|||Hinky|||

Friday, February 28, 2003

The hinkiest companies can be measured by their financial rations. Hinky companies have high price to earnings per outstanding share of common stock sold to the public (you know "NM"), the thing they said didnt' matter, they being all the, cheese ball analysts who had Ben Gramm spinning in his grave over the past ten years. They are bring being fired, or retired in droves this week, as we approach the upcoming release of documents that will hang them out to dry next week. Law suits will come; the civil kind, that break the banks. They are what made wall street hinky since 1987, as repeated attempts were fended off by the banking community's lobbists, and politicians raked it in (from Hillary's futures, to Pot hole Al's whipping boy brother). Hinky stocks have high P/E Rations, and that is what we are going to keep beating away at, this years, just as we bang the drum on hinky persons and their hinky actions every day. Today, we have three with high P/Es and Low low low down estimated growth rates over the next 5 years (keep in mind that the estimates are the work of They who have been hinkiest, the shim sham analysts that Wall Street bankers and prinicipals hired to hype and pump their stocks.) Here are three: First: ALTR, Altera Corporation, has a P/E of 50, and a growth rate of -15 or negative 15 over the next 5 years. Where you going? Second: Charles Schwab, SCH, P/E 115, Growth estimate: -4.1. Third: Falcon Products, FCP, P/E 59, Growth prospects, -71%. Hinky as Harry Hudini. Hinky wouldn't necessarily urge anyone to short these hinky companies, because we don't recommend investments. We leave that to the people who live on Park Avenue, with money they raked in from millions of trusting americans, and their fumbling fiduciaries.

Hinky 7:15 PM

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At 7:34am Hinky was getting off the train, at Grand Central, which has had a good number of solders, police officers and other assorted security personel in and around the station for months. Yet, as the kid with the temper was slapping the commuter for knocking into him (which knocked his swag watch off), there were only other commuters to stop it. The big girl, with the loud mouth was the one who made the slapper back down and walk away, as the stocky guy with the crew cut and the damaged pride gathered himself. No police, no solders, no bomb sniffing dogs; just a large woman with an MTA jacket on, and an orange vest, who watched, motionless. It's hinky, like the 4th grade teacher who told me she was beaten by the parents of her Bronx students 3 times in her first year, and who often cried herself to sleep over it. Hinky thinks maybe nyc should pay some of these war vets to become gym teachers and subway hall monitors when they return from the big bust in Iraq, if there is any money left when our mayor (who has a net worth of 4.8 Billion from his days at Solomon Brothers, and his company Bloomberg, LLP.) That last link also explains how Moscows first Billion dollar man was made last month, when he sold Russia's oil asset to BP, in a deal that has hinky timing with the war in the Iraq.

Looks like Lizzy G. with the SUV, the drugged driving hit and run hag landed on her feet this week. The Post reports that she is building a barkery on 62nd street, and paying 100/square foot for it, or 68,700 dollar per month based on the footage. That's a lot of cupcakes each month, assuming anyone would buy anything from her.

Hinky 10:43 AM

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Thursday, February 27, 2003

It's tough, as usual, but it looks like hinkiest of them all today was Martita Gonzalez, a mother in Patterson, New Jersey who tossed her 15 month old son off of a bridge. She was sentanced to 18 years. Her reply after her plea: "I still don't understand why this had to happen," she said. "I have a lot of grief inside. I am truly sorry for what I have done, God knows I am. I have my life focused on God right now." Hinky thinks maybe sorry didn't do it, and maybe God knows who did.

Not to be outdone: Tyshunna Jackson, 24, of Los Angeles, threw two children out a second-floor apartment window Thursday, then jumped herself
, police said. Fortunately, they landed in mud," said Lt. Francis Arocha of the South Gate Police Department. Their falls also were broken by a small tree. All three females managed to miss a row of metal gas meters on the ground below the window. Jackson, 24, of Los Angeles, was booked for felony child assault. Hinky thinks it will make a great story for the girls to tell in college, if anyone bothers to got to college by the time they grow into it.

But second place goes to Baretta, who says he is innocent, with a straight face, despite the witness who testified that Robert Blake tried to hire him to kill his wife, who was killed.

And for Hinkiest company, we'd point out three "advanced" companies with Price per Earnings per Outstanding share price, or P/E of 300 or more. They are ADIC, Advanced Digital Information Corp; AFCI, or Advanced Fiber Communications; ANSI, or Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, for all you daytrader who are looking to make money shorting shim sham companies, if there are any day traders left by the time Hinky gets this out. We "like" Andrew Corporation too, ANDW, which sells communications equipement. Their P/E is over 1000. While InterDigital Communications Corp, IDCC, has a P/E of 4496.67. Hinky thinks it is fairly valued if are comfortable holding it for 5000 years, or 240,000 fiscal quarters. Hinky thinks these advances have a better than even chance of disappearing over the next 5,000 years.

Here is something that cames to Hinky's hinky mind, in a dream last night, so we looked it up to get the exact language, from Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964:

"We have an autocracy which runs this university. It's managed. We asked the following: if President Kerr actually tried to get something more liberal out of the Regents in his telephone conversation, why didn't he make some public statement to that effect? And the answer we received -- from a well-meaning liberal -- was the following: He said, "Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his board of directors?" That's the answer! Now, I ask you to consider: if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the board of directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I'll tell you something: the faculty are a bunch of employees, and we're the raw material! But we're a bunch of raw material[s] that don't mean to have any process upon us, don't mean to be made into any product, don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings!
[Applause]

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"

Hinky 7:49 PM

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Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Busy as a dog with two dicks; but mayor mike of nyc is looking hinkiest of them all today, as he grinds down the unions to the tune of 600 million dollars or else, including -175mm out of the schools, -47mm from transportation, -26mm from fire department, -24mm from sanitation, -44mm from police, and -6mm from children’s services. Still think your standard of living isn’t eroding?

Well you keep whisteling in the dark along with mike and his French meals, and Hinky will keep a eye on what's going on these days, including the mismanaged world economy with hinky deflation at any price; or the nasty budget cuts that shrink services and outlays to retirees without actually telling them like a thief in the night, or saythe nasty budget cuts that scalp the schoolsleaving a wake of sex offenses by the leftover doubious of teachers, such as this one in Patterson, NJ who held her student dear (15 times). Hinky looks out in his magic internet window and sees other effects too, signs of the times we live beside the long lines for lotto, booze and butts, such as documentaries about Hungry, which turns out is similar to Mexico city, and those other rotten places that street kids can't escape, where they also sniff glue to fend off hunger pangs.. Hinky sees repeated signs (official stories of the international medias) that we will have to get used to the idea that the true price of fuel is a little low right now, given what it costs to keep the pipelines safe for world wide waste and consumption beyond Ben Franklin's wildest pre-surreal nightmarecost of this war to change management in the middle east, and knock Isreal's troubles off the front pages of the world's newspapers for the first time in 40 years (Hinky can envision a time when Palistinians lead the region in Tax-excempt, Casino Gaming. Hinky sees the massive phone protests, in this telemarketing age, and Europeans, who appear to be resisting a change of management in the middle east, as they continue protesting the war for new management in the middle east but don't really offer a much else to do about the situation, about this Saddam, this Rogue CEO who spends his time using lines from his Godfather DVDs on his Republican guard, and paying bonuses to suicide bombers, while his people starve, and his oil pipelines fall to disrepair. No, these European allies do not offer much in the way of ideas or solutions to the problems of the middle east, unless you count their wanting to wait and keep selling arms to Saddam so they can get do deals to captive markets where their countries get cheap oil with pipelines that they build and control extending from some overpopulated shore to these remote regions where the oil is plentiful but the tempers, like the climates run hot. .
In spite of our allies protests, Hinky envisions Disneydunes in Kuwait, with some really outstanding water rides.Meanwhile, it’s looking like open season in the rap world here in nyc. So stick your hands in the air, and wave them like you just don't care, about bullets flying. Hinky thinks, sometimes the less said the better.

Hinky 7:19 PM

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Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Crudele was on today in the NY Post business page. He shows how government inflation numbers are cooked by misrepresenting the true price of oil, and he shows the impact of those government statistics on America. He spoon feeds us three good reasons why this hinky stuff is cause for alarm. First, government can more easily to take actions that harm and not help the nation. Second, when they cheat on the Consumer Price Index, they cheat retirees. And finally, while understating inflation they assume Americans will make due with less (like eating hamburger instead of steak), which amounts to letting the standard of living fall, as if nobody notices that they are wearing cheap shoes, and 5 dollar watches while they sit on paper furniture

There is another reason Crudele did not mention: it undermines the integrity of the government, our markets, and our economy around the world, which is what the whole thing has been based upon since Alexander Hamilton paid back France on the loan we took out to beat back the Limeys. If you think that is a small thing, you are wrong. In the end, nobody wants to spend a nickel in a clip joint no matter how good the bouncers hold up.

The price of gas went up 48% according to Depart. of Energy. The CPI guys, whose work winds up setting bank rates and for government serices, use a number that does not jibe with that; in fact its half the DoE number, and they have an excuse (like off balance sheet accounting) do leave out the real rates. So if you are feeling snookered you are not alone. It’s like when they redefine the official use of the word “unemployment” to exclude people, who out of work more than 6 month (you know, the average college graduate). The result is the same; the potential for the wrong policy at the wrong time based on the wrong picture of the wrong place.

Yes, you can joke about it, like these guys: , or maybe see that “the sky is falling,” like this guy.But in the end, just a hinky mess that is a man made, and it can be fixed by man, given enough time and effort; but from where Hinky sits, which is in view of where the WTC sat, the prices look to be getting higher, not lower no matter what we are paying at the pump, or for the cheese whiz at the Walmart.

Hinky 5:53 PM

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just lost a big blog in a computer crash; it was about socialism, because I was send something about an upcoming Socialist conference by mail. I put a lot into it, but I'll just give you a thumbnail: I explained that capitailsm is the only game in town, based on Socialism record for big lies, and mass murder throughout the last century. Capitalism rewards people, and thereby creates incentives, which if structured right, will lead people to do good, as they do well. Capitalism can go wrong, when incentives are misplaced, or systems are so corrupt that things wind up so screwed up that people are lead to do the wrong thing (like Pablo, for example). I had a great quote from a Canadian guy, who posted something on Che-lives.com, lamenting the benefits of Capitalism with words like Liberty, which we think may be under siege lately, but nonetheless, you are out of your mind if you think there is a better way to deal structure a nation than with Capitalism, and worse you floating on some utopian vision, which I will pick apart when I get a few minutes later today, and after we read Crudele in the Post about the price of gas. See ya later jerky [still pissed at computer crash].

Hinky 12:48 PM

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Hinky really wrote this for Monday, but forgot to upload it to the blog...

Long Island is becoming a breeding ground for drunken hag road warriors. It looks like another hit and run was just discovered in the Hamptons. It happened last November. First, it was Lizzy G., a nyc P.R. exec. (with a big shot father), who mowed down a group of partygoers outside a trendy Hamptons nightclub last summer. Lizzy, as you might recall, hit the tabloids with all the charm of manhattan’s preppy murderer 10 years ago. This time, it’s a Long Island real estate agent Real Estate Leslie Jennemann, who killed Henry Yarrell (a farm laborer) as he was walking back from a deli with beers. We find it most hinky that these people drink, drive, then hit and run, without regard for what they leave in their wakes. They are land sharks. Turns out her date that night dimed her out three days later, a writer who described the experience as a “surreal” nightmare to the Post. Hinky thinks Dali and Miro would be puking swatches(tm) if he were around to hear all these weirdos lumping their shitty actions into the catchbasin that the term “surrealism” has become, as if their high brow hipster reference distracts us from the cop out. He waited three days, then said he didn't know she hit someone because he was following her. He's josteling and we think the writer boyfriend has it wrong. These drunken lead foot hit and run hags out on the Island are all too real when they mow people down with their cars before speeding off in the hope that no body will notice. She said she thought it was a deer.

We notice that the Amercian Stock Exchange now has 802 companies in the shitter, and Christopher Byron is hilarious about a few of them today in the NY Post, calling the exchange place that has turned into a place that holds out these shim sham companies like a winking Hamburg hooker [Hinky spits his coffee laughing] "Johns" is a good word for investors, but we can't decided if it is a step up from Wall Street's traditional shorthand for investors: saps. Saps holds up well enough, but Johns captures a little better the buyer beware aspect of putting hard won money into Stocks.

We finished recommend "Killing Pablo", a book about the drug lord who held Colombia by the short hairs until they hunted him down and killed him a few years ago. If you have any interest in the kind of special operations America conducts on foriegn soil, where justice (and the ruling class of those countries) cries out for our special kind of "help", this would be your book. Very cool survalience technologies conducted by "Central Spike," a group of US military techies who tracked a murdering, bloated child molester all over Colombia for several years by his cell phone. It also gives you an eye opening view of the kind of people who are helping American drug consumers to poison themselves and in many cases wreck their lives and their families beyond repair. There is not much in the book about the American drug consumer who gets the ball rolling with overwhelming demand for things to get them high, but seeing the great lengths that governments have to go to as a result of America's appetite for drugs (and most other things) might make you wince the next time are offered drugs (or an SUV), or hear about this or that celebrity getting snagged for drug use at the airport, or in some club downtown. As much as we embrace the 8th Amendment (which excludes cruel and unusual punishments), we think Singapore may have the right idea with the caning for certain crimes. We suspect that formal, brutal, and televised cane whippings for drug trafficing is more fair and effective than these 25 year sentances and the stupid drug laws force us to pay $60,000 per (on average) year to jail up all these geniuses who are caught trying to turn a buck on America's demand for a chemical escape hatch.

Speaking of unleashed consumption, we just started "Confederacy of Dunces," a outragiously funny book about a crazy bloated slob living with his mother like Jabba the Hut in New Orleans written back in the 1960's (the protag typically eats a whole box of donuts, himself, sometimes just sucking the filling out of a few). The writer really has something to say about consumption. It's too bad the writer killed himself before it was published and won a Pulitzer.

Dr. Benjamin S. Carson wrote an editorial [yesterday] today in the Wall Street Journal. He is the Johns Hopkins doctor who lead the team that separated those West German twins that were connected at the head in 1987. It's timely as he addresses the supreme courts upcoming consideration of affirmative action, one of the most hotly debated issues in America over since Kennedy was president we reckon. He urges the court to consider the following:
“take into account factors such as parental education, socioeconomic status, obstacles overcome, learning environment, living environment, responsibilities, special family circumstances, etc., which allows these students admission. The universities correctly reason that if these students could overcome such significant adversities in their lives, they will likely make great contributions to our nation.
This is the principle we should call "compassionate action," and I believe it is the right one for our current dilemma: While race-neutral, it takes a disadvantaged background into account and extends a helping hand to those who need it most. As it turns out, in the U.S., the largest percentage of people from disadvantaged backgrounds happen to be blacks and Hispanics. Those groups will be given a slightly lower bar because of their real difficulties, not from a presumption that their skin color requires it.”

Now, you don’t have to be a Black Brain surgeon to see the common sense of this opinion, but maybe it helps. Very un-hinky Doc.

Hinky 10:18 AM

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