Wall Street Manna

Obama's next Treasury Secretary is....

2012-01-25T23:15:00.001-05:00

The Boss of the secretary in Michelle's Presidential Box at the State of the Union.

The stock market that gives the bears nothing to dance to!

2012-01-20T08:52:00.002-05:00

Warren, at Jay Zs 40 40 Club, after a couple glasses of Ace of Spades.

Someone better send some bottle service to the bears tables so they can lighten up!

Hoodie vs Holy

2012-01-14T09:55:00.000-05:00

Tebow 3:16!!!

2012-01-08T20:31:00.006-05:00

Tebow: 316 yards, 2 TDs passing 1 rushing as Tebow Time is back!!

10-21 for 316 yards! 316 yards! And an 80 yard strike in OT to beat the Steelers in OT 29-23!

But wait--10 completions for 316 yards--Isn't that 31.6 yards per catch???

And you had the longest reception in Overtime history in post season.

And for the first time ever, you had the new overtime playoff rules. Each team gets a chance to score in OT unless a TD gets scored! So an 80 yard TD strike on the first play in OT!

316 yards passing? 31.6 yards per catch. Where did that number come from???

Just move the decimal over one more time!

In My Father's house are many mansions...

2011-12-18T10:55:00.009-05:00

Tom Brady, after living a full life, died. When he got to heaven, God was showing him around. They came to a modest little house with a faded Patriots flag in the window. "This house is yours for eternity Tom, said God. "This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here." Tom felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house.

On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner. It was a huge 3-story mansion with Orange and Blue sidewalks and drive ways, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous Broncos logo flag waving, a swimming pool in shape of a horse, a Broncos logo in every window, and a Tim Tebow jersey on the front door.

Tom looked at God and said "God, I'm not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question. I was an all-pro QB, I won 3 Super Bowls, and I even went to the Hall of Fame."

God said "So what's your point Tom?"

"Well, why does Tim Tebow get a better house than me?"

God chuckled, and said "Tom, that's not Tim's house, it's mine."

Whoopie doesn't need a whoopie cushion on "The View"

2011-12-16T22:15:00.001-05:00

Riverside High School superintendent suspends students for Tebowing

2011-12-16T16:31:00.000-05:00

Nancy Carney, the school superintendent, at Riverhead High School in Garden City, NY suspended two 17 year-old twin brothers for Tebowing.

How'd this work out????

2011-12-15T10:58:00.001-05:00

For all those scared about Europe--let me ask you how did the above work out?

Better start buying this pullback

2011-12-15T03:39:00.005-05:00

All the timid and fearful wimps that are warning us about Armageddon and Europe--well you better ignore them and start buying here.

This pullback is just another Wall Street con.

Better start putting in some bids.

Cuz Tuesday's coming!

Eat your spinach to make some cabbage!

Tebow Mic'd up vs Bears

2011-12-15T03:06:00.003-05:00

Here's Tebow mic'd up during the Bears game.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d8250f44d/Sound-FX-Tim-Tebow

And check out this link--the last 4 minutes of the game.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-sound-efx/09000d5d825100af/Sound-FX-Tim-Tebow-s-comeback

Tebow was singing church hymns in warmups--off key of course.

So remember Hugh Douglas and his errant prediction--- and having to go to church after a Bronco win? Tebow during the presser said "Douglas better get out his Sunday best...and I hope he sings praise and worship too."

Hugh watched the game, where Tebow won with ESPN's with Michael A Smith. Tebow's "praise and worship" song that he was humming before the Bears game is here-- sung by Michael W Smith.

So once again, with Tebow, you have that coincidental connection that drives the critics crazy, and make his followers believe.

But the real secret to Tebow's success is hard work.

The temptation is to look at Tebow’s serene smiles in news conferences, watch him shrug shyly at questions about his abilities, listen to him talk about Jesus and think he is a man who plays football simply to spread the word of the Bible. The image is of a marginally skilled player who believes the Lord will slice holes in the defense or find a way to get a receiver open downfield.

And yet inside the Broncos’ complex, conversations about Tebow go on for half an hour without a mention of God or religion or their most famous player’s spirituality. The talk is instead about a man who is driven, who arrives early in the morning and leaves long after most of his teammates have departed. In college Tebow was famous for declarations of hard work but that seemed more about lifting weights and running sprints. Now that he is in the NFL, his diligence is in improving his throwing and studying opponents. The phrase most often attributed to him is not about God but rather, “Tell me how I can get better.”

Want a reason the Broncos are in first place in the AFC West with what amounts to a two-game lead over the Oakland Raiders? It is Tebow’s obsessive preparation.

The hour doesn’t matter. It could be 9 p.m., maybe 10, but at some point every night the phone of Broncos quarterbacks coach Adam Gase will ring and Tim Tebow will be on the line.

“I’ve been watching film,” Tebow will say. Then a string of questions: What happens if a defensive player moves a certain way? How should he go? And what about the receivers? Are there other options?

Quietly, Tebow has dazzled the Broncos coaches with his deep understanding of complex offenses. When he showed up to the team’s suite for his interview with the staff at last year’s combine, he immediately rattled off the principles of his offense at Florida. But then he launched into Norv Turner’s digit system as well as the Patriots’ offense, which the Broncos were also using. The coaches were stunned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So if you can criticize his work ethic, criticize him, because he belives in God.

Which makes him blessed. Because Christ said this:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Matthew 5:12

So does that mean then, that the critics and haters are are being pawned by Tebow's Awesome God?

Charles Barkley "Lose like a Man"

2011-12-14T19:42:00.002-05:00

Is that his Weight Watchers spiel or just the verdict on his proclamation that Tebow Time is over??

So now world class athletes who gain weight, will tell you it was just Weight Watchers that allowed them to lose the bulge. Do you want that bet?

Sir Charles take on Sunday's Broncos vs Patriots:

"I won't have any worries after this week," Barkley said. "No worries at all."

Five years ago, Barkley said betting in Vegas had cost him at least $10 million.

So take the under on the over/under bet on how long Barkley stays in the spotlight with his Tebow bashing!

Bear waves goodbye, while Wall Street thinks it waves hello

2011-12-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

Cramer: No reason to own Netflix

2011-12-13T08:59:00.003-05:00

Which means you have to own it!

Come on--the break up fee for AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile is $3 billion and $1 billion of spectrum rights.

So why wouldn't a carrier buy Netflix just to get into streaming? Especially now that its 75% off its high.

Want 7 million to 1 odds?

2011-12-12T18:14:00.003-05:00

The statistical odds on the Bronco 4th quarter comebacks being successful.
% odds
Week 7 at MIA 1.9
Week 9 at OAK 11.3
Week 10 at KC 43.0
Week 11 vs NYJ 22.3
Week 12 at SD 12.0
Week 13 at MIN 14.8
Week 14 vs CHI 3.8

Cumulatively it's over 7 million to 1.

And you wonder why Vegas is getting plastered by the Broncos.

Pats next on deck!

Trent Dilfer and Merril Hoge are now backpedaling on Tebow

2011-12-12T09:45:00.002-05:00

Next the plate of crow gets passed to the sovereign bond bears who think that the trouble in European bond land will blow this market up!

Even though the European banks have sold $238 billion worth of credit default swaps on Greek, Irish, Italian Portuguese and Spanish bonds!

If Greece isn't a "credit event" then what would make those?

The world's central banks protect their fiat buddies--who live in the vapor world of electronic money

So for now, the crow has only become an endangered species in the NFL as so many people have had to eat it already!

Broncos Livin' on a Prater!

2011-12-11T23:44:00.026-05:00

Where's Charles Barkley now? Who wanted Tebowmania to end??? And a 59 and 51 yard kicks by Prater??

After the game, sour grapes Urlacher said about Tebow--"He's a good running back." Hah! Better than the Bears Marion Barber!! Who now don't even have a prayer!

Tebow Time just picked up more converts! And some Father, daughter Tebowing to some shocked Bear fans at Raemali's after the game! Woot!! And Skip Bayless...and we have SEABISCUT! Wait--wasn't that advertised??? Booyahh!!

ESPN_FirstTake ESPN First TakeRT @GuyTorry: @RealSkipBaylessTim "SEABISCUIT" DOES IT AGAIN! DENVER should change the logo!about 4 hours ago

RealSkipBayless Skip BaylessCan't wait to hear all the excuses. MBarber should've stayed in bounds. Why prevent? How could Barber fumble in FG range? Tebowed.

RealSkipBayless Skip Bayless

I have never seen ANYthing quite like this.

5 hours ago

RealSkipBayless Skip Bayless

Bring on Tom Brady. Next Sunday. In Denver. NFL's strongest 4th q will (Tebow) vs. NFL's most clutch 4th quarter QB for last decade (Brady).

5 hours ago

RealSkipBayless Skip Bayless

For weeks I've heard nobody will want to play with Tebow. The great Jimmy Johnson just said on Fox never seen player make teammates better.

5 hours ago

RealSkipBayless Skip Bayless

Tebow just overcame an easy blocked FG, DThomas dropping TD pass, 5 other drops, his own sack fumble AND TORCHED BEARS D IN 4TH QUARTER.

6 hours ago

RealSkipBayless Skip Bayless

ALL ... HE ... DOES ... IS ... WIN ... FOOTBALL ... GAMES. Even THIS ONE, against the Bears D, when it appeared to be IMPOSSIBLE! Un. Real.

6 hours ago

Tebowing

2011-12-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

Along with stealing customer money MF Global also rehypothecated gold bars

2011-12-10T10:16:00.000-05:00

Bloomberg
An HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) unit sued the MF Global Inc. brokerage trustee to establish whether he or another person is the rightful owner of gold bars worth about $850,000 and silver bars underlying contracts between the brokerage and a client.

Five gold bars and 15 silver bars underlie eight Comex contracts between the brokerage and its client Jason Fane of Ithaca, New York, the unit of London-based HSBC said in a court filing yesterday. Both parties have asserted claims to the bars, creating difficulties for HSBC, which is storing them, the bank said. HSBC asked a judge to decide who the rightful owner is.

“HSBC has received conflicting instructions regarding ownership and disposition of the property,” it said. “Accordingly, HSBC is exposed to multiple liabilities with respect to the disposition of the properties.” The unit is HSBC Bank USA National Association.

At least they left the tungsten bars to Ben!

Lady Gaga now needs to be counted as "homeless" by the BLS

2011-12-10T10:13:00.000-05:00

Tick Tock McGlaughlin is to Skip Bayless as Seabiscut is to Tebow??

2011-12-05T16:06:00.001-05:00

Oh My!!! Haters going to hate!

DJ Gallo on the Tebow haters

2011-12-05T15:48:00.007-05:00

Week: 6

Tebow performance: Filling in for the ineffective Kyle Orton in the second half, Tebow nearly rallies Denver to a victory over the Chargers.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "That was adorable. But if John Fox listens to these stupid Denver fans and starts Tebow in a game next week, he needs to have his head examined."

Haterus Tebowis population: 150 million

Week 7

Tebow performance: After going 4-for-14 for 40 yards to put the Broncos behind 15-0 with 5:23 to play, Tebow leads Denver to an 18-15 overtime victory at Miami.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Big deal. He beat the Dolphins. They stink. And if Tebow wasn't so terrible, Denver never would have been trailing in the first place."

Haterus Tebowis population: 145 million

Week 8

Tebow performance: The Broncos lose 45-10 at home to the Lions, as Tebow throws 39 passes, completing just 18.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Ha! See? We told you! This guy is nothing but a fullback. And he doesn't even throw well for a fullback."

Haterus Tebowis population: 150 million

Week 9

Tebow performance: Running an offense designed more for his unique abilities, Tebow throws for two touchdowns and runs for 113 yards as the Broncos score 31 second-half points to beat Oakland 38-24.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Oooh! Now he has wins against the Dolphins and Raiders. Fancy! And it's not like he had anything to do with the win anyway. Willis McGahee ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns. This winning is not going to last."

Haterus Tebowis population: 145 million

Week 10

Tebow performance: Tebow goes 2-for-8, and Denver beats the Chiefs 17-10.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "What a joke. He's embarrassing the NFL. I mean, 2-for-8? So pathetic. If it wasn't for Denver's defense, Tebow would be nothing. So now he has wins against the Dolphins, Raiders and Chiefs. Big deal. Wait until he has to play a real defense next week when the Jets come to town."

Haterus Tebowis population: 140 million

Week 11

Tebow performance: Tebow makes a 20-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left to cap a 95-yard drive, giving the Broncos a 17-13 win over the Jets.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "The Jets are so overrated. How do you let Tim Tebow go 95 yards on you? They should be ashamed of themselves."

Haterus Tebowis population: 100 million

Week 12

Tebow performance: Tebow throws for 143 yards and a touchdown and runs for 67 yards as Denver beats San Diego 16-13 in overtime.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Another week, another game in which Tebow gets credit for the accomplishments of Von Miller and the Denver defense. What a joke."

Haterus Tebowis population: 90 million

Week 13

Tebow performance: Despite a poor performance by a Denver defense playing without Von Miller, the Broncos win 35-32 on a last-second field goal. Tebow's passing leads Denver's offense in the second half, and he finishes the game 10-for-15 for 202 yards and two touchdowns.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Shut up."

Haterus Tebowis population: 75 million

Based on the previous eight weeks, science allows us to accurately predict the remainder of the season.

Week 14

Tebow performance: The Broncos crush a depleted Bears team.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "So Tebow gets credit now for injuring Jay Cutler and Matt Forte?"

Haterus Tebowis population: 60 million

Week 15

Tebow performance: Tebow answers a late Tom Brady drive that gives New England a four-point lead with 1:30 remaining by engineering an 85-yard touchdown drive to give Denver a last-second win.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "So Tebow has now beaten one top quarterback. That's it. Only one. And Brady isn't even the best quarterback in the league anymore. Aaron Rodgers would totally kill Tebow."

Haterus Tebowis population: 30 million

Week 16

Tebow performance: The Broncos clinch the AFC West title with a win over the Bills.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Of course they did. Tebow is so lousy, the AFC West is the only division he could ever hope to win. Tebow and the AFC West both suck equally."

Haterus Tebowis population: 15 million

Week 17

Tebow performance: Tebow and other Broncos starters are rested for the playoffs during the second half of Denver's regular-season finale against the Chiefs. Backup Brady Quinn throws a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "See! They can even win with Brady Quinn. Tebow is just lucky to be on a stacked Denver team."

Haterus Tebowis population: 5 million

Wild-card round

Tebow performance: A last-minute touchdown run by Tebow leads Denver into the divisional round.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "You're supposed to win home playoff games. This proves nothing."

Haterus Tebowis population: 1 million

Divisional round

Tebow performance: The Broncos knock off the AFC's top seed on the road.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "No one remembers divisional-round wins. Win a Super Bowl, or history will forget you.

Haterus Tebowis population: 100,000

AFC Championship Game

Tebow performance: Tebow leads a second-half comeback as the Broncos advance to the Super Bowl.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Good. This is what I wanted to happen all along. I want everyone in the country to see Tebow get humiliated by Aaron Rodgers. It's going to be awesome. I've never been so excited for a Super Bowl."

Haterus Tebowis population: 100

Super Bowl

Tebow performance: Tebow throws for 472 yards and six touchdowns to outduel Rodgers, and Denver wins the Super Bowl.

Haterus Tebowis comments: "Looks like we have a new worst quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl."

Haterus Tebowis population: Just one guy: Aaron Rodgers

Don't Fade the Run!

2011-11-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

Vasily Alexeev dies at 69

2011-11-27T23:31:00.001-05:00

Above his 562 Clean and Jerk at the Montreal Olympics, where he won the gold. In his career he set 80 world records.

Below is his 66th world record! Something for this 666 market!

Novak pees and then misses as Broncos win!

2011-11-27T22:43:00.004-05:00

Tebow & Bronco haters have another rough week coming!

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/49128/chargers-latest-to-get-tebowed

Kentucky Derby bloodline filly, "Tebowing" in syndication

2011-11-23T10:48:00.001-05:00

tebowinges

MF Global missing money appears to be $2.06 billion

2011-11-22T02:01:00.005-05:00

That's what it appears. $2.06 billion. So when will the bankruptcy trustee come clean???? And raise the ante another $800 million??

Looks like they can't cover this up with a handshake!

So when is Bullard from the Fed going to come out and tell the world again that MF Global is how a failure is supposed to work??

Because this is what he said four days ago:

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--MF Global's failure is an example of how a financial firm should be able to fail and not lead to systemic risk in the financial system, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on CNBC Thursday.

MF Global did not need to be bailed out by the government after taking risks that ultimately brought it down, Bullard said. MF Global made big bets on risky European debt that led to losses and destroyed investor confidence in the company. MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31.
----------------------------------
Which means Bullard's statement will need to be revisited....

EU announces jail sentences for anyone who claims water can hydrate

2011-11-20T13:48:00.002-05:00

So anyone think that the ECB will buy up all the world's sovereigns bonds, and the EFSF will save the world?

Maybe that plan is too complicated--so here's something that isn't.

Water.

And now the EU has announced two year jail sentences for anyone that says that water can "hydrate."

What's next? Probation for those who say they "are dying of thirst?"

It took 21 bureaucrats, and three years of study, and now they've made their verdict in this 16 page report.

Water doesn't hydrate.

waterhydration

Conventional Wisdom

2011-11-18T16:05:00.000-05:00

Conventional wisdom often fails.

Below paraphrased from Chapter Fifteen, "The Launch"

When Apple's "1984" commercial was screened by Apple's board before it was to be played at the Super Bowl, the board was aghast at the ad. So Apple's board asked Chiat/Day to sell off the two commercial spots. Steve Jobs was beside himself--so when Wozniak was strolling the Macintosh building, Jobs pulled him over, and played the ad in a VCR. Wozniak asked how much the ad would cost. Jobs said $800,000. Woz said he would pay for half of the ad if Steve would also. Chiat/Day then told Apple , (in an act of defiance) that they couldn't see the 60 second spot, and the ad ran.

The ad was eventually selected by TV Guide and Advertising Age as the greatest commercial of all time.

It just shows that misplaced conventional wisdom doesn't only exist among the NFL pundits!

To the Tebow haters: God Bless!!

2011-11-18T08:26:00.007-05:00

Darrell Revis of the Jets, said before the game, that "he wasn't concerned about Tebow's legs" and that "the biggest thing for the secondary is for us to not fall asleep." At the end of the game, it was Revis who was sleepwalking in order to avoid a hit!

With a little more than a minute left in the game, Tebow, on a run, instead of stepping out bounds, barrels towards Darrelle Revis, 24, who makes "a business decision" and decides to step away, from getting hit by the Tebow locomotive! See at 3:46 in the above clip.

After the game, a reporter asked Tebow, "Was there any thought about sliding or stepping out of bounds on that last play?" And his reply, with a laugh was, "No sir. No sir."

But it just wasn't Revis. How about the Jets other defensive back, Antonio Cromartie, 31, freezing in the end zone, at the end of Tebow's winning TD run? He looked like a deer in the headlights, making "a business decision" like his teammate Revis did!

But it wasn't just the Jets players. How about Hugh Douglas of ESPN? As Tebow ended his presser last night with this: “I probably will tweet [former NFL defensive end] Hugh Douglas because I did hear that he said if we won he was going to church on Sunday. So I’m going to tweet him. He better be in his Sunday best! I hope he can sing praise and worship, too. So we’ll see.”

God Bless!

Tebow polarizing? Last night, after the game, and the 95 yard touchdown drive,, where Tebow walked on water, you couldn't even read the comment boards on ESPN, as the servers weren't fast enough to take all the comments that were furiously coming in!

He's getting some believers. Von Miller, who just had a crazy, great game, had his to say about Tebow:

"I've said it before: I trust him," rookie endbacker Von Miller said. "I trust him with everything. No matter how many interceptions he throws, no matter how many touchdowns he throws, that's Tim Tebow. I'm going to ride with him until the end.

"I hope he shut up a whole bunch of critics today."

Von Miller now puts fear back in the Denver D!

Tebow also had a perfect answer to one of the most most selfish players in the NFL, Michael Irvin, after the game:

How is he polarizing, when you have a Dad's daughter, putting signs like this up at the Bronco games?

Or a bride, Tebowing!

Maybe its just this that polarizes!

God Bless!!

Or this, when Tebow, at the end of the last three Bronco games, takes a knee!

God Bless!!

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven."

Matthew 10:32

God Bless!!!

Tebow Time!

2011-10-20T09:03:00.000-04:00

Shades of Yellow

2011-10-06T18:17:00.003-04:00

Icon Ambulance

Vic Gundotra talks about Steve Jobs attention to detail:

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job.

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up".

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced.

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

Steve Jobs passes away--"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish"

2011-10-05T20:18:00.002-04:00

Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford in 2005---one of the best ever. In that speech, he said this,

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away."

The entire speech:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Chris Hedges on "Occupy Wall Street"

2011-10-02T09:54:00.002-04:00

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. To stand on the sidelines and say “I am innocent” is to bear the mark of Cain; it is to do nothing to reach out and help the weak, the oppressed and the suffering, to save the planet. To be innocent in times like these is to be a criminal. Ask Tim DeChristopher.

Choose. But choose fast. The state and corporate forces are determined to crush this. They are not going to wait for you. They are terrified this will spread. They have their long phalanxes of police on motorcycles, their rows of white paddy wagons, their foot soldiers hunting for you on the streets with pepper spray and orange plastic nets. They have their metal barricades set up on every single street leading into the New York financial district, where the mandarins in Brooks Brothers suits use your money, money they stole from you, to gamble and speculate and gorge themselves while one in four children outside those barricades depend on food stamps to eat. Speculation in the 17th century was a crime. Speculators were hanged. Today they run the state and the financial markets. They disseminate the lies that pollute our airwaves. They know, even better than you, how pervasive the corruption and theft have become, how gamed the system is against you, how corporations have cemented into place a thin oligarchic class and an obsequious cadre of politicians, judges and journalists who live in their little gated Versailles while 6 million Americans are thrown out of their homes, a number soon to rise to 10 million, where a million people a year go bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills and 45,000 die from lack of proper care, where real joblessness is spiraling to over 20 percent, where the citizens, including students, spend lives toiling in debt peonage, working dead-end jobs, when they have jobs, a world devoid of hope, a world of masters and serfs.

The only word these corporations know is more. They are disemboweling every last social service program funded by the taxpayers, from education to Social Security, because they want that money themselves. Let the sick die. Let the poor go hungry. Let families be tossed in the street. Let the unemployed rot. Let children in the inner city or rural wastelands learn nothing and live in misery and fear. Let the students finish school with no jobs and no prospects of jobs. Let the prison system, the largest in the industrial world, expand to swallow up all potential dissenters. Let torture continue. Let teachers, police, firefighters, postal employees and social workers join the ranks of the unemployed. Let the roads, bridges, dams, levees, power grids, rail lines, subways, bus services, schools and libraries crumble or close. Let the rising temperatures of the planet, the freak weather patterns, the hurricanes, the droughts, the flooding, the tornadoes, the melting polar ice caps, the poisoned water systems, the polluted air increase until the species dies.

Who the hell cares? If the stocks of ExxonMobil or the coal industry or Goldman Sachs are high, life is good. Profit. Profit. Profit. That is what they chant behind those metal barricades. They have their fangs deep into your necks. If you do not shake them off very, very soon they will kill you. And they will kill the ecosystem, dooming your children and your children’s children. They are too stupid and too blind to see that they will perish with the rest of us. So either you rise up and supplant them, either you dismantle the corporate state, for a world of sanity, a world where we no longer kneel before the absurd idea that the demands of financial markets should govern human behavior, or we are frog-marched toward self-annihilation.

Those on the streets around Wall Street are the physical embodiment of hope. They know that hope has a cost, that it is not easy or comfortable, that it requires self-sacrifice and discomfort and finally faith. They sleep on concrete every night. Their clothes are soiled. They have eaten more bagels and peanut butter than they ever thought possible. They have tasted fear, been beaten, gone to jail, been blinded by pepper spray, cried, hugged each other, laughed, sung, talked too long in general assemblies, seen their chants drift upward to the office towers above them, wondered if it is worth it, if anyone cares, if they will win. But as long as they remain steadfast they point the way out of the corporate labyrinth. This is what it means to be alive. They are the best among us.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_best_among_us_20110929/

Police pepper spray young girls.

Because these protesters are so violent?????

The people of Occupy Wall Street:

Steve Jobs

2011-08-28T11:32:00.002-04:00

Gov. Christie ordered the evacuation of Atlantic City for this?

2011-08-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

A strip falling off the AC Convention Center? The petals on flowers didn't even blow off, but the aged and infirmed were told to evacuate to "safer" quarters because of Irene's threat.

Hurricane panickers scoop up bread and water

2011-08-27T08:40:00.000-04:00

They close the casinos in Atlantic City and strip the supermarkets bare. For windstorm and rain?

Loyal to the end

2011-08-25T17:40:00.000-04:00

Jon Tumilson, a Navy SEAL, was one of 30 Americans killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 6 when a rocket-propelled grenade took out a U.S. Chinook helicopter. He was mourned at a service in Rockford, Iowa, attended by 1,500 family members, friends--and Hawkeye, Tumilson's dog.

The Labrador retriever was such an important part of Tumilson's life that the friends and family of the San Diego resident called the dog his "son."

When Tumilson's friend Scott Nichols walked to the front of the room to speak, Hawkeye followed, Today.com reports. "As Nichols prepared to memorialize his friend, Hawkeye dutifully laid down near the casket," Scott Stump writes.

Bank of Opportunity on the resignation of Steve Jobs from Apple

2011-08-25T09:47:00.001-04:00

jobsbac

Goldman basically toes the same line on AAPL as BAC....

GS 4 (4)

Uncle Warren invest $5 billion in Bank of America!

2011-08-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

Boy did Buffett get a sweetheart deal! 6% on $5 billion, and another 700 million warrants at $7.14.

He put his Goldman money to good use!

He's now the chief cheerleader for the bank. (Now BAC can quite blaming Henry Blodget for their troubles!)

And now the shorts get squeezed!

Time for Buffet to just "suck it up" on Goldman Sachs warrants

2011-08-22T17:33:00.001-04:00

Blankfein hires outside counsel due to DOJ investigation.

And Goldman tumbles to 106.

Goldman: Buy CRM

2011-08-22T09:28:00.000-04:00

gs 1 (6)

Federal Reserve's latest publicity photo

2011-08-20T09:15:00.000-04:00

Courtesy Colonel Flick

Coming soon: Fibonacci arranged solar cells

2011-08-19T14:55:00.002-04:00

Solar cells arranged using the Fibonacci sequence produce 20-50% more power than uniform photo-voltaic panels.

And it took a 13 year old, Adian Dwyer to patent it!

All he had to do was look at trees to come up with the idea!

If Wall Street traders were horses....

2011-08-19T10:28:00.002-04:00

HPQ--down 6.66--Could bounce at those numbers

2011-08-19T10:08:00.012-04:00

Hewlett-Packard Company Common

(NYSE: HPQ )

Real Time

Last Trade:	22.85
Trade Time:	9:50AM EDT
Change:	6.66 (22.57%)
Prev Close:	29.51
Open:	23.60
Bid:	22.95 x 700
Ask:	22.96 x 25000
1y Target Est:	43.00

Day's Range:	22.85 - 24.01
52wk Range:	22.85 - 49.39
Volume:	27,793,219
Avg Vol (3m):	21,839,200
Market Cap:	47.39B
P/E (ttm):	5.62
EPS (ttm):	4.07
Div & Yield:	0.48 (1.50%)

Silver Squeeze!

2011-08-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

Remember back when you thought the hood ornament on a Rolls was actually silver?

Remember back when bankers were actually respectable?

Remember back when Carlos Slim was telling you to dump your silver?

A few more dollars higher and we'll start hearing "Got Silver" again!

The rules in a panic

2011-08-19T04:34:00.005-04:00

The Rules of a Panic:

He who panics first, wins!

The Bankers panic of 1907 was started by the side bets blowing up.

JP Morgan eventually calmed the masses in that panic when he told the public, "If people will keep their money in the banks, everything will be all right."

The time, the side bet of gold is blowing up in the bankers face. Anyone want to speculate on the banks derivative books with all their other toxic bets?

This time, in the Panic of 2011, if you keep your money out of the banks, everything will be all right!

Time for the bankers to "Suck it up, and cope!"

And then Charlie will tell the world again that "we should thank God for bank bailouts."

Maybe we get a chance for a do-over!

Face it--The Economy Sucks!!

2011-08-18T16:28:00.002-04:00

But that doesn't mean stocks will collapse--until they do!!

The above chart shows what happens when the Philly Fed Index heads into recession territory!

So despite the economy sucking--and it's getting worse--it surely isn't getting better---it doesn't mean stocks need to go down.

But it sure looks like "they" want them down!

But what do "they" know anyway!!

Maybe more than "them!"

Ben Bernanke Interchange

2011-08-18T09:44:00.000-04:00

Was driving through Dillon, South Carolina and noticed Ben Bernanke Interchange.

Looks like gold traders have noticed it too!

Who sold IDCC at 58 Monday??

2011-08-17T16:39:00.001-04:00

Now that, according to Reuters Qualcomm is interested in it. Wall Street always shooting first and asking questions later!

An analyst at Algorithm Capital had this to say to me, "i get a kick out of the gen counsel at Verizon saying they hope for "stability with patents" ----they are about to get hit with a $1B bill from IDCC for use of their patents that enable Verizon to squeeze more data calls on their aging network!!

Toby Scammell fights the SEC

2011-08-16T17:33:00.004-04:00

He set up a website Secfail.com to outlight his fight.

He's the guy that bought call options on Marvel before Disney bought them. Here's his story before he takes his website down on advice of his lawyer! Nothing like trying to p*ss off the SEC in the court of public opinion!

I am Toby Scammell and last week I was sued by the SEC for insider trading. The SEC’s complaint against me is so riddled with omissions, distortions and inaccuracies that it’s hard to know where to begin. To grab headlines the SEC has concocted an imaginative story that’s not supported by the facts.

Here’s a top 10 list of facts they forgot to mention or knowingly distorted:

There’s s no evidence to suggest I received material, non-public info. The SEC reviewed gigabytes of data and conducted hundreds of hours of depositions under oath. With tens of thousands of emails, texts, and instant messages processed the SEC can’t even muster an out-of-context quote (as they’ve done elsewhere) to support their claim that I knew something. On the contrary, my girlfriend made it clear from the outset that she wouldn’t tell me what the target was, and I never asked. The SEC is making an illogical leap and assuming that I knew what my girlfriend knew. Call it the SEC’s transitive theory of insider information: If Person A knows Person B and Person B knows Fact C then Person A knows Fact C. Based on that standard, well-networked investors everywhere should be sued and embarrassed in the press, not for receiving information but merely for their relationships.
I never traded “secretly” in my brother’s account. I began managing my brother’s finances years before any Marvel trades. Ever since I’ve managed every investment, account opening, tax filing, transfer, credit card application and payment with his full blessing. The two trading accounts used to buy Marvel—his taxable brokerage and my IRA—were accessed through a single login, which meant that with one click I could trade for either of us without regard for whose name was on the legal docs. Over the years I’ve only rarely given him an annual update on his investments let alone asked him for his input before or after a trade.
I didn’t have “limited funds” at any time while trading Marvel. I personally had at least $7500 in cash on hand at all times throughout August. At no point in August did I have less than $120k in buying power at my disposal—enough to repeat my Marvel trades 20 times. And based on my compensation at work, I earned $5500 every eight days. If that qualifies as “limited funds” then the SEC must consider Warren Buffet to be middle class.
During the last three weeks of July 2009 I worked full-time on a confidential Disney consulting project. This involved research and analysis of Disney’s competitors including Marvel. I had no access to material, non-public information from either Marvel or Disney during the project, but our data set included analyst reports, industry reports, and academic literature. It was during this project—and based on the SEC’s timeline, prior to my girlfriend being assigned to work on the acquisition—that I heard Disney had been trying to buy Marvel for years. (This was later confirmed to be a known fact inside media circles by multiple news articles.) My search history confirms my memory of this event almost to the minute.
My searches for “insider trading” and “material, non-public information” were blatantly taken out of context in the complaint. The SEC forgot to mention that my web history shows all of these searches and pages directly stemmed from a Wall Street Journal article I was reading about Mark Cuban’s SEC case. These searches had nothing to do with Marvel. There were hours and hundreds of links separating these visits from anything related to Marvel. And, these searches occurred days after my first Marvel trades. All of this was captured minute-by-minute and link-by-link in my web history.
The SEC’s timeline doesn’t make sense. My web history (the same one the SEC quoted in their complaint) shows Marvel-related research months before my girlfriend started working at Disney. I searched for “marvel disney acquisition”before my girlfriend was assigned to work on the project. My Marvel web research continued well after the SEC claims I knew Marvel was the target—totaling at least 47 searches and pages from August 13^th onward; all related to topics that would have been irrelevant had I known Marvel was about to be acquired. And in terms of physical proximity, there were only five nights when my girlfriend was assigned to the Marvel project when I stayed in her apartment. During that period I viewed only one Marvel-related webpage.
My Google Web History proves hours of methodical Marvel-related research in July and August. The distribution of this research supports my testimony about Marvel’s earnings report, the ~10% fall it suffered shortly thereafter, and why I went from passively following to actively researching the company. My research included:-analyst recommendations 
-analyst report summaries
-articles discussing Marvel’s earnings report
-Marvel financial statistics
-Marvel insider trades
-Marvel‘s ownership mix
-Yahoo! Finance discussion boards on Marvel
-Biographies of members of Marvel‘s management
-technical analysis of Marvel‘s stock price
-articles discussing Marvel technical analysis
My trading before and after Marvel shows a clear, consistent pattern: one of aggressive, short-term, event-driven and technically-driven trades. I have years of history trading penny stocks and speculating on FDA approvals, acquisitions, earnings calls, and political events. In 2004 I spent four months researching and writing a book on scenario-based trading. In 2009 I had ~$1.1 million worth of trades, $861k of which was non-Marvel options trading—all naked call options. After Marvel I more than doubled the value of my IRA in less than three months—purely through short-term options trades (46 trades across seven companies over a roughly 90 day period). Compared to my Marvel purchases, my prior options trades were quantitatively higher risk and more than five times further “out of the money” than Marvel. I lost every penny on those options, but only because I screwed up the timing of my exit. I would have more than tripled my money if I’d sold within 60 hours of my purchase.
The SEC doesn’t understand the difference between public and employee options. In general employee options are worthless unless the share price hits the strike price. Not so with publicly traded options, which are commonly bought and sold while they’re very far out of the money. Yet the SEC continues to think of a strike price as a necessary threshold below which one can’t make money. They think a strike price is a price target, which it’s not unless one is planning to hold an option to expiration—a rare and (in my case) unaffordable strategy. The SEC lawyers have been confused about this from day one. Now they’ve made their confusion public by ignorantly misstating that my trades were “highly-remarkable” and “unusual” simply because the strike prices were above Marvel’s recent $41.74 high. The SEC would do well to examine the hundreds of millions of dollars in out of the money options transactions every day that fit their definition. This is truly one of the most basic and easily understood options concepts around, and yet the SEC doesn’t get it and uses this as the basis for their claim against me.
I dumped thousands of dollars worth of Goldman Sachs call options hours before the SEC sued the company in April 2010. I had a relationship with the SEC. Shouldn’t I be sued for insider trading in this case too…?

And there’s more…

SEC believes Disney and Marvel management lied in their S-4 filing
SEC doesn’t realize you can experience higher percentage gains on a call option than you can on the underlying stock
SEC doesn’t realize that companies can report negative earnings and still beat expectations
SEC believes options always trade at the their theoretical value
SEC can’t figure out where I live so they guess randomly

Like any other claimant, the SEC can say whatever they want in their lawsuit, even if it’s knowingly false, taken out of context and only intended to grab headlines. If the SEC understood how to read a bank statement or how call options worked then I wouldn’t be writing this. But this is the SEC—an incompetent government agency filled with bumbling lawyers who don’t understand the first thing about the markets they’re charged with regulating. They’re the financial regulatory equivalent of the DMV, except their lawyers lack domain expertise. I have no doubt a random selection of TSA screeners and postal workers would do a better job if their only training involved watching an hour of CNBC.

Unfortunately, I will never be in a position to prove I had no material, non-public information about the Marvel deal. I can’t prove a negative. But the SEC has had nearly two years to examine every document imaginable including;

Every email, text message, and instant message I sent or received for months before and after my trades
Every bank statement, pay stub, trade confirmation, and tax document going back as many years as possible
Every phone record from months before and after my trades
Every piece of communication between me and my girlfriend for a period of a year or more
Every website I visited and every search term I entered over an approximately two year period (as captured by my Google Web History)
Thousands of other documents from other people and companies who received subpoenas

and after looking through hundreds of thousands of pages the SEC hasn’t found a sliver of information that suggests I possessed material, non-public info that related to my trades in Marvel.

Contrast that absence of evidence with an overwhelming amount of time and date stamped web research, a trading pattern that is consistent with my Marvel trades, and a logical, well-supported thesis that was independent of a Marvel acquisition.

For four days I answered hundreds of SEC questions under oath, even the ones that demonstrated my interrogators had a stunning lack of knowledge about investing, acquisitions, or how to read basic financial documents. They have ignored all the evidence and sued me based on nothing more than a hunch and a flawed understanding of how people invest in the real world.

The Pack visit BO at the White House!

2011-08-12T22:54:00.000-04:00

Tebow pre-season

2011-08-12T22:29:00.001-04:00

Cat sitter becomes cat squatter

2011-08-12T11:00:00.001-04:00

In the strange but true category....

Amanda Simmons, was babysitting her neighbors cat when this happened....

“Poor little Buttons must have suffocated when I rolled over. I never even noticed. ‘It wasn’t even my kitten – I was looking after him for my neighbours. My boyfriend was going down on me when he shrieked and leapt back, sobbing.”

Truth Tellers!

2011-08-12T09:37:00.046-04:00

A couple days ago, Meredith Whitney, gets glammed up to go on CNBC, because now that the market has come in, and S&P has wrongly downgraded the USA's printing press, she thinks it's safe to tell the world, "I told you so!" She didn't care that any widows or oprhans that listed to her wrong advice to dump munis would lose money. She was just looking for her moment to start selling her broken franchise on Wall Street , and have her "I told you so" moment.

But Rick Santelli called her on the carpet.

"Come on. Think about it. Stick with munis."

That's the closest Wall Street will ever come to telling someone STFU.

Now the SEC is investing S&P, to see what clients they leaked their downgrade information to. Which is, of course, the reason for their downgrade.

Yesterday Cramer said this rally was a sham. Really? Maybe the sell-off was the sham!

But that's Wall Street. Nobody tells anyone they are full of sh*t. Even when they are.

Yesterday, people referenced this story by Marc Cuban, written last year "What Business is Wall Street In?"

The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the traders. They know what business Wall Street is in better than everyone else. To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It’s a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible.

The best analogy for traders ? They are hackers. Just as hackers search for and exploit operating system and application shortcomings, traders do the same thing. A hacker wants to jump in front of your shopping cart and grab your credit card and then sell it. A high frequency trader wants to jump in front of your trade and then sell that stock to you. A hacker will tell you that they are serving a purpose by identifying the weak links in your system. A trader will tell you they deserve the pennies they are making on the trade because they provide liquidity to the market.

And that's Wall Street. Crashes are just hackers exploiting the system, quote stuffing, rumor mongering, and making a bigger deal out of something that isn't, so they can crash the market and then profit on the way back.

It's nothing more than that. That's the business Wall Street is in.

You know who are the naysayers in this market? They are like Ross Perot Jr. He sold the Dallas Mavericks to Marc Cuban, but he kept a 5% stake. The whining Perot then sued Cuban, because he said he mismanaged the team.

Cuban's lawyers, sent the following brief--with a picture of the World Champion Mavericks.

2011-06-22 WC Mavs and Radical Mavs Mngt MSJ

Two years from now, when the market is at all time highs, you won't hear a peep from today's handwringers!

These bears need a Cuban brief!

Because when it's obvious, you don't even need to say "I told you so!"

Cramer: The rally is just a sham

2011-08-11T17:37:00.004-04:00

Oh boy--Look at Cramer who had this to say today:

The smartest person I know came in yesterday and bought a boatload of stock right into the hideous. She blew it all out today into the strength. She told me point blank that the phoniness and the volatility and the lack of any buying but machine and short-covering made the whole rally a gigantic sham.

So the rally is a sham? Because the downgrade is supposed to mean something????

When CSCO rallies on earnings--it means that stocks have gotten too cheap!

So deal with it!!

A sham???

Maybe the bulls just did this to the bears--who still think it is 2008!!

Oh yeah that's right---and that punch was from a girl!

But if he had a hoodie, he'd look like the most famous boxer on Wall Street--Jamie Dimon!

You want a bear market?

Tiger Woods! He shot a 77 at PGA today!

The market will give you a better V than Woods!

Bulls run from Wall Street to Queens!!! Booyahhh Baby!!!

2011-08-11T16:06:00.005-04:00

Bull Rampages Through Queens: MyFoxNY.com

Where did the bears go???

2011-08-11T14:00:00.005-04:00

Now that they got the widows and orphans to sell them their stocks, they are nowhere to be found!

Take a shot of SODA here at 42

2011-08-11T11:35:00.003-04:00

Stock broke today and it's worth a shot here

Fans swap caught baseballs

2011-08-11T10:51:00.000-04:00