163: Signs Of A Market Top

This morning I watched an ad for the IBEW on CNBC.  I called a long term IBEW member who runs a large commercial electrical contracting company.  I asked him what possible benefit could accrue to IBEW members from advertising on CNBC.  My friend answered:  "Absolutely none."  It turns out that there is a special assessment against employers who are forced to pay into a fund for activities like these bizarre ads. 

I also have seen more and more advertising for trade associations, especially realtors. 

My non-scientific analysis and conclusion is that when organization start making idiotic expenditures like this, it is generally a sign that the stupid money is coming back into markets of all types.  Advertising markets, stock markets, real estate markets.  The suckers always come in at the end and get fleeced.

162: MOT, MSI - RIP

I told you so.  Look at my blog posts from 2007 on Motorola.  It has taken a little while, but carved up and sold off is what I predicted and that is exactly what has happened.  What an American management case study in tragic incompetence.  My personal experience with MOT started in the 1990s when MOT was at its zenith.  The company had obviously been built on integrity, hard work, great products, and good management.  Somewhere along the way, management must have decided that its excrement didn't stink.  But stink it did and beginning in the late 90s MOT began its long, excruciating decline. 

Probably a good investment strategy right now would be to find out where the key MOT execs from 1990 to 2010 are today, and then short the hell out of those companies.