When considering the number of hours their audience has spent viewing this entertainment franchise, this hugely successful product….unknown to many……is one of the most viewed entertainment experiences in history. Its latest product launch has registered over $550 million in sales since last week and is already close to  surpassing the movie industry’s all-time leading sales leader. (Titanic, $600 million grossed since 1997)

I’m talking about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  The Call of Duty series has grossed over $3 Billion dollars, dwarfing any franchise Hollywood ever put together. (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Harry Potter etc)

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The world stared into the economic abyss a year ago.  Since then we’ve moved away from the edge of the cliff.  Although a lot of people are suffering during this time of great recession, and I believe many government policies are taking us in a suboptimal direction, I give thanks that the worst has been avoided and chances are good that next Thanksgiving things will be better.

When I graduated college I thought it would be great to have three careers in my lifetime.  I’ve been fortunate to have had two great careers so far.  One of my careers was on Wall Street.  For almost 20 years I sat on a trading desk with two phones and a switchboard and bought and sold bonds with some of the industry’s legends.  I saw and heard stuff that isn’t allowed in today’s PC world.  Some of that change is good.  Some perhaps not.  Nevertheless, it never was dull.  I also ran a small business for 6 years.  We were in publishing. During the time I was in publishing I saw I lot of titans fall.  However, if you were nimble and smart there was still good times and money to be made.  I think I had my share of both.  As of now, I’ve been off work for a while taking a mid-life sabbatical.  However, I have a line on a new career.  Hopefully this next one will be my happy third.  I’m grateful for the good fortune I’ve had career wise in the past, and the promise of an even brighter future.

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So the Senate finally voted to open healthcare legislation up for debate.  At least Congress did something to further the process so the issue of Obamacare can be resolved one way or another. Americans rank the economy, jobs and the ballooning deficit as the issues they care most about. Over 80% of 90% of Americans that purchase healthcare insurance are quite satisfied with their status. Yet the focus of the Obama administration regards passing a healthcare bill. I get the feeling that passing a healthcare bill isn’t about reducing costs or even making the system truly better…but more about politics and creating government dependent constituencies.

I also have the feeling that until the healthcare outcome becomes clearer, President Obama won’t decide what to do regarding Afghanistan.  At this point, Mr. Obama spending months reviewing the re-reviewed possible choices is kind of becoming an unfunny joke. Call me cynical.  But it seems that until the politics of healthcare play out….and the President’s political base is pleased….an extremely tough decision on foreign policy will continue to be put off.

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Unless you are a news junkie, you probably didn’t hear that the upcoming Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change has drastically scaled back its agenda.

During the American Presidential campaign we were strongly told by the winning candidate that doing something now about Global Warming was imperative.  The December 2009 Copenhagen Conference was to give the world a treaty that would take bold steps to effect the environment.  Such is not to be.

Al Gore

Instead of a treaty that would obligate nations to scale back their carbon dioxide emissions, Copenhagen’s new goal is to get nations to “politically agree” they will sign a climate related treaty in Mexico during a 2010 Conference.

One thing that jumps out at me is the media silence regarding the Copenhagen Conference’s announcement that it is abandoning its goals…..since achieving a treaty was supposed to be of paramount global importance.  If the window to act really is rapidly closing as Doomsday prophet Al Gore tells us in his recent Newsweek Magazine article, then shouldn’t the fact the world has “kicked the can” down the road be a front page story?

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Nicholson says "you can't handle the truth!"

Words matter.  They are the main way people describe reality and ideas.  I believe it is much more important for people to have clarity in their conversations than agreement.  That way at least, people can agree upon what they are discussing.

The Obama administration just announced the confessed mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks will be tried in a civilian court.  The trial will be held just down the street from the hole that once was the World Trade Center Towers. The accused, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his four co-defendants, wanted to plead guilty in a military court and move directly to execution.  In their mind, theirs is not the guilt of a criminal, as they think of themselves as proud soldiers who did their duty in prosecuting a holy war. 

KSM is clear in his mind as to what he did and why he did it. I believe it is the United States government that doesn’t seem to have clarity as to what we are doing and why.

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Merrill Lynch’s tagline is “bullish on America”.  As they should be!  I too am bullish on America.  I’m even more bullish on wealth continuing to be created in countries around the world.  I think owning a broad basket of stocks is a wise long term investment strategy. 

However, I sold half my equity position last month when the DOW was at 9,750. Yesterday I sold the other half with the DOW at 10,300.

My broker did his job and gave me numerous reasons to maintain my equity positions.  He is a true believer in the stock market’s rally and wants the best for me.  However, the closest his firm ever comes to advising retail investors to “sell the market” is when they lower the percentage of stocks an investor should own from its normal level of about 80% down to maybe 50%. Everybody seems to love stocks these days.  When I watch the talking heads on the financial programs, they mostly speak in nothing but glowing terms about the direction of the market.

So you ask, why did I sell?

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Now is the winter of our discontent
Made Glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried
         Richard III Act 1 Scene 1 (Shakespeare)

America is quietly, slowly simmering.  Oh sure, today there are the usual cat fights between the political spectrums on the airwaves, but all in all, not too much voice from the majority. I believe that is going to change, and the summer of 2010 will show more discontent than any since the 1960’s.

The fuse along which the unease is traveling is unemployment.  Last week, government figures placed the national unemployment rate at 10.2%.  Here in California, the rate is far higher.  If you add in the underemployed, those working only part-time, and folks who have just given up looking….the number is well above 17% and quite worrisome.

As national unemployment moves closer to 11%…and the number of consecutive months of job losses grows from 22 towards 30…people are going to become increasingly upset, and will look questioningly towards their government.

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When I was a lad my mother told me I should become a lawyer. I’ve always had an unusual gift for gab, and a Jeopardy-like ability to muster obscure facts to promote my positions. However, as much as I could envision the financial gain from destroying or defending people for a living, I managed to go off in another career direction. My poor Mom. Denied the opportunity of saying “my son the lawyer”. Oh well.

I knew I made the right career decision upon one of my frequent pilgrimages to the Bay Area. I attended San Francisco State University for a year and often visited my college friends. On this one visit, I was at a party and found myself in a debate of sorts with a swaggering guy named Dave who was attending Boalt Law School at Berkeley. It was a wierd situation. For as he and I sat on opposing couches bantering back and forth, a crowd of over 20 people gathered around and listened in on our discussion. It was the mid 1980’s and I was defending Ronald Reagan…..and he was attacking him. Happily for me, I managed to get the better of the gentleman at almost every turn. Finally, in desperation, he brought up G. Gordan Liddy to support whatever point he was trying to make. Mr. Liddy is reknown for his self-control and willingness to accept pain/punishment. Anyway, in a moment of extreme frustration, and in an unusual attempt to highlight his point, the lawyer-to-be grabbed a knife on the table next to him and slammed it into his leg. His hand began to shake as he pushed the knife further in. The guy’s girlfriend screamed…..and the debate ended. A woman came up to me afterward and said “I’ve never seen anyone hold their own in a debate with Dave before.” I thought to myself….hold my own? The guy just stabbed himself. At that point, I decided to try and restrain from getting involved in heated conversations.

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A couple of months ago I requested some help.  I’m back at the “well” hoping for great results again.  At that time, there were a few hundred people who had somehow found this blog and visited at least once a month. Now there are about a thousand unique monthly visitors.

I’d very much appreciate if you’d send a sentence to people in your email address book asking if they’d be interested in checking out an informative, reasoned blog that discusses current issues from a slightly different political perspective than what they’re probably used to. Maybe include a link in the email so they can check out randygoldring.com and decide if they want to bookmark it for a return visit.

I’m very grateful for any help you can give me.  I figure the more readers the merrier.  Perhaps the number of people who leave a coment will grow as well.

 Thank you! (Below you’ll see today’s post)

Chicken Little

I was 9 years old when Mrs. Brotsky, my religious school teacher, told our class  there were important speakers coming to talk with us. Two college age kids arrived and informed us of impending peril.  A man made catastrophe was in the works.  I was told there were so many people now on Earth that after a few more generations of babies……….there would hardly be elbow room for the people who somehow managed to survive the inevitable famine. Paul Erhlich’s 1969 book “The Population Bomb” declared that only by governments instituting huge expensive changes could disaster be averted.

I recall thinking to myself, hmm, if people were going to starve in the famine, why would overcrowding become a long term issue? Gosh, I hope the sky is not falling on all of humanity. 

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