How Bill Miller killed trickle-down… and how TFN is reviving your portfolio with stem cell therapy
Today's Financial News - Posted February 6, 2009
Our stem cell and biotech picks ISIS Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), Human Genome (HGSI), Geron (GERN), Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM), Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) are up as trickle-down has died.
by J. Christoph Amberger
Baltimore—TFN: ”Now they’re coming!”
I remember the middle-aged saleslady at Hutzler’s shrug and shake her head as we walked past her toward the jewelry department. Indeed, the department store was packed, with uninterrupted columns of people ascending and descending in intersecting diagonal rows of escalators.
The crush of shoppers was impressive. Too bad it was the store’s going-out-of -business sale.. The experience was akin to that of stripping a dead body rather than of bargain hunting.
That was back in the early 1990’s.
Today, with my head a little balder, my nose more aquiline, I was living my role of vulture again as I entered a local art gallery I’ve been frequenting regularly ever since I moved to Baltimore.
(In fact, in 1988, I spent half of my very first paycheck here, on two Rowlandson prints from 1798 that became the cornerstone of my collection of fencing- and dueling-related art, literature, and “hardware.”)
A sign on the door told me that everything was 30% off: After 27 years, the store was going out of business.
“What do you mean,” I asked the proprietor as I entered, thinking of his Rowlandsons, Hogarths and Daumiers, as well as the various Ortelius and Mercator maps that have been gracing the walls of my home and office. “Tell me it ain’t so!”
“Economy did me in,” he said. The first blow was dealt by the Archdiocese demolishing an old landmark building across from his store (to replace it with a prayer garden). That killed his walk-in traffic for a year. Then, the McMansion boom stopped. Suburban housewives ceased shopping for English foxhunting prints required in simulating old money.
“Then the trickle-down stopped,” he said. “Used to be that Legg Mason and the other money managers were good for three-, four-thousand a year each, having their press coverage framed.”
“Oh,” I said. “Bill Miller did you in?”
He nodded sadly: “Whatever the papers write about them these days, they don’t want it framed.”
Now, eBay sales make up most of his business. And for that, he doesn’t need a storefront.
Or staff.
I left bereaved… yet loaded with a few original wrestling drawings and a print of the Battle Monument.
Thirty percent off, as advertised.
That’s the problem with trickle-down. It requires people to make money on big ticket items. Houses. Cars. Corporate jets. Real etstate. Portfolio management.
No trickling is involved with government cheese.
*** While the gallery-owner, the antiquarian bookdealer, the hardware store, and the corner café will be out of business before the new Administration’s reverse osmosis program has saturated the economy, speculation on billions of newly minted money being pumped into select research programs has lifted a number of stocks in TFN’s stem cell stocks”
* ASTM is up 16%
* CYTX is up 19%
* GERN is up a whopping 66%
* HGSI is up 16% in just 3 days
and as I am writing, Laura Cadden is doing her “Eliza Doolittle at the horse races” impression following the price fluctuations of ISIS penny by bloomin’ penny. (I believe she wants to sell once it ‘its a 20% gain… and it’s currently dancing around at 18-19%…)
And then our lithium stocks….
But I’ll tell you more about those on Monday! (Use the weekend to read up on our special report “Lithium: The one commodity with a profitable future”.)
Recommended Reading
“How will you explain your mistake?”
“Q1 Profits Up for TFN Editor’s PIC Argon ST (STST)”
“Stem Cell Penny Stock: Core Blood is up 57% for the day!”
“Lithium: The one commodity with a profitable future”
Next Article: Sirius: Cheaper than a scratch-off and just about the same odds
Be the first to leave a reply.
Your comments are welcome
Follow TFN via RSS or Twitter |
 |
 |
 |
Advertisement
Latest Headlines
- The Big Picture for Sinobiopharma, Inc. (SNBP)
- Beazer Homes USA, Inc. (BZH) and Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc. (HOV) up despite horrid housing news
- The FDA catalyst: 2010 moves in MannKind (MNKD), Roche Holding (RHHBY), Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) show it still works!
- Steepest drop since Feb. 2009: Here we go again!
- Is the silver run over? Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE), Silver Wheaton (SLW), Alto Group (ALTO), Hecla Mining (HL), Endeavour Silver (EXK) close down