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.

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!

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."

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:

Business Insider: "$50 Billion? Hah! Insiders Say Facebook's Goal Is To Be The First TRILLION Dollar Company."

Barry Ritholtz: "5 Questions For Facebook Investors."

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:

Business Insider: "Lloyd Blankfein Was Heard Bragging About His Expensive, Fine Art Collection."