Gushlak.com

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will surely be at the top of the news during the next few weeks as the Obama administration prepares for the conference on the US housing finance system. (www.marketwatch.com/story/legislative-battle-on-horizon-for-future-of-fannie) At issue is the future of these two semi-private institutions that have been (effectively) taken over by the federal government. Even if politics could somehow be taken out of the debate on the future of these two monoliths of debt, it will be difficult to come to a consensus as to what the most prudent approach should be. Throw in the normal contentious political rhetoric and posturing, and it should prove to be damn near impossible. Politics aside, the current mortgage system, (with all the baggage it accumulated over the past few years with derivatives etc.) is about as complex a question as a government can wrangle with. I don’t know how one can expect a congressman or senator to argue the complexities of an issue that the experts have proven to have little handle on . Oh, did I mention I was not optimistic about the results?

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Governments make more noise than most investors, and it might be hard to know sometimes what is fueling a recovery. Each political party in almost every country will rush to take credit, but it seems that private investors have been pouring money into government debt around the world, which is largely responsible for keeping interest rates low in most large countries. (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/04/) This might be the most effective tool in getting the economy back to healthy levels. Investors see governmental debt as a good risk. This, unfortunately, is also why everyone has one eye on Greece (and Portugal). If nations default, it becomes a new game. It brings to mind a quote by Paul Valery, the French essayist who bridged the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.”

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard for most of my life that the Great Depression ended because of the US involvement in World War II, and that it was the manufacturing jobs that directly lifted the nation out of the depression. This notion made sense to me and I accepted it without much inspection. The idea, however, brings little comfort as the US straggles through the current recession when one realizes that the US is already in a war, and that fact alone is not enough to pull the country out of the economic doldrums. So it was refreshing to read that Niall Ferguson, (in his brilliant, “The Ascent of Money”) says that “American business has always rebounded from financial crises through technical innovation –RCA, Dupont and IBM after the Great Depression; Microsoft and Apple in the 1970’s” www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/ While I’ve never heard that particular theory before, it is certainly a breath of fresh air, or at least a straw that one can eagerly grasp. Now if only the United States can find something to manufacture……

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Forget about the New York Yankees or the imminent opening of the NFL season. The most intriguing game in town is the current battle in the United States Congress over health care. What do you like in your sports entertainment? A contest too close to call? The unexpected rise of an underdog? Last minute heroics? Passion? This fight has all that and more.

Last night I watched President Obama’s speech to congress and it didn’t take long to see the passion evoked by the issue. (www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/09/obama.speech/index.html)

Of course, it helps that I am a Canadian and don’t have to necessarily live and die with the results, no pun intended. I can watch the drama safely form the sidelines. This is life and death stuff. Both sides have put forth massive amounts of money intent on representing (or mis-representing as the case may be) the central issues of their cause. Could it be any different? Medical care represents 12% of the GDP of the United States. We’re talking about a massive amount of money at stake here.

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” catcall at the President reflected the passion if not the accuracy of both sides of the aisle.

Forget about who wins or loses. The drama alone is worth the price of a ticket. And this show is free!

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was reading a couple of weeks ago about a guy in Connecticut, Dave Nichols, who runs his pick-up truck by burning wood and household garbage instead of gasoline. The procedure uses a process called “gasification” which has apparently been around since the 1800’s. The burn is much cleaner than the normal combustion engine. The article was fascinating, (www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g56LiyLVfPuVRnvHAmq)

Nichols has formed his own company (www.21stcenturymotorworks.com) although he has yet to get a patent on his current project. This type of thing is not unprecedented. People have used and are using gasification to heat buildings throughout the country on a small scale. There’s a video on U-Tube that shows a modified Honda Accord that uses a similar technology, but what I liked best about Nichols’ was his explanation of his own invention. “It’s a complicated version of easy,” he said.

I don’t know about you, but with all the reliance on government and stimulus packages and tax incentives, it’s refreshing to see some good old fashioned ingenuity getting a moment in the spotlight.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 1:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

“Finance,” according to Robert Sarnoff, “is the act of passing currency from hand to hand until it disappears.” Sarnoff’s words resonate strongly today among the world’s investors. If there were a way to measure such things, I’m certain many people would agree with his cynical appraisal of the industry at large. Many believe that the epidemic outbreak of scams and fraudulent acts that have been discovered over the past year are merely the norm of business activity. Or worse, that people like Madoff and Stanford represent only the unfortunate who were unlucky enough (or sloppy enough) to get caught. The pre-occupation with scams, particularly in the tabloid news venues has cast a distorting light on finance and business. But frauds and scams are really only a very small part of the whole.

In baseball, it is said that the perfect player trade is one where both teams feel they got the better player in return for their own player who they obviously viewed as expendable. And so it is in business. The perfect deal is the one where both parties are convinced that their acumen has gotten them the better deal. Fraud can be claimed, therefore, by any party who discovers further down the road that he, in fact, did not get the better deal after all. A good friend of mine bought a fair amount of GM stock last week for seventy-nine cents a share. This week it traded at $1.44. Did the party who sold it at 79cents feel scammed? The conundrum of finance where one man’s ceiling is usually another man’s floor brings to mind the words of one of the great misanthropes of the last century, Ambrose Bierce. “Happiness,” he said, “is the agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.”

It is a curious cultural condition we find ourselves in that Bierce’s words resonate so deeply. But this attitude that the big fish eats the smaller fish right on down the line negates one very important tenant of finance. That is, we are all in this together. The current downtown should have made this abundantly clear. Instead, it seems to have created a fascination with scams that inherently assumes the worst- that one man can only succeed at the expense of another. It becomes almost a religious argument. Does a high tide raise all boats, or can one succeed only at the expense of another.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may have read that recently that Picard is continuing to fight the good fight for recent victims. It’s been in all the papers. I don’t mean Jean Luc Picard, the Star Trek captain played by British actor Patrick Stewart. I’m talking about Irving Picard, the court appointed trustee who has the unenviable task of trying to recover monies for the victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme- the scam that will ultimately make Madoff the King of All Scams if it hasn’t already.

But in a curious decision this week, investors who cashed out before Madoff’s $65 billion dollar scam was discovered, were told they may have to return what they took out (www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/04/25/2009-04-25) In recent weeks, according to the article, the Federal Bankruptcy Court trustee in charge of hunting down Madoff’s assets sent out 223 letters to investors seeking the return of as much as $735 million. The so-called "clawback" could impact investors who cashed out as long as six years before the collapse. "These amounts were paid to you at the expense of other customers while [Madoff's firm] was insolvent," read a letter to an investor from Trustee Irving Picard.

Can you imagine? Theoretically, the investor who received a check from Madoff in June of 2004, long before there was a hint of a scam, will have to pony up said check. I assume that he in return will dun the BMW dealer who took a portion of that ill-gotten money as payment for a car. The car dealer will dun the house painter who received a portion of these illegal funds in exchange for a coat of paint on the dealer’s residence. The house painter will attempt to get a portion of that money back from his wife’s father who used it to but a couple of tickets for a Mets game. And on and on. Until Hi ho the dairy-o, the cheese stands alone.

Once again, reality is far stranger than fiction. Nothing that Jean Luc Picard had to deal with on any planet in any galaxy, could have prepared him for the intricacies of this real life Pandora’s box. “The effect of these letters is to scare the living daylights out of people who have already been victimized once by Bernard Madoff," said lawyer Jonathan Landers, who represents several victims.
Yeah, no kidding.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

To paraphrase Oscar Levant, when it comes to Bernard Madoff,

“the line between genius and insanity has been erased.”

Madoff is a fascinating story, and shows no signs of becoming less so. The questions about how he did what he did are only partially legal questions. There is a sense of awe inherent in the inquisitiveness of the average person. How did he do it? People want details. Gory details, minuscule antidotal details. Anything. Americans have always had a soft spot for the criminal mind. John Dillinger was a hero during the Great Depression as he stole and murdered his way through rural America. More people today know his name than any other figure of the 1930’s with the possible exception of Franklin Roosevelt. “The Godfather” is the favorite film of more American men than any movie in the past hundred years, and only a few were rooting against the Marlon Brando lead character. People will flock to a movie about a great scam. Leonardo DeCaprio’s “Catch Me if You Can” is the most recent film that comes to mind, but there is no shortage. Will there be movies based on Madoff’s life, both fictional and bio-pics? I’m certain they’re already begun. If it is possible to get enough of this story, than certainly we are nowhere near that point.

In this case, the interest in the scam itself is enhanced by the innate curiosity about the wealthy. What you have here is a perfect storm of a scam and a peek into the private lives of the rich- a lethal American combination. And I don’t just mean Madoff’s life. His yachts and various homes around the globe are interesting, but not more interesting than the peek into the lives of his victims. Surely I am not the only one who read the e-mails entered as evidence in Madoff’s trial by some of his victims (as well as others who just wanted their opinions registered.) It is a train wreck. Each one elicits sympathy as we trip over ourselves to read the next. Captivating and mesmerizing. Bubble gum for the eyes and ears. And for the fans of this sort of thing, rest assured, the end is nowhere in sight.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everyone thought that comedy would fall into a recession after the Bush presidency ended. Not so fast you doomsayers of humor. Enter the era of the exposed scam. It seems that every few weeks a new scam is uncovered. Todays entry is Allen Stanford whom the SEC has seen fit to pin more allegations on than a donkey’s cartoon butt at an eight year old’s birthday party. Those allegations against Mr. Stanford and his bank, the Stanford International Bank, include, but are not limited to, attempting to drain $178 million in the past two weeks alone and selling 8 billion pounds sterling in certificates of deposit claiming unrealistically high rates of return. It is also alleged that the Stanford Group sold 1 billion of a proprietary mutual fund by

"using materially false and misleading historical performance data."

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us

The nefarious doings started to unravel when the attorney cooperating with the SEC investigation disaffirmed everything he had told authorities up to that point. www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid. This disaffirmation was a bit of a red flag to the investigators who did not, apparently, mis-underestimate the ramifications of such a denial.

But wait, it gets better. Apparently Mr.Stanford was on the long list of people and organizations swindled by Bernard Madoff; this according to the SEC, though Stanford denies it. The writers for Letterman, Leno, Mahr and all the others are scrambling as I write this. Open your window; you can almost hear the sound of pens scratching off in the distance.

"So, Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford walk into a bar…."

I would pay good hard-earned money to see a transcript of the conversation between the two of them. Stanford bought some of what Madoff was peddling. Did Madoff invest in any of the SIB offerings? Isnt this kind of like when you hold a mirror up to a mirror? We have uncovered a new Zen meditation point for the 21st century. If a swindler swindles a swindler, is it really a scam at all? I wonder if they liked each other on a personal level, or if one thought the other particularly honest or trustworthy. I wonder if they had plans to meet again socially. H.L. Mencken said

“never overestimate the decency of the human race.”

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The down time at Blue Water Partners (http://bluewater.ky/) is always interesting. I dont think that would be too surprising to many people. When men work in high pressure jobs, handling large sums of money, things tend to get a little unpredictable during the breaks. Bond traders are notorious for this sort of behavior. A bond trader will work at warp speeds for hours at a time manning several telephone lines and computer screens simultaneously, and then bam, everything stops, and traders find themselves staring at one another in a minor daze. I knew of one bond trader in New York who caught mice and threw them out the window after making little parachutes for them during the down time. Things get weird. Conversations are often unrepeatable.

The talk the other day centered around the Bernard Madoff scam. It’s hard not to talk about Madoff, or made-off as Ive heard him called recently, as in he made-off with all the money. We started by talking about other scams, the original pyramid scheme of Charles Ponzi in the 1920s to the Nigerian money laundering scheme that still surfaces every now and again. Madoff seems to have the biggest scam to date, at least in terms of dollars. The Albanian pyramid scheme of 1997 was the hands down biggest in terms of the numbers of people involved. It was estimated that two-thirds of that countrys entire population and government were caught up in it. Riots ensued when the whole thing collapsed, and the country still hasnt fully recovered. But in terms of dollars, Madoff seems to have won a rather dubious prize.

Which led to the main topic of discussion – Where is the money?

If the totals that are being thrown around in the newspapers are remotely accurate, Madoff took hundreds of millions, and possibly billions of dollars. Think about that. In these days of billion dollar buyouts numbers get thrown around and lose their meaning. But he may have taken billions of dollars. A million dollars is a lot of money. If you spent a dollar a day for a million days you would have had to begin in the fifth century BC to be broke today. (without interest, of course.)

It was the esteemed consensus of BWP that a single man cannot spend that much money in his lifetime, never mind the forty or fifty years Madoff may have been at it. There just isnt enough time in the day. It would take a foundation with many employees to spend at a fast enough rate. Its a funny idea, not being able to spend a fixed amount of money, a Brewsters Millions sort of fantasy, but think about it. If you stole one billion dollars, you would have to spend ten million dollars a day to make it disappear in a couple of decades. Now think about how much work it would be to spend ten million dollars a day every day for a couple of decades. If you gave it away in huge allotments. far too much attention would be drawn to you. Did he buy an estate a day for a year? A roomful of Picassos? Where are they? What a dilemma! So the question remains, where is the money?

I was reminded of a story I read many years ago. A man in France stole what is the equivalent to one million dollars in quarters. Do you know how much space you need to store a million dollars in quarters? What are you going to do with them? Sell them each for a nickel to neighborhood children? Go to quarter casino machines every day for eight hours? You would draw so much attention to yourself that you would be caught in weeks, which leads me to the what the police chief in charge of the case was quoted as saying,

Stealing this much money is its own punishment.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been writing about sovereign wealth funds on and off for months. I warned about the possible political ramifications of having foreign countries heavily invested in the United States and the political leverage that might lead to. I quoted a New York Times story about the reluctance of the US to press China too hard during the Olympic buildup period for fear of antagonizing a friendly investor. Larry Summers, (who was not the Secretary of the Treasury at the time) shared my concerns, or I should say, I shared his, and he said months before he was to become part of this new administration’s cabinet, that he would keep a watchful eye on that particular situation. (www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/obamas-treasury-secretary_n_138195.html)

It is beyond ironic to me the way things are turning out. The current bailout has a possible price tag of nearly one trillion dollars. (www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html) This at a time when national deficit in the United States is currently ten percent of the GNP. Very little is being said about where that money is going to come from. There is a constant footnote to anything TARP (bailout) related that the cost would be passed on to the American taxpayer. That is all well and good for the long term, but what about the short term? It seems that the US is counting heavily on foreign investments to fund a lot of this recovery money.

But how likely is this to happen? Much was made of China’s investment in Morgan Stanley in December, 2007. (www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/19/business/morgan.php) I am curious to know how much that investment is currently worth to China. I am fairly certain that it is worth at least one third less than what was originally invested. How eager will China be to return to the US for further investment? The situation may be worse in the oil producing countries. Sovereign wealth fund investment in the US by the United Arab Emirates is well into the tens of billions of dollars. With the price of oil under fifty dollars a barrel, (down from a high of nearly $150 a barrel in July, 2008) how eager are those countries to invest in the US? And if they still have full confidence in the strength of the US dollar, where will they get the money to invest?

This is an intriguing turn of events. The United States has gone form a cautionary

be careful of foreign investors

where are the foreign investments?

passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a sense of anticipation this week as the final days of the Bush presidency are spent. I dont remember in my lifetime such an urgency for change. There is a distinct feeling of being in the midst of history. Without a doubt the combination of the impending Obama inauguration and equally historic financial crisis has marked these days for inclusion in future history books. It is a peculiar sensation, the notion that one is living through history. Of course, one always is, but the realization comes and goes. One gets the sense in these early days of 2009 that the whole world is watching.

I sense an optimism that contradicts the woeful facts of the current financial collapse. I particularly enjoyed the op-ed piece in the New York Times today by Roger Cohen (www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15cohen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion) not just for what was said, but for Mr. Cohens ability to capture this curious contradiction. There is more of a sense of a collective rolling up of sleeves preparing for a tough job ahead, than

a sky is falling panic

It was Gore Vidal who said,

On the whole history tends to be rather poor fiction-except at its best.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No one seems to be complaining about the falling price of oil. I suppose it would be naïve to think there was no connection between the current condition of many trading houses in the United States and the plummeting price. Before the recent election, there were innumerable television ads calling for the closing of the so called Enron loopholes. The backers of this movement were convinced that trading practices were driving the price of oil to the heights we saw in the spring of 08. The lower volume of trades being made throughout the entire financial spectrum today (as a result of the tight credit markets) certainly adds a great deal of ammunition to those who thought the price of oil was being artificially inflated. The lack of speculative trading has resulted in the falling price, they would argue. I do not mean to suggest that this is the only driving force of the drop of the price of a barrel of oil. For example, it seems the estimate of growth in Chinese demand was greatly overstated.

There are other factors as well. But I thought there was merit in the Enron loophole argument. So it was with no little interest that the open letter to president elect Barack Obama by the Commodities Market Oversight Coalition caught my eye. The entire letter can be found at http://accidentalhuntbrothers.com/ The committee calls for more oversight into the overseas markets, the so called dark markets and more transparency in the transactions within the United States. There are sixteen signers of this letter including such varied interests as the Consumer Watchdog group, The Air Transport Association, the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association and the Independent Oil Merchants of New York. When there is a cry from a particular industry imploring the government to add regulation to their own industry, it tends to make more of an impression on me. Their letter is a cry for stability in what has been a particularly volatile commodities market.

I suspect the president-elect gets a few hundred of these things a day, but this one, I think deserves his attention.

And by the way, there are those who feel the price of oil is no where near bottom. Reuters reports that crude oil prices could drop as low as $20 a barrel in 2009. That sounds outlandish, but so did the July 2008 prediction by the same people of $50 a barrel when it was trading at three times that level at the time. www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8119626

Just another thing to watch as this new administration begins its already historic reign. Who needs reality tv with all this real life drama?

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President elect Barack Obama has named his choices for a new economic team. Citing

an economic crisis of historical proportions

Lawrence Summers is nominated for director of the National Economic Counsel. Summers was Treasury Secretary to President Clinton, and as been quoted numerous times in this series of blogs. Mr. Summers is an unusually gifted man having enrolled at MIT at age 16 and at age 28, he became one of Harvards youngest ever tenured professors. His personal kryptonite is women, environmentalists and civil rights activists who he continually alienated during his five years as Harvard University President. Though he can neither fly, nor see through walls, it is believed he can breathe underwater, making him the ideal candidate in this current flood of debt.

Timothy Geitner is nominated for Treasury secretary. He is the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has been working alongside of Henry Paulson trying to fix the country’s credit markets. He is bulletproof. He operates from a cave and drives a specially built car that can cause the market to fluctuate three hundred points with the push of a button. His known enemies on both sides of the aisle are all easy to spot because of their various eccentric outfits or nicknames. He works best at night, for some reason.

Melody Barnes was chosen to lead the White House Domestic Policy Council, and has been an advocate for the progressive policies of the Democratic Party. According to the Dallas Morning News, she looks particularly good in a cape, and has a golden magical lasso that can do things that unambiguously aid the general population, though no one could specifically say exactly what it is that she does with her powers.

And finally, Christina Romer will chair the White House Council of Economic Advisors. She is a student of the Great Depression, and an economic professor at the University of California at Berkeley. She believes in the idea that tax increases restrain economic output, and in truth, justice and the American way. It is not yet clear whether she will generally wear tights and a cape, but assures the American people that in the very least, she will carry around a green lantern. Her spokes people would not say why.

Both Marvel and DC Comics are currently negotiating long term deals with all economic members. Fear not America! Help is on the way!

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The difference between playing the stock market and the horses is that one of the horses must win.

when it comes to money, everybody is of the same religion.

Ive given my opinion several times over the past year about the possible dangers of other countries buying our bonds as part of their Sovereign Wealth Funds, and using the influence that investment provides as political leverage in the future. Id feel a little bit better about the proposed sale of stocks if the US government released some sort of statement that might indicate that they are at least aware of the possibility of such a conflict of interests in the future. I havent heard a word about it. And maybe that is to be expected. A drowning man doesnt much care who is throwing him a rope. I (still) would like to think that someone at the upper levels of government has their eye on this sort of thing, and a contingency plan for the future exists should the United States suddenly find itself leveraged into decisions it would not otherwise make.

I admit to being snowed under by all the negative economic news on the heels of the exhaustive (and exhausting) presidential campaign. I look back nostalgically to the pre-crisis and pre-election days when Janet Jacksons exposed breast might be the most compelling story of the day. Today she could run naked through the stock market and all anyone would want to know was what she was buying or selling.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow! Those crazy Americans were serious about that

equal opportunity for all

not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.

Already this morning, Ive heard the word

Camelot

Whats wrong with this picture?

Ah, but maybe this one time its a trick question. Maybe theres nothing wrong with this picture. What’s a cynic to do? Perhaps a donation to the Dorothy Parker Foundation would be in order.

What happens when a quarter of the population no longer feels disenfranchised? The words

potential

possibility

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There will be no end in the foreseeable future to talk about money. Some of it will be finger pointing to attempt to assign blame for this historic collapse. Some of it will be a constructive exchange of ideas meant to help the situation. The cost of health care will predominate for the next year, especially if the US presidential candidates follow through on their promises.

This week a study was released about the cost of diabetic care in the United States. In 2001, the cost of diabetic health care was $6.1. In 2008, that cost rose to over $12 billion, based largely on the rising costs of new drugs introduced over the past ten years. The most shocking thing about the report was not the doubling of the cost in such a short period of time, but the revelation that there is no evidence that the additional cost has improved the health of any of the patients. Several months ago, another story in the New York Times reported that there was a move toward a specific drug cancer treatment that cost the patient between $45,000 and $60,000 per year. The average patient lived an additional two years if they opted for this new treatment. If the average was two years, it is safe to assume that some patients lived four years longer, and some didn’t live any longer at all.

During the financial collapse of the past couple of months, a lot has been written and said about “mark it to market”. It was a way of describing the problem financial institutions that held these failed mortgage backed securities had in trying to determine the actual value of what they held. To explain as briefly as possible, if a trader sold a hundred shares of IBM stock, for example, at ten dollars a share, he would know that he could mark the value of that stock at ten dollars. What happened in the crash was that Lehman Brothers, again for example, may have held some mortgage backed securities that had a marked value of hundred dollars. Bear Stearns might have had a very similar, but not exact product, which they marked at eighty dollars. Goldman may have had a similar product that they valued at forty dollars. What is the value of that asset? The answer, and the reason for the collapse, was that the market could not be established. The products could not be “marked to market”.

If you find that confusing or contentious when talking about real estate, imagine the upcoming furor when someone tries to mark medical care for market. Human lives and not 401ks will be at stake. What is the value of diabetic health care? Is it based on the $6.1 billion number of 2001, or the $12 billion number today. There will be an almost infinite number of similar examples. What is the value of medical care? How can one mark it to market? And most importantly, who will decide?

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The worlds largest particle collider passed its first test last week in Switzerland. The test was remarkable on many levels, not the least of which was the fact that two countries, France and Switzerland joined forces on this $10 billion project that has been ongoing since 1984. For physicists, this is enormous. Within a few weeks, or perhaps a couple of month, a couple of atomic particles will be sent on a collision course around the 17 mile tunnel in what the physicists believe will be a simulation of the original Big Bang, which scientists believe formed the universe as we know it. This upcoming test will go a long way towards proving that theory. It could also provide us humans with our first glimpse at new dimensions, the proof that

dark matter

I cant profess that I know all or even many of the ramifications of this discovery. The idea of curved space still eludes me, but I think it is a phenomenal achievement by other human beings. Not the least of which is the tenacity to finance and move forward with this project for over thirty years. As a financial man, I can tell you that is no mean achievement. Perhaps never before in history has so much empirical information been so close at hand. I personally cannot get enough of this seemingly science-fiction fodder, and I could fill pages with the fractions of information I do have about the upcoming test.

But I was amused at the juxtaposition of this story in my local newspaper with a story about the United States vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin- same day, a couple of pages apart. It seems that Mrs. Palin, possibly the future next in line

ruler of the free world.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Do you remember a few years ago when two bodies were discovered in Antarctica? The bodies were men who had died there on an expedition in the early years of the twentieth century, but their corpses were preserved as if they had died mere hours before being discovered. It was a feast for the scientific community. One of the things that the forensic scientists discovered after testing the corpses of these men was that both of them suffered from lead poisoning. Virtually all of the food brought along on the expedition was stored in lead cans, as was the norm at that time. The scientists theorized that both men, and possibly most of the expedition were insane at the time of their death because of the lead poison.

I dont know what made me think of that. Maybe it was George Bushs speech the other day where he condemned Russia for invading Georgia. No one seemed to be bothered by the incongruity of a President with an invading army in Iraq lecturing another country about an invasion. Everyone just seemed to nod in silent agreement. Not that there is any shortage of examples of mass insanity. Maybe a hundred years from now, scientists will discover that the people of the early decades of the twenty-first century were all victims of

"artificial coloring insanity"

"normal behavior."

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company made more news today when it declared a quarterly loss much larger than expected. It was hoped that a rebound by Freddie Mac, as it is commonly known, would indicate a bottoming out of the mortgage crisis. Apparently, more bad news is to come with an end now forecast at the end of 2009 at the earliest. Sobering stuff.

Freddie Mac is a government sponsored enterprise, created in 1970 to help the average American citizen purchase homes. What Freddie Mac does is to buy mortgages on the secondary market, and then sell them as mortgage backed securities. Their securities declined by $1 billion, it was announced today. Freddie Mac has a total worth of $4.2 billion. To start their recovery, they hope to raise $5.5 billion in new securities. Investment banker Myron Gushlak, for one, believes that the investor must believe that an end is in sight before Freddie Mac becomes an appealing investment option again. That end was not announced today despite new funds pledged by the federal government and a new law passed this week to shore up the struggling company.

According to a National Public Radio report, when Freddie Mac was established, the government pledged to keep it in operation with no end date to that pledge. Freddie Mac will, therefore, continue to exist no matter what losses might still be announced. It might not be recognizable, but it will weather this storm in one form or another. That guarantee sounds almost naive to me. Idyllic. Optimistic. I guess that is one definition of hard times – when other times seem so desirable by comparison.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In case youre one of the eleven people in the United States who hasnt yet seen

Batman,The Dark Knight

Every now and then, a movie comes along that resonates in the viewers mind.
Certainly Heath Ledgers brilliant portrayal of The Joker is a huge part of the success, Christian Bale is convincing and the special effects are sterling. But that doesnt explain why it resonates. With apologies, then, let me point out a couple of my observations. In this movie, Batman is not quite as squeaky clean as he had been portrayed in past incarnations. He is conflicted, often coming right up to the very edge of the line that separates good from evil; right from wrong; perhaps he even crosses that line. There is no consensus of whether what he is doing (his vigilante-ism) is good for the residents of Gotham or not. The population is split, some calling

the batman

But

The Joker

Am I reading too much into this? Perhaps. My friends have accused me of worse. But besides the fact that it is a good movie on its own merit, The Dark Knight has managed to encapsulate our darkest fears. This movie is set in a world where good overlaps evil, and motives have changed. I wonder if a movie goer in 1950 would even get it. Sixty years ago it would have seemed preposterous that a villain would not want to take over the world. Ledgers Joker would have seemed farcical, in fact, unbelievable. That is why this movie resonates. On some level, we are confronted with this sort of Joker every day. He fills us with terror. He is truly frightening. More than any other movie I can think of, this movie is about the world in 2008.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Continue reading "Still A Hundred Dollars a Barrel" »

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last month, I wrote about Sovereign Wealth funds, the financial vehicle that countries use to invest in other countries. At that time, China had invested heavily in both Morgan Stanley and the Blackstone Group, easing considerably the negative effect of the mortgage crisis. I quoted Lawrence Sommers, the former US Treasury secretary who warned

It was far from obvious to me that this {maximizing value of shares} will be over time the only motivation of governments as shareholders.

The future is here sooner than we thought. In this weeks Sunday New York Times, David Rieff, author of

At the Point of a Gun:Democratic Dreams and Armed Intervention

Part of the reason is that China opposes such a move, and it is a lot harder for the US in 2008 to go against a country that holds so much of its government paper….

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Voltaire called Canada

a few acres of snow

Though not a particularly new group, (they have been around for almost five years with two best selling CDs under their belt) they are relatively unknown outside of the Indie music scene. This is unfortunate. Not for them. Theyre doing quite well thank you, but for the masses of people who have yet to hear them. Led by Win Butler and his wife Regine Chassagine they are a vibrant tour de force of music. Besides the usual drums, guitar and bass, they incorporate such un-rock-like instruments as the accordion and the harp. Their music fills a room. I was fortunate enough to see them at Radio City Music Hall in New York, so obviously they are not unknown. Their stage act seems to incorporate a small army of versatile musicians. Violins, brass, percussion, fantastic harmonies and stunning lyrics make them a banquet both audibly and visually. I did not necessarily intend this to be a commercial for the band, but once you see them, youll understand why Im so enthusiastic about them. Their 2008 tour is over after 122 shows in 75 cities in 19 countries, so your best bet at seeing them is U-Tube. Check out the one where they’re all playing in an elevator.

And to make it all too sweet for words, theyre Canadian!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNfWC4Sgkcs

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Theres a new kid in town. Actually, hes not a new kid at all, but he seems to have caught everyones attention now that he’s grown up. Im talking about the “new” financial entity, the Sovereign Wealth Fund. A SWF is an investment tool used by countries to invest in other countries. Over the past five years, the number of new funds has spiked. The International Monetary Fund estimates that $3 trillion is currently being invested, and that amount could jump to 12 trillion by 2012. Though that number looks futuristic, it is only four years from now.

Chinas recent investment (I hesitate to use the word “bailout”) in the struggling US companies, Morgan Stanley and Blackstone Group has raised more than a few eyebrows. And Chinas SWF investments are less than a quarter of what the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority currently holds. Most sovereign funds do not disclose exactly where their money is being invested. The obvious big issue is whether these investing countries will continue to use Sovereign Wealth Funds solely as financial investments, or will they begin to use their power as political muscle. According to Lawrence Sommers, the former United States Treasury Secretary, right now the goal of these funds is

to maximize the value of their shares.

It is far from obvious that this will over time be the only motivation of governments as shareholders.

For a financial guy, this makes me giddy. This is as exciting as human g-nome developments to biologists. I wish I could fast forward a few years to see how this all plays out. The trenches of the next world war may be on the stock market floor, and the soldiers may all be wearing suits, pardon the hyperbole. Just thinking about this is like chugging a can of Red Bull. Now Ill never get to sleep.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, was implicated yesterday in a prostitution ring. Allegedly, he called a prostitute. I wanted to get my two cents in before anything more specific is proven or even alleged, just so I can have an opinion unfettered by facts. When I heard the news, I smiled. I admit it. A big stupid grin came over my face. Not because I have anything against Mr. Spitzer. I know almost nothing about him. Nor do I have anything against his politics. I confess I dont know where he stands on anything. I just love the irony of a man who runs on an ethics platform, and is known as

Mr. Clean

You can consider it a flaw in my personality if youd like. I have no defense. I also laugh when evangelist preachers are implicated in fraud or sex scandals…Priests with young boys? Yeah, I snickered a few times. I dont know why. I dont laugh when people trip and fall on the street, but I probably would if they first bragged to everyone that they were such great walkers. I agree with George Orwell who said

saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I consider myself warned. I have launched my charitable foundation and stand prepared for an onslaught of bad will. Surprised? Havent you seen what happened to Oprah Winfrey? First, she was gracious enough to give new cars to her entire audience to celebrate an anniversary of her show. The response was a series of complaints that some of her audience could not afford the sales tax on her generous gift, or that she was merely a publicity hound. Next, she started a school for girls in Africa. She was criticized for being too exclusionary, too elite-ist, as well as being accused of being wasteful with her own money. Yes, Ive been warned.

Philanthropy is a slippery slope. It invites criticism. No matter how well intentioned, it makes people uneasy. It sometimes makes the giver look foolish. No one wants to be like John Rockefeller who became a living caricature by handing out dimes to everyone he met on the streets. The nicest thing I could find written about it was uttered by Oscar Wilde who called philanthropy

"the refuge of rich people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures."

Check out the new website at: www.myrongushlakfoundation.com

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

BlueWater Partners has a new website which can be found on the following link: www.bluewater.ky

The site features information about the company and information on me, Myron Gushlak, Principal of the firm.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As seen through American eyes, Russia is falling short on the promise of democracy. But, for the people of Russia, the degree of openness and opportunity they enjoy today is without precedent.

The Russian economy has grown exponentially in the past decade-and-a-half as a reborn Russia embraced the power of the marketplace after seven decades of communist failure. Foreign investment in Russia, including $11 billion by American companies, nearly doubled in 2006 to $28.4 billion. U.S. exports to Russia climbed by 20 percent last year to $4.7 billion. Russian exports to the United States totaled $19 billion in 2006, a 30 percent increase from the year before. American businesses from candy to cars now operate in Russia. American businesses in Russia are making money at an astonishing pace. Two-thirds of U.S. companies in Russia are meeting current sales targets and 97 percent expect continued sales growth during the next three years.

To fully realise its investment potential, given its natural resources, large domestic market and relatively low wages, Russia needs to cut further the restrictions facing foreign investors looking to invest in Russian firms.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Myron Gushlak
There's a fascinating article in the Economist this month about the changing face of the diamond industry. Apparently the DeBeers diamond cartel has loosened its grip on the industry to allow competition (aka appease European regulators). DeBeers has also pledged to stop buying "blood diamonds" and has invested heavily in chains of jewelry stores and in new exploration in Canada -- so much for my long held belief that our greatest export was really great bacon!

DeBeers is also facing competition from man-made diamonds. I'm not sure why these have not caught on yet. I've heard that they are indistinguishable from normal diamonds other than that they have no flaws and only come in yellow.

The article can be found at:

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8743058

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 3:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever since I started reading

The Singularity is Near

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Family night. We rented Superman Returns and I have to say that I just wasn't crazy about it. The actor is a dead-ringer for Christopher Reeve and seemed to go out of his way to adopt Reeve's mannerisms and vocal tone which I think was a mistake because those old Superman moves are painfully dated and almost unbearable to watch. Plus, why try and out-do Reeves? Why not reinvent and do something new with the role?

I should qualify this pseudo-review by admitting that Superman has never been my favorite hero. The whole father sending the son to earth to help us poor stupid earthlings plot line is just too didactic. And as a hero Superman is lacking any real personality. With Batman you’ve got gadgets and training and commitment and the internal conflict of hero vs. vigilante. Spiderman has this too to a lesser extent. With Superman you’ve got what . . . a guy who grew up in a corn field and flies around in tights? The guy is bulletproof, heat resistant, can fly and has no sense of humor. His day job is also weak and Jimmy Olsen is annoying. I think this franchise needs to be radically reinvented or scrapped entirely. My kids were bored.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are looking to take on a big big book, I recommend The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil is a well-regarded futurist who writes for the New York Times, Wired and others and also has a storied career as a technologist.

The premise of the book is that biotechnology and health sciences in general are currently where computers were in the 60's. This means that in the next 30-40 years there will be an exponential growth in the number of treatments and cures and that if you can live another 30 years than you should probably live to be 110-120 years old! Even more interesting is the bigger picture effects that this will have on economies and the social landscape. The rub for Kurzweil is that he is in his fifties and he is worried about missing the boat and dying from something that will be cured within a year or two of his death.

The book provides a lot of compelling evidence -- ranging from the dramatic drop in computing costs that will make it less expensive than ever before to test drugs -- to the sequencing of the DNA and the treatments that could arise from targeted drugs.

I will admit something friends, reading this book made me start taking a multi-vitamin.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't have time to see a lot of movies and when I do I tend to see science fiction or family fare. I think the last movie I wrote about was Eragon -- which apparently nobody liked except for me. I blogged about it -- my summary: Give me a break people, it's a movie about a giant fire breathing dragon. Just relax and enjoy and stop taking things so seriously!

I was flying recently and I had the choice between

Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties

The Last King of Scotland.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yelp.com is a site I use when visiting the U.S. to find restaurants, stores and other services. It pretty much covers all the bases. I first heard about it when I was telling a friend in New York that I needed to find a dentist. She said

Just yelp it

Just yelp it.

Basically you just select the City you want to search in and what you are looking for and user-generated reviews appear. I prefer these types of reviews to Zagat guides that don't cover things intangibles like the vibe of a place, and that only look at a few menu items. My friend Dave found a veterinarian for his dog on yelp. Good stuff. Though I have to say that I am steadfastly against inventing verbs out of website names. Yelp should not be added to the dictionary people.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’ve had my eye on a few high-definition video cameras for a while. I finally made the jump this weekend and picked up a Canon HV10. There are a lot of cameras out there but I think this one is the best (until xmas when a better one comes out of course). It's as small as a HI-8 but the video is incredibly sharp and the colors have terrific contrast. It also has a very fast optical zoom and an internal stabilization feature that comes in handy because I never feel like schlepping a tri-pod around. Finally, it is a good all-in-one device because it shoots 3 mega-pixel stills that are saved on a separate SD card. This is a key feature for me because I don't like traveling with a suitcase filled with power adapters.

Did I mention that the Canon was $1200 USD and change? I love this toy friends!!!

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the time I write about information based websites. Gizmodo, Panbo and Cribcandy provide me with countless hours of distraction during tedious and boring times.

Once in a while though I come across a web service that is truly compelling and makes me think,

Wow, these guys are really on to something

Whenever you want to make a reservation you log-in and select from a list of restaurants or search by cuisine or location or price based on the time you want to eat and the size of your party. Once you have selected where you want to eat the available seating times are displayed and you can just choose what you want. Opentable will even send an email confirmation to all of the people in your party with directions to the restaurant. Need to change or cancel the reservation? No problem. Just log-in and do it. The hostess will receive a notification of your change. Best of all, the more you use the service, the more points you earn towards dining gift certificates. If this company is ever taken public I'm going to buy buy buy!
By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you have spoken to me in the last year than you have undoubtedly heard me complain about the state of smart phones. I have tried them all. The Treo is the worst -- I had three of them break in six months, maybe that’s why they are called Treo -- and the HTC TyTN is a big brick of a phone with limited battery life, a worthless Microsoft operating system, and the least intuitive design of any device to be called

smart

After much trial and ever more error I finally found the phone of my dreams: The Blackberry Pearl. It's small, sleek, and most importantly it just WORKS people. I had it up and running in 10 minutes and it has never crashed. The only downside is the keyboard -- it has two letters on each button and uses an algorithm to determines which letter you are trying to type. It is very good, but it took me a few days to adjust and trust this feature.

The best part about this story is that the Pearl was only $200. 75% less than the HTC TyTN which I’m going to sell on Ebay.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 6:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I was at a party the other day and somebody accidentally knocked over a candle. Luckily the candle was on a table so the house did not burn down but a LOT of wax spilled onto a very nice carpet.

When that wax hit that carpet there was a collective Oh Sh #! because the carpet had a heavy pile. Fortunately there was a woman there named Joy who jumped in to save the day. Without further ado I present to you her technique for getting wax out of carpet (because you never know when this might happen to you):

Step 1: Place butchers paper on the wax - shiny side up
Step 2: Cover the butchers paper with a paper bag -- standard grocery store brown bag will work
Step 3: Press the bag with a hot iron and the wax will lift right off

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://www.cargolaw.com/2007nightmare_msc.napoli.html

This is one of the best posts on Cargolaw.com and it documents an ongoing operation to salvage a ship that ran into some extremely rough weather in the English Channel earlier this month.

The photos are incredible – including actual shots of people looting BMW motorcycles that were in cargo containers that fell into the sea and were washed ashore. Imagine the force it takes to wash a container weighing several tons onto dry land!

Having lived through a few Hurricanes in the Caymans and having paid the price for the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to my home I feel for this shipping company. As far as the looting goes; it’s tempting but come on people, it's just wrong. And, if you don’t have a moral issue with stealing, at least be smart enough to not do it in front of somebody holding a camera and taking pictures!

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out http://www.cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_tradewinds.html and scroll down to the bottom to see what happens when winds blow a plane back onto the ground and crack it in half. Yikes. I'm flying tomorrow and did not need to see that.

I also like http://www.cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_mv.alvastar.html this Captain just rams a giant cargo ship into the side of a mountain. No storm caused this and it happened during the day! You could spend hours on this site (I do all the time) just reading about maritime disasters. I shouldn't give this Captain such a hard time. For all I know piloting a container ship is even more difficult than parallel parking a semi-truck. Then again, it's a mountain folks. A frigging mountain!

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just found a great boating site called www.cargolaw.com.

It is operated by a law firm called Countryman & McDaniel that specializes in Customs law and Air and Ocean logistics. Once you scroll down past their ad you get to the meat of the site -- an encyclopedia of ocean disasters complete with photos of attempted rescues and even the looting that occurs on the shore as people try to steal everything from giant bales of thread to motorcycles that get pitched off of container ships during heavy storms. I will definitely be spending countless hours looking through the dozens of maritime disasters they have captured. Who knows, maybe I will even blog a few.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another great

dare to dream

Of course looking at them and dreaming of owning them costs no money and is completely worry free unlike the actual experience of owning an expensive boat. If you ever do decide to take the leap, be sure to buy from a reputable broker. Yachtworld is a good one-stop shop that can help you with brokers, insurance, inspection and even transport.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whenever I have free time I like to go out on the boat to cruise around Cayman. Unfortunately, I spend more time in airports and in front of the computer than on the water. To escape, I look at websites about boating.

One of the best can be found at www.panbo.com. Panbo is Gizmodo for boats minus the bitter Generation X angst. The reviews of new products are always interesting and I enjoy the user comments about actual experiences with the products. These types of user reviews are infinitely more valuable than a product brochure or a simple in-office review. Panbo has saved me a lot of money over the years. So there you have it friends -- a shameless plug for a web site I love.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some sites that I regularly peruse about scuba diving (these are not Cayman specific):

Diving

www.scubadiving.com (Magazine)
www.scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/ ((Diving under Antarctic Ice -- sound cool but those guys are crazy)
www.scubahistory.com
www.nedu.navsea.navy.mil/ (info on the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Program)
www.divefilm.com
www.divernet.com
www.divingintheworld.com
www.scubasource.com
www.gue.com
www.recreational-divers.com
www.sportdivermag.com (Magazine)
www.undercurrent.org (Magazine)
www.immersed.com (Magazine)
www.sfdj.com (South FL Dive Journal; Magazine)
www.diversdown.net
www.tidivers.com
www.findarticles.com (For diving in Cayman, Articles/ tips)
www.seapix.com

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love gadgets. Cell phones, computers, gps, whatever. If it has batteries in it than I am interested in learning about it and fantasizing about owning it. One of the best sites I have found for learning about what is coming out next is called www.gizmodo.com. It's a blog that tracks development of new gadgets and the evolution of existing products. Gizmodo also highlights some of the worst gadgets that come down the pike and provides useful hands-on reviews by snarky writers who can make fun of anything. I check out Gizmodo almost everyday.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are a few more sites I found to help you plan your trip:

www.travelon.com
www.travelscape.com
www.travelocity.com
www.vacationspot.com
www.byebyenow.com
www.lastminutetravel.com
www.gorp.com
www.divecayman.ky
www.cayman.org/scuba
www.findarticles.com (For diving in Cayman, Articles/ tips)
www.discovercaymans.com

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love the internet. I can spend hours reading blogs or newspapers in other countries but sometimes I just need a little retail fix. I don't need to actually buy anything but I like to see what people are up to.

One of my favorite sites for this sort of surfing is called www.cribcandy.com. Whoever runs this site scours the web for you to find really interesting things for your home BUT THEY DON'T ACTUALLY SELL ANYTHING. I'm not sure how they make money, but If you see something you like -- like maybe a gigantic rubiks cube coffee table -- you can click a picture of it and add it to your

wist

The site is updated every day and all the old finds are archived by item type so if you are looking for something for your kitchen you can tap into everything that has ever been listed. Warning, this site is seriously addictive.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently I've done a good job of selling Cayman as a scuba diving destination because I have received three emails asking me for help planning dive trips. People, I am many things, but a travel agent is not one of them!

So, to help you out, here are a list of sites that may be of some use to you (in no particular order):

Plan Your Trip
www.866thebrac.com
www.jharp.net
www.saveonvacationpackages.com
www.discounttravelpackages.com
www.lonelyplanet.com
www.away.com

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The walls of Little Cayman are another one of the world's scuba diving wonders of the world. The most famous dive spot,

Bloody Bay Wall

Most divers never see them, but Little Cayman also has pristine shallow reefs with an incredibly abundant and diverse collection of marine life, both large and small. Since the fish and animals know the human presence as being benign, even Barracuda can be photographed. I've gone on a couple of night dives off Little Cayman which were good too. I once saw a big octopus roaming the reefs looking for dinner. I felt like Jacques Cousteau.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)