This Week’s Sign The Lunatics Are Running the Asylum

February 13, 2010 • 2 Comments

This week the Mortgage Banker’s Association, a group that represents 2,400 real estate finance companies in Washington, DC, was forced into a rather embarrassing situation on its own mortgage.

The MBA sold its headquarters building on a short sale for $41.3 million…a little more than half the $79 million it originally financed in 2007.

I’m not sure how they could even attempt to spin that. Sums up this mortgage crisis pretty well, though, don’t ya think?

Cale

Posted by Cale at 8:02 AM in Commentary

Tags:

CNBC Mocked by, um, Its Parent Company

February 12, 2010 • No Comments

Great clip of NBC’s 30 Rock show spoofing CNBC.

The frenetic pace. Silly banter. Faux controversy. Flashy things.

I’d say they nailed it.

Cale

Posted by Cale at 12:21 PM in Commentary

Tags:

Haiti Relief Efforts

January 14, 2010 • No Comments

Text ‘HAITI’ to 90999 from any mobile phone and a $10 donation will be sent to the Red Cross. The donation will be added to your phone bill at the end of the month. Here’s more from the Red Cross website.

First State Bank here in the Keys has opened an account to collect donations for the Red Cross and will match the donations. You can also help by visiting the Red Cross or Mercy Corps websites.

If you are aware of other relief efforts, please add in the comments. Thank you.

Update: Here’s a link to a good article on KeysNet, “How Keys residents can help with Haiti relief.”

Cale

Posted by Cale at 11:13 AM in Commentary

Tags:

Recently on Twitter...

View of Statue of Liberty from the NYC harbor today. http://yfrog.com/5c3q5j 2 days ago

this blog
Riffs, rants and the upside of investing from way off Wall Street.
Cale's Email Newsletter
About Cale

Cale Smith is the portfolio manager for the Tarpon and Gecko Folios at Islamorada Investment Management in the Florida Keys.

islamorada
An amazing place. Read An Ode to Islamorada.
Quotable

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars. — Warren Buffett