motor Access area for half an hour as Cain’s preliminary security ran through their checks.  They were nice guys, but pretty obviously ex-Special Forces, so I kept the chat to a minimum.  When Mr. Thaler himself rolled up in his stretch Cadillac (of course) limousine, I was on pins and needles. When the door was opened by his personal bodyguard (a flat-faced Mongolian giant, six-ten, and about half that wide), rich, sweet and thick Havana-based smoke billowed from the back seat for what seemed like ten minutes but was probably more like 30 seconds.  Finally, a gnarled, liver-spotted hand clutching an ivory headed cane (hint hint?) pushed out from the back seat.  It was the man himself, the Legend.

Our discussion will remain between us, but let me tell you that he imparted generational value to me… business advice that I will cherish and pass to my own children, God willing.  Thanks you sir, for your good will and your patience.  I wish I could impart some of your wisdom to this crowd, but I will hold off, affording you the discretion you’ve earned.

I look forward to the next time we might share some bourbon whiskey, and some tales of the good days, when Detroit was America’s engine.  My best to you.

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I actually bought a farkakta load of SLV Leaps today.  2014’s and 15’s.  A humbug schitload.  I think silver is going to go berserk here, but the ride will be violent.  SLW, EXK, AG and maybe SVM if you’re bold, SIL if you are not.  God bless we are in trouble, but I take heart that there are still men like Cain Thaler — who remember that commie asshat Roosevelt — to help guide us back to the righteous path.

Best to you all.

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