Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Nenstradamus!

Posted by Sean Doyle, February 1, 2010.
Image by Colin & Sean Doyle

Charles Nenner, the charming oddball who occasionally pops up on CNBC with his wild but very prescient predictions is now putting his reputation on the line with a rather large prognostication.  Last November, Nenner announced that he sees the Dow moving to 5,000 within the next 2-3 years through a combination of deflation, a "major military conflict" and, wait for it,...sun spots.  Charting a correlation between sun spot cycles and market activity is one of Nenstradamus' specialities.  While this may sound fanciful to the untrained ear (and the trained ear), Nenner does have a surprisingly impressive track record of market predictions.

For Example:

- Nenner called for Dow 14,500 in 2007 (The Dow actually reached 14,200 in October of 2007 before crashing)

- In August 2006, he called for a substantial drop in the housing market. We know what happened there.

- In 2009 , he called for deflation and the demise of Dennis Kneale's CNBC career.  Although the last one was a gimmie.





Nenner may be the only man who uses the NASA website for his technical equity analysis. I must say though that I always prefer a colorful Nenner segment on CNBC to some milquetoast midwestern fund manager telling me to buy Microsoft because of it's improving balance sheet. Give me sun spot cycles with a dash of sorcery any day over that obvious drone.

If however, Nenner is correct about this 5K Dow scenario, we better hope Bob Prechter has extra room in his fallout shelter.

Don't Zuck With Me, Eisenberg!

Posted by Sean Doyle, February 1, 2010.



It was a veritable 'Berg fest on SNL last Saturday night!  Jesse Eisenberg, who was excellent in "The Social Network" as Mark Zuckerberg, hosted.  During his monologue, Eisenberg was joined onstage by standout cast member Andy Samberg, who was portraying his version of Zuckerberg. Cut to backstage where the real Slim Shady er, Zuckerberg was hanging with SNL grand poobah Lorne Michaelsberg (I didn't want to leave him out).  In the finale, Zuckerberg joined the fake Zuckerberg Eisenberg on stage for one last Berg off.  My head hurts.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Simons Says.

Posted by Sean Doyle, January 31, 2010.



Jim Simons, one of the most successful hedge fund managers ever, also happens to be a math wizard of some note. (He won the Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry) Speaking before his fellow eggheads at his alma mater MIT, Simons touches on a number of interesting subjects. By the way, the Financial Times named Simons the "world's smartest billionaire." Take that, Zuckerberg!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Really?

Posted by Sean Doyle, January 20, 2010.

Filmmaking Icon George Lucas (#316 on Forbes 400 with a net worth of $3 Billion) apparently believes the world will be coming to an end in 2012.  This according to actor Seth Rogen who met with the legend and his equally famous friend Steven Speilberg.  According to Rogen, Lucas went on for 25 minutes about the dire prediction. "George is going on about tectonic plates and all the time Speilberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, 'My nerdy friend won't shut up, I'm sorry.'  Perhaps Lucas was playing an elaborate prank on Rogen?  However, Seth seemed to rule that out.  "I thought at first George was joking...then I totally realized that he was serious and then I started thinking 'If you're George Lucas and you actually think the world is gonna end in a year, there's no way you haven't built a spaceship for yourself...So I asked him...'Can I have a seat on it?'

Really? I don't buy this.

UPDATE!

Wired: "George Lucas Dispels Wild 2012 Apocalypse Rumor."

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Billion Dollars Isn't Cool...

Posted by Sean Doyle, January 12, 2011.Image Courtesy of Fast Company.

You know what's cool? A trillion dollars.

I always kind of figured this is where they were heading. 500 million subscribers and still growing, it is just a matter of time before 2 or 3 trillion (as in TRILLION) people are facebooking. So much for Apple Hearts Facebook, the more likely scenario will be Zuckerberg buying Jobs. I do hope though that $1 trillion dollars will be enough for Mark to finally win the heart of the girl played by Rooney Mara in the The Social Network. Otherwise she's just playing hard to get.

Fun fact: According to the World Bank there are only 12 countries with nominal GDPs greater than a trillion dollars. This out of 190 countries worldwide.

Here's the linkage:


Monday, January 3, 2011

Lloyd To Mankind: "Fuck Off!"

Posted by Sean Doyle, January 3, 2011.
Image by Colin & Sean Doyle

Call him what you will. Pretty Boy Lloyd. B-Fine. The Squid. It doesn't really matter what slick appellation you hang by his name dawg 'cause Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein don't play y'all. After a somewhat choppy 2010 that saw B-Fine (my preferred monicker) and the G-Sachs Unit own da street yet again, the top executives at Goldman will split up a $111.3 million dollar stock based bonus pool in deferred compensation.

Fo shizzle?

Never one to trip-out on false modesty, B-Fine was recently heard to brag about the uber expensive art collection that is housed in the new $ 1.8 billion dollar GS company headquarters. "Guess how much?" CNBC reported Blankfein saying. "Three? No. Four? No." B-Fine then flashed 5 fingers, smiled big pimpin' style, and proclaimed, "Five...Five!" Upon hearing this the Daily News responded with the line "Blank you, Blankfein!" No, it's blank us...

Linkage:

Friday, December 31, 2010

Dow Solid in 2010...The Economy, Less So.

Posted by Sean Doyle, December 31, 2010.


So, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is set to finish 2010 up 11% while the S&P 500 will close the year up a lucky 13%. However the "real economy" is barely trudging along at a drunken snail's pace. This recovery is officially the weakest in the post-war period and to many people across America the "Great Recession" has never truly abated. The chart below (which I cribbed from The Atlantic) illustrates just how greatly the rate of economic improvement is dissipating:



Th outlook for 2011 is overwhelmingly bullish with many "experts" calling for market returns in excess of 20%. Just in the name of fairness here's a few folks who have a slightly different view for the upcoming year:

David Rosenberg: "Bearish Outlook for 2011."
Doug Kass: "Here Are My 15 Surprises To Watch For in 2011."
John Taylor: "Explains Why Off-The-Charts 2011 GDP Estimates Are Irrelevant, And Why Defaults WIll Be Pervasive."
Meredith Whitney: "50-100 US Cities Could Default."
Peter Brimelow: "Huge Stock Market Decline Coming, But Not Yet.."
Ken Fisher: "Prepare For A Very Frustrating Market in 2011."

Happy New Years, Haines!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Ask An Irishman!

Posted by Sean Doyle, December 12, 2010.

"...Greed, greed, and more fucking greed!"


Nobody drops an F-bomb better than an Irishman. Here's a man who knows of what he speaks!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Life And Times Of B-Fine

Posted by Sean Doyle, November 30, 2010.
Image by Colin & Sean Doyle

For whatever reason, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd "B-Fine" Blankfein is an awesome photoshop candidate. Perhaps it is B-Fine's puggish "good looks" or just his pugnaciously napoleonlic demeanor. Who really knows? The above image is a mash up of the Jay-Z album "Kingdom Come" and a typical Lloyd-full-of-contempt "fuck you" grin he's shooting towards some ill-informed congress-fellow.

Let's face it, B-Fine and Jay-Z have a lot in common. Both grew up in housing projects in rough-as-hell Brooklyn neighborhoods. Both hustled their way to the absolute tops of their given fields (finance and music). And while both men preside as Kings of money-making Manhattan society, Jay and B-Fine still maintain their Crooklyn-earned gangsta credibility.

Anyway, here's a look at some of Wall Street Beast's best Blankfein photoshops for 2010:

From the 9/5 article "On The Road of Capitalism..."


From the 11/22 article "The World's Greatest Trader..."


From the 4/27 article "Long Day..."

Lloyd Blankfein is the gift that keeps giving and here at WSB we promise to keeping giving you the best B-Fine photoshops on web.