The chances of Krach

Krach meant in my times and places - Crash, that is, a general stock exchange and commercial bankruptcy. Like in 1929, when cheap credit and inflation of stock prices led to a sudden loss of confidence and collapse. We are having today almost costless credit and very high stock and real estte prices. Should I start thinking on protecting my portfolio?


Japan had its Crash ten years ago and since then they exist in a silent state of deflation and depression. No one is starving. 

Wisconsin, A White Refuge

Wisconsin is one of the last American places with 95% White population. It also hold the record for alcohol consumption. Paradoxically, the antislavery movement and the Republican Party were born there. Throughout the 1850s Wisconsin was a leader in the abolition of slavery. Slaves passed through the Underground Railroad on their way to Canada. In 1854 Wisconsin abolitionists held meetings in a schoolhouse in Ripon, where they recommended forming a new political party called Republican. (Today the Little White Schoolhouse, which is claimed to be the birthplace of the Republican Party, is a museum and national landmark.) That same year the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the Fugitive Slave Act was unconstitutional. 

Getting me used to the sound of Chinese

While working on my drawings, I hear Ray Coniff on YouTube. Lately, the music is interrupted and a Chinese love song is heard. Or the long play ends and the Chinese song follows. Why is YouTube forcing me to hear Chinese songs? Am I being trained like the Uyghurs that are being re-educated in Chinese language and culture, and are forced to sing Chinese songs? In China it was common to see somebody singing in the street, attracting public. I did not like their high falsetto. But the selection they are making me hear is passable. I wonder if Google is doing this for money, or it is psy war. 

TEVA returning to its roots

I lost a fortune because of TEVA's collapse. This was the only global Israeli company and it went broke because its "poison pill" strategy of assuming  debt to avoid being bought by Mylar, and lately for fines following its distribution of legal opioid drugs in America.

Desperate, the company decided to return to its roots in Israel and absorb local pharm startups. If it succeeds, TEVA's distribution power may cause a revolution in the local biotech startup scene.

I am looking again at Protalix, a local struggling firm. I know a chemical engineer who lost his savings investing in this startup and moved to the medical cannabis area. Protalix announced the exchange of $54.1 million principal amount of the Company’s outstanding 4.50% Senior Convertible Notes due 2018 for $40.2 million principal amount of newly issued 7.50% Senior Secured Convertible Notes due 2021 plus shares. It seems to me a bad omen  to recycle 4.5% with 7.5% which is usurious. I know nothing of other firms, only that six seven years ago I lost some money on them. May be this time. 

Dont give Iran nuclear weapons

An Ukrainian Boeing carrying 176 persons was hit by the Iranian antiair defense. In war, accidents happen, no special evil intention needs to be attached. 

It shows that the world is much safer with Iran having no nuclear weapons.

Japan's Take on Soleimani Liquidation

Japan sees Iran through North Korea:

With the order to kill a top Iranian general last week, U.S. President Donald Trump may have rekindled Kim Jong Un’s worst fears while simultaneously cementing the North Korean leader’s belief that relinquishing his nuclear arsenal would be tantamount to suicide.

Japan is a very productive country where half of the government budget goes to geriatric care so people live to 110. Yet their financial statement is in the black. The private sector has enormous savings and few investment ideas. Some say that Japan is not in decline, it is in a cyclical downturn that will reverse itself. It could be. 

Increasing Political and Ethnic Stress in Israel

The Chief Rabbi of the Oriental Communities Itzhak Joseph has just said in public what most Oriental Jews (Mizrahim, or Sepharadim) murmur among themselves:  the Russian immigrants are not Jewish by descend or religion, in fact, they hate religion. The pic needs explanation: the strange hat and dress is the uniform of a religious officer of the Turkish Empire. The Turks recognized several religions - Jewish, Aramean, Greek Orthodox, etc. and gave to the head of each an honorific title, a dress and a salary. Under the Turks there was no sizeable Ashkenazi community in Jerusalem, so the Chief Sepharadi Rabbi was the head of the Jews. Being so, the Chief Sepharadi calls himself "The First in Zion" and wears the honorary Turkish dress of his official position. The Sultanate was dissolved a hundred years ago and the  uniform it used to grant to religious dignitaries lost all meaning, except for the Sepharadi Chief Rabbi who insists in being called "The First".
                                                                                          He accused the Socialist government of thirty years ago of allowing a large Russian immigration in order to increase its electorate - and to undermine the political power of the religious block. Already Israelis of Russian origin are feeling the hostility and naturally, tend to vote against Shas, the party of the non-European Jews. I would remind him that his father (yes, the post is hereditary), Ovadia (originally Abdallah) Joseph had declared the Ethiopian Falasha as true descendants of the tribe of Dan, a complete fantasy, and caused the Mossad to organize their immigration. To increase the number of "Sepharadim" in Israel. Ironically, Sepharadim means Spanish Jews which the Africans certainly are not. 

I hate this ugly business.