Long or Short Capital

TE OCCIDERE POSSUNT SED TE EDERE NON POSSUNT NEFAS EST.
-roughly translated: “They Can Kill You, But the Legalities of Eating You Are Quite a Bit Dicier”

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

• Awesome: Fake steve talks to ATT CEO. http://bit.ly/5QzdfB #
• Hail to the public sector. http://bit.ly/77z0pK #
• @felixsalmon I fail to see any destroying happening in that article. in reply to felixsalmon #
• Gladiator fight, one guy is blindfolded and has a dagger, other can see but has no dagger. Who wins and why? Show your work #

Dear LoS,

I work for a bank in London. Or rather, I had been working for a bank in London, and now, I have to fight for not only my job, but my life. You see, after the recent bumper bonus tax, my firm is downsizing its staffing levels in London. Some jobs are being relocated to more favorable geographies; others like mine, well, they are being fought over. In a gladiatiorial ring. With knives and nets and shit.

You see my bank, decided to just give the British government what they really want — bankers’ blood. Half a billion pounds sterling is a drop in the bucket, but cutting down bankers for the masses is worth its weight in gold. So for the bank employees who want to continue to be 1) employed in 2) London, my bank is having us step into the ring.

All of which leads to my question. My fight is scheduled for the next bank holiday in Green Park. It will be a duel between a combatant who is completely blindfolded but has a dagger against a man who has full use of his vision, but has no weapon. He who lives, works. As a Senior VP I have the right to choose which combo I’d prefer. I know you have been going through something similar recently, what would you do here?
-Markus Orlyius

In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is king. I’ve never had the opportunity to say that in context, so today is a good day amicus (gladiator for friend). A no-brainer — choose sight and then fight a battle of attrition. He can only use that dagger in close, and he cannot flail it around wildly without having to stop. Pick your spots — if you see an opening kick him in the balls, then retreat tactically. Is he crouched in a protective fetal crouch? Maneuver so you can kick him in the head, and again tactically retreat. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Veni. Vidi. Vici. Just grind him down like this, until he gets sloppy and you can get a stomp in on his knife-arm, either getting him to drop the weapon or breaking the arm. Know that he will nick you during this fight, be prepared for that, but just avoid getting gored. You will prevail if you fight like you bank — smartly. Good luck.

Swine flu looks tame compared to the current disease sweeping the nation. Tiger Syndrome is the newest, most deadly, and fastest spreading epidemic seen to date. It appears to mainly affect women who date or are married to men who travel for work. The symptoms are grotesque: hallucinatory paranoia, erratic insecurity, and general moodiness. The Syndrome attacks the central nervous system of females, rendering them unable to differentiate between their husbands and famous billionaire athletes. This lack of discernment persists even when the men in question do not own a private jet, hold court in Vegas nightclubs, or appear in advertisements on national TV promoting household products.

Recommendation: If your wife or SO are at high-risk for Tiger Syndrome, it is advised you immediately stockpile tranquilizers, preferably of the fast-acting variety. Chloroform will do in a pinch (be sure to just use a pinch). These will be necessary to calm your wife or girlfriend when her symptoms flare up to the point that (your and) her own safety are jeopardized. A mutated form of this disease, the Uchitel Strain, has been spreading like herpes in a VIP room of a Las Vegas Club, but it focuses on women who resemble knock-off Barbie dolls, whose first name is the misspelled version of a common first name (e.g. Jenn vs Jen or Jammiee vs Jamie) and those who suffer from chronic duck lipitis; our research indicates that no on who has ever read this site is in the high risk group for the Uchitel Strain.

Marlo: That’s my money.
Omar: Man…money don’t have no owners. Only spenders.
-The Wire

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.
-Cormac McCarthy

HT to The Paleolithic Fish

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

• http://bit.ly/5RSpyr — friend wondered whether $1m in hookers would ever be delieved to my door. My reply — that's a high class problem. #

The most exciting returns are to be had from an asset class where those who know it best, love it least.
-Don Coxe

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

• RT @pkedrosky: RT @mathewi: had a bad day? read this email exchange — I had to stop reading I was laughing so hard: http://bit.ly/57zGN3 #

Patrick Bryne
You have provided us with years of bizarre entertainment. You may have peaked with the Sith Lord episode and your campaign against naked short selling but you continue to amuse. Your 3Q earnings press release, in which you made various statements about your auditors’ alleged views on Overstock’s latest accounting mishap was excellent. Grant Thornton’s reply to the SEC, in which they basically accused you of lying, took this episode to the next level. But I am really thankful that you took it one step further and “corrected [their] mistatements“.

Steve Wynn & Sheldon Adelson
Wynn always provides great quotes on his conference calls. Whether he is telling investors that he will take advantage of their stupidity or directly confronting the administration for their suicidal policies. Thank you Steve.
And to Sheldon Adelson, thank you for all the amazing commentary you provide on your conference calls. Among the many quotes worth saving, my favorite was your joke that you may be cooking the books at your recently IPO’d Macau subsidiary.

Twitter
Thank you for creating an information firehose that distracts me from work and play. If only I could post half as often as I tweet.

China
Thank you for loaning our country so much money. And thank you for being such a fascinating place, a parallel universe where collusion is OK and business operates on the businessman’s terms. I am hopeful you avoid the credit growth and over-investment fueled crash towards which I fear you are headed.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Please tell us what you are thankful for in the comments.

Here is the deal. Inside one of these boxes is a key. If your box has a key in it, you will be the last person today to get one of those cute little G6’s, ok. Who will it be? Are you ready? Hold on, JR is back in our audio booth, I want, y’know. this calls for a drum roll, cue the drum roll, alright open your boxes. Open your boxes 1 2 3, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR, YOU GET A CAR!!!!
-Oprah Winfrey

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

I feel useless. Like a woman with a college degree.
-Kenneth on “30 Rock”

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing

• RT @jodiecongirl: In a sign the economy may be recovering, NYers started buying big ticket items again, like elections and championships #
• Geithner reaffirms strong dollar policy. Very credible. Thanks timmay! http://bit.ly/1bDlnQ #
• Add this to the list of things that will not end well: http://bit.ly/6B43O #
• RT @pkedrosky: The Price of Gold in Gold: From price, the price of gold in gold. This is awfully suspicious. Wher.. http://bit.ly/3CbPnl #

I’ve never taken the high road BUT I tell others to. Because it leaves more room for me on the low road. (Driving gesture)
-Tom Haverford on “Parks and Recreation”

Past Quotes Entirely Relevant to Investing