ConEd win this years prize for worst customer service.

Having waited on the phone for half an hour because they don’t take credit card payments over the web (I mean my corner store does that), they don’t take credit cards over the phone - despite the fact that they say they do.

Not just that - but if you change your bank and your payment doesnt go through, in their infinite wisdom, they decide that they will stop you from being able to pay by phone for six months. They basically don’t want your money.

Please, please let Con Edison go bust.

My bullshitters investing guide, based upon absolutely no analysis or experience. I don’t even know if ‘Hearst’ is public - I don’t care.

Iwonder how it will do? I’ll check back in a year.

Pharma and cosmetics.

L’Oreal
They make proper sunscreen that the FDA haven’t yet approved, apparently. Or so some geezer down the pub said.
Buy

All the best deals are here, but nobody understands it, including professional investors.
Buy into the people that make lab coats instead.

—————

Media

Hearst
If big media doesn’t own little electronic media -
Sell

Clearly all media is undergoing a massive revolution everything big is going tits up. But the small stuff that will replace it is not public. So only big people who can invest in VC funds etc. will make money out of the little guys.

—————

Commodities:

Oil
There is no way that the Saudis are telling the truth about reserves.
Buy

Gold
Lot of bad stuff brewing in the newspapers
Buy if you are a wuss.

—————

Retail

The People who make True Religion Jeans
Even bigger wankers have started to wear them recently
Sell

Walmart
Think Woolworths where everything is expensive cos. Chinese imports increase in price.
Sell - eventually

Wholefoods
A Texan hippy store, how perfectly hedged
Buy

Virgin (the music bit, or whoever owns them)
Once fresh brand, starting to look dated and shabby, like the music industry.
Sell

—————

Tech and DOTCOM

Microsoft
Cummon they are not waiting to pounce. A company that sells Personal Computer software (small business computer software) when the market wants personal computer software.
Sell

In fact, sell all software companies, apart from the ones with call themselves media companies. Some of those are OK.

—————

Real Estate:

Real-Estate in London.
London houses are too expensive, interest rates can only go up, doing anything in London is too expensive.
Sell

Real Estate in the US
Interest rates can only go up.
Sell

Real Estate near future Wholefoods in US
You are what you eat. Wholefoods is the best real estate developer in the US.
Buy

Real Estate in Croatia
I have never been there - the postcards of Dubrovnik look nice.
Buy

I disabled comments a while back because of the spam issues from gambling and porn sites, but noticed that 10% of my traffic was to inbound links to some poker site comments that I hadn’t deleted.

The inbound linking is to game Google into indirectly boosting pagerank for the eventual destination using clustered keyword terms, a more sophisticated variant of placing outbound links in comments.

The traffic came from what appear to be affiliates of a CPA affiliate program site, 888.com, which in turn linked to poker sites that were owned by the same company as 888.com, operating out of the UK’s Gibraltar.

These companies are owned by Cassava Enterprises, who, one might imagine, are a small, shady company, operating offshore.

However, it turns out that Cassava Enterprises are in the process of going public in the UK for an estimated $1.5 billion, underwritten by Credit Suisse First Boston.

See the Sunday Times article below:

Poker firm float flushed out - Sunday Times - Times Online

“Similarly, Cassava Enterprises, owner of the 888.com site, has hired CSFB to advise it on a possible flotation. It is reported to be considering a listing that would value the business at more than

Below is the top story on Reuters: it shows a recent trend where Greenspan has had to repeatedly warn against government spending and yet the markets and the party favored by the markets doesn’t react…

There was a point when the government and markets would quiver if Greenspan looked like he had got out of bed on the wrong side. Nowadays, idealogy and faith seems to be driving capitalism too - a dangerous thing.

Greenspan Warns Deficits Endanger Economy

“Much of the Fed chairman’s testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers. He stressed that steps to fix the problem were essential.

“As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken,” the Fed chief said.”

Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.com

Foremski ups the ante on the Flickr/Yahoo partnership rumor, suggesting that an acquisition is about to be announced.

Silicon Valley Watcher: Scoop! SiliconValleyWatcher reports Yahoo is negotiating acqusition of Flickr

My good friend Nick Aster has been doing an MBA with a difference, one that combines business with sustainability, at the Presidio World College.

They are shortly having open days for their MBA in Sustainable Management.

Wired News: Monster Fueled by Caffeine on a startup that works out of a coffee shop.

After a false start with ‘hot desking’ in the 90’s freely available wifi, laptops and cellphones really do mean that in some case you can work anywhere. In this case, history has come full circle with some of the biggest institutions in the world, such as Lloyd’s insurance, having been started in 18th century coffee houses.

Increasingly I am meeting people, that like myself would rather work out of a coffee shop than some anonymous cube hell that is the staple of most US work environments. I have a friend who is looking to buy a coffee house in San Francisco as space for his startup, whilst keeping it selling coffee to the public.

From an architectural standpoint I see this as the perfect rebellion. Unlike coffee houses, office space does not have to be designed to be attractive to hang out in and as such the vast majority of office space in America is a thoughtless committee designed waste of money devoid of any soul.

My recent experiences with realtors show me that: most of them don’t know very much about buildings; waste your time by lying in descriptions; seem to be the last people on earth to use email and digital cameras instead of time wasting phone calls and expensive on-site visits.

Realtors charge up to a quarter of what architects do, without most of the skill, service or liability. The reason that this happens is that they own the customer. By extension, if their services don’t benefit customers then this will change.

Why hasn’t the Internet destroyed the current hopeless realtor merry-go-round. Perhaps a listings service could be built where data can only be submitted if:

1. the realtor or seller lists a contact email(rather than them contact you, or by phone).

2. all listing have digital pictures of outside and all rooms.

3. all room sizes are listed in square foot.

4. visits can be arranged through a third party key holder rather than with the agent. (Most of the time having a realtor show you round is a waste of money. Why not distribute keys to security companies and have someone less annoying show you round.)

5. all listings allow feedback from registered users who are prospective buyers/renters.
this would allow people to rate realtors, rate properties and upload their own pictures of properties.

[The problem with 5. is that reviewing building listings has less vanity benefit than an product review, as your review won’t be seen for ever. Perhaps revenge is enough of a driver to make people give bad feedback.]

NB. Here is a realtor tip that a friend told me about:

In the US it appears that some contracts require a licensed broker at both ends of a deal. Given that that can be one person - threatening to bring in a second broker results in the first reducing fees automatically because they will have their fees halved by the mere presence of another broker.

Sample chapter headings:

The Morons Who Are Sitting Next To You
Business Culture, My Arse
Why You Can’t Lose By Resigning
Corporate Culture - Stupid People

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Lazy joke lands author in trouble

Coke has had to recall Dasani feared to be contaminated with a carcinogen.

Coke started by selling drink with narcotics, last century.

It then took the narcotics out, building a brand by selling sugared water at a massive premium.

It then launched Dasani, removing the sugar and selling water at a massive premium.

It turned out that Dasani isn’t a mineral water, but is purified tap water, selling at a massive premium.

With this recall, they were selling lipsmackin, thirstquenchin contaminated, non-mineral, unsugared, ‘coke’ free water.