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Hungarian Jewish Lovers' Day

The Talmud describes how the girls of Jerusalem dressed in white went out to dance in the vineyards. On this day, it was permitted that boys not yet married should follow them and choose a wife. Taanit 31a tells us that  

The beautiful girls sang: Seek beauty, because women are for their beauty.

 The girls from good families sang: Look at the family, because women are for children. 

And what sang the plain girls? Decide as Heaven wants, and beautify us with your jewels. 

Dealing with Nervous Wrecks

No one knows why, but the crossed bond yield curves failed to cause the total collapse of the markets as it was universally predicted. Worldwide, players are nervous wrecks, they move in and out trillions without knowing where to hide. Only The Economist conserved his head and warned against exuberance in the bull side. The English are still the best. 

Flint Water Poisoning started a Trend

EPA discovered that Newark's water supply had excessive concentration of lead. That is, it was poisonous. Toxic. Neuro-toxic. Mayor Ras Baraka blamed the aged infrastructure and apparently believed that corrosion
control efforts had solved it.

It should have been so. In a normally functioning city. 

“But Newark changed course after a study found that lead was leaching into the water because of ineffective corrosion treatment at the city’s Pequannock plant,” The New York Times reported. “Last year, lead levels in more than half the samples tested at homes served by the plant exceeded the 15 parts per billion standard.”

In response to the EPA letter, Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy issued a joint statement asking the federal government for help in resolving the crisis. A modest 70 million.

However, the problem can easily controlled through corrosion control at the Pequannock facility. Water treatment is no rocket science. It is basic chemistry. Adding buffer chemicals to control the pH. And work ethics, like not stealing the money budgeted for the chemicals. The Flint Water Treatment Plant had the same problem and they too claimed government help. President Obama declared National Emergency and generously, sent millions to Flint municipal incompetents. Ras Baraka expects the same from Trump. This is becoming a routine. 

Ras Baraka is son of poet Amiri Baraka. His sister Shani was killed in a domestic violence episode. I gather that Newark needs lots of Federal assistance to function. I love America. This is so sad.

Are we living on borrowed time?

TASE lost 3% today reflecting worldwide financial panic. I am re-reading George Soros' Alchemy of Finance, and his point is that nobody knows nothing, even his own Quantum Fund just worked on intuition. He advises to focus on expectations, not on hard material facts. Today, investors (speculators) are expecting the stock market to turn sour because an ominous omen in the heavens: the 2 year and 10 year bond yield curves - inverted. It is like the conjunction of Saturn, a malefic and noxious planet, with Mars, the war planet. BAML warned that an inverting yield curve means equities are on “borrowed time."   Who knows. I found no system nor consistent philosophy in Soros, only clever opportunism. He should have titled his book "The Astrology of Finance". 

Israel takes in American Refugees

Well, not exactly refugees, but "olim" - Zionist immigrants. Four hundred of them landed just in one day. Isn't this something of a miracle, when half of humanity is risking life and leg to get into America?

Must Follow the Rules

 The best self-help book I read is The Rules. Although it is written specifically for young ladies desperate to catch a husband, deleting the technical specifics of seduction, the spirit of the book is a genius. The concept consists in having a clear, mechanical set of rules and follow it with NO deviation. I bought it for my daughters but I am the only one who has read it (I am not looking for Mr Right!). It embodies the spirit of Mr Wilson of IBM who prescribed to his salesman down to the angle of their ties (have not seen one in years), and what sentences to voice and forbid any creativity. The fabulous Fund of Funds, created by a Jewish psychologist turned speculator to sell a saving vehicle to American servicemen stationed in Europe (that was in the sixties), had a written dialogue to execute with prospective clients. Salesmen had to memorialize and say exactly what was written. The idea of Fund of Funds was that it would diversify the risk incorporating the diverse strategies of the individual funds. Of course it was a Ponzi but most successful. My point is that success is achieved by strictly following a formula, the Rules, and avoiding distractions and creativity. 

Argentina's 100-year bonds

In 2017, Argentina sold $2.75 billion worth of U.S. dollar-denominated bonds that mature in 2117, with a coupon of 7.125%. Investors placed 10 billion dollars’ worth of orders for the paper.  Argentina had defaulted six times within the past 100 years and that didn’t deter these intrepid buyers. 

At 7%, investors recoup their investment in just 12 years. The investors expected that Argentina would be solvent for at least 12 years, not 100. It seems they were over-optimist, only after one and half years and already we have issues. Anyway, Argentina still will be there in 2117 and even, possibly, paying its debts. I would not bet on it, but who knows?

Pic.: Unemployment. A 50 y.o. relative of mine has been unemployed for the last 9 months.