Sunday, January 16, 2011

Best Headline Ever

On a despondent night full of disbelief and melancholy, I submit this headline via Zero Hedge (and yes I know so many think ZH is a haters club full of idiots that missed a generational move in the markets, but at least they are trying to report real stuff and not get happy market stuff):
Deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali Said To Have Fled
Country With 1.5 Tons Of Gold
Not shares of AAPL, not freeze dried MREs, not shotguns shells, not even €45 million European pieces of linen in a suitcase... Gold. And one wonders why all the physical silver and gold is slowly but surely disappearing from the distributors: someone should really check the cargo hold of Lloyd's, Jamie's and Vikram's G-6 planes...and of course the extra cargo holds in the private helicopter squadron of that "other" Ben, elsewhere now known lovingly with the adjective of Blackhawk (f/k/a Helicopter).

Nice.

I hate having to do this but I am long NFLX, OMEX, EW, hold a shit load of physical gold and silver (it's in Boston so don't bother!), and I may hold crap stocks in my company's 401k but I don't even look at it.)

8 comments:

Stagflationary Mark said...

Netflix and a "shit load" of gold and silver?

I suspect one of us is going to be very wrong going forward.

Is Netflix killing Redbox? Not so fast.

With a multiple like that, Netflix may not be just priced to perfection. It's priced as if streaming videos will be able to cure cancer, bring peace to the Middle East and turn the LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers into a championship caliber basketball team. Good luck.

A Case Against Netflix

In short, Netflix is moving from a business in which it was competing against smaller, dying, heavily-indebted companies with inferior business models to some of the largest, most powerful, aggressive and deep-pocketed companies in the world, which have big competitive advantages over Netflix.

For what it is worth, I believe that. We use Netflix. We don't have any brand loyalty to them though. It is all about price.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Here's a bonus thought. Netflix is a middleman on the Internet.

Cutting out the middleman, American Airlines did it.

Once the main airlines pull out of expedia and orbitz and the others the value of these services diminishes greatly.

In my opinion, Netflix faces those same risks long-term.

Stagflationary Mark said...

I don't mean to hog the thread or bash your investment. It's not like anything said here would matter anyway. All I'm trying to do is point you to a few things you may not have considered.

Turner CEO: ‘Freezing’ Out Netflix a Top Priority

“There is a heightened sense across the industry of the importance of freezing those rights when we make those acquisitions,” Kent said. “That’s what you are going to be seeing us doing in the future. And we are even going to go back on certain series, whether it is in renewals or other business coming up, and attempt to retroactively freeze the SVOD rights.”

GawainsGhost said...

Hmmm. I don't use Netflix. My brother up in Maine does though. He loves it, because he's really into Japanese animation and Bollywood.

I went up to Dallas to visit my friend Ween and watch the last Cowboys game with him. I took him a copy of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, because he's a huge Gene Wilder fan and had never seen it. I told him on the phone, are you kidding me? It's only one of the funniest movies ever. It's the only movie written, directed by and starring Gene Wilder. It also stars Madeline Kahn (whom I love), Marty Feldman, and Dom Deluise. Great comedy.

There's funny and there's hilarious, then there's ridiculous. Gene Wilder is ridiculous. I give this movie my highest recommendation.

Another comedy I recommend most highly is The Black Bird, starring George Segal. It's the sequel to and a parody of The Maltese Falcon. Really funny. Some time when you guys have a weekend off, you should watch those two movies, one after the other. It will crack you up.

Oh, and yet another comedy I most highly recommend is Freebie and the Bean, starring James Caan and Alkin Arkin. That movie will make you laugh, hard.

Stagflationary Mark said...

GawainsGhost,

Two words:

Young Frankenstein! :)

We did our part to support Netflix tonight (morning, lol). Saw "Kick Ass" on Blu-ray. Loved it!

GawainsGhost said...

Yes, well, Young Frankenstein is brilliant. But in order to get Mel Brooks, you really have to know your Broadway musicals.

"Pardon me, boy, is this the Chatanooga choo-choo?"

"Pardon me, boy, is this the Transylvania station?"

Gene Wilder learned well under him.

I would rank Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail as the funniest movie I've ever seen. Slightly above Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. The Meaning of Life was really funny as well.

By the way, did you guys know that George Harrison funded The Life of Brian? Yep, he was good friends of Eric Idle and Michael Palin.

Stagflationary Mark said...

"Pardon me, boy, is this the Chatanooga choo-choo?"

I have been to Chattanooga twice. My girlfriend's family lives there.

It's kind of funny. I've only been further east than Montana twice in my life. If memory serves, my feet have only touched the soil of Tennessee and Detroit (for a connecting flight to Tennessee on one of the trips).

Why twice? Her two sisters got married. They opted not to do it on the same day, although it was close. That's 12,000 miles of flying in total!

Fair is fair though. One sister flew to see us a few years ago and the other will be flying to see us in March. Small planet!

EconomicDisconnect said...

Mark,
no worries on NFLX. Its a pure trade on technicals and an algo score. I have limited interest in the company long term.

Gawains,
Good film pics, I will have to check them out.