WFUV’s Pete Fornatale is God

If you aren’t listening to Fornatale’s show on Saturdays,90.7, WFUV.org , 4 – 8 pm, you are missing out on the best show on radio.

The man is a genius, weaving songs together that all unite and lead from one to the other and he’s been doing it since 1964. Treat yourself. Here’s just one song he’s played today, which I think sums up the essential ingredient for all successful relationships; when it fails, the relationship dies; when it stands, people flower.

UPDATE: Weird: someone has captured this song, and I cant add a video. Try this link: it ain’t great, but will suffice.

Politics vs. doing something

Obama has sicced the Justice Department on BP, thereby pulling BP’s executives and its best technicians off the job, and has been seen on television stamping his foot on the sand and looking “concerned”. In the meantime, BP seems to be trying its best to shut down the well. With luck, BP will succeed despite Obama’s efforts.

One pint of beer and you’re too drunk to drive?

So says England, The zealots are after all of us (and I don’t drink). Wait til ObamaCare kicks in here – every personal choice that offends these people will be criminalized on the ground that “taxpayers are funding your evil behavior”.

Okay, after seven years of aloofness, I may have to rethink this non-dating thing

This is not Mark Madoff

Hot sex keeps you young, healthy. I mean, doctor’s orders  and all that…. At the very least, I’m thinking of inviting a girl to come along fishing.

Will Wall Street traders invade the Greenwich real estate market?

I was told, second hand, of a fascinating conversation a friend of mine had with a (very, very) successful Wall Streeter. The Wall Street fellow said that equities are cooked, and so he and his cohort are turning to real estate again as a play. Hmm.

I’m a dummy in this field, but it seems to me that the days of investing in stocks are over, at least for now. When my father worked Wall Street, from 1929 on, the idea was that you looked at a company’s fundamentals: its products, earnings, management and prospects, and you bought or didn’t, depending on your analysis.  In 1980, at age 75,  my father gave up, admitting that he no longer understood his business. And I think that’s because the traders had taken over – they weren’t investing, they were trading. As one of my trading friends told me back then, a “long” position was something he bought in the morning and still owned after lunch. How do you do quality analysis against that? My dad didn’t live long enough to see the Dot.com bubble, but he would have been appalled and, knowing him, amused.

The only thing that makes me hopeful that an onslaught of traders won’t swamp our real estate market is that real estate is so illiquid – you can’t trade the stuff (so far) in a millisecond. There’s room for investors, maybe, especially in this down market, but certainly not traders. Which is good for people like me who claim to be able to advise on good buys and warn against the bad. I still prefer to work with young couples who are looking to find a good house in a good neighborhood in which to raise a family, but if investors are coming in, I can deal with that and still make a living.

Or I hope so. If not, you’ll find me in a cardboard box on Greenwich Avenue next year.

Fitch drops Connecticut’s credit rating

From AAA to AA and that’s just the beginning, I suspect. (Thanks to reader Dan M)

The end of Detroit

Read this WSJ article on the breakdown of civilization in Detroit. If it’s only available to subscribers, then try this link. But read it.

Have a little faith in nature’s ability to adapt

Coral reefs grow higher as sea levels rise.

Kench said it had been assumed that islands would “sit there and drown” as sea levels rose. But as the sea rises, the islands respond.

“They’re not all growing, they’re changing. They’ve always changed … but the consistency [with which] some of them have grown is a little surprising,” he said.