Monthly Archives: March 2013

Time on my father

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My father celebrated his last birthday, his 55th, on February 16, 1969. He died 177 days later from peritonitis on August 16. When I celebrated my 55th birthday on October 2, 2008, it was not lost on me that in 177 days, March 28,  to be exact,  I would have outlived my beautiful father by one year. I knew the very moment I would pass him; he died at 1:43 in the afternoon. At 1:43 p.m. today I will have outlived him by four years.

Now there may be some folks who think my memorializing moments like this is maudlin, macabre even. I frankly don’t give a damn what those folks  think. To each their own, as they say. My father was and is the greatest gift my life has ever given me. I am positive I would not be alive today were it not for the fact his presence is alive and well in my heart and soul.

He was a remarkable man, and, a remarkable parent. Born to working class parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey, he served in the Army during World War II (his was in one of the three divisions that liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945, something I would not learn about him until after he died), went to Columbia University where he majored in English Literature and later taught same in Columbian University and, in the last years of his life, a second college, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

As a parent, he was skilled at knowing when it is better to let life rather than parent be the teacher. When I was about eight or nine I went into his room and told him I needed to talk to him because I was very, very nervous about something. At the time we lived in the hamlet of Pearl River, New York. Our home was a few miles from the hamlet’s business center, comfortable walking distance for us young folks. He leaned back in his desk chair and asked me what I was nervous about. “I want to buy a pack of rubbers!” I announced. To this day I have no idea why this was. I was certainly not sexually active. My father paused, then asked, “Are you short on money?”  “No, no,” I reassured him, “I’ve got my allowance.” “Okay then, what are you nervous about?” I told confessed: “I’m afraid the man’s gonna ask me what I want’m for!”

My father smiled. What he said next calmed all my fears and nervousness because what he said next made all the sense in the world. After all, I had purchased model airplanes and boats and such and did not think myself a novice when it came to shopping. “Well, Peter, I’ll tell you what you do. If the man at the drugstore asks you what you want them for, you just tell him you’ll read the directions.” Perfect! Why hadn’t I thought of that!

And so it was that I marched out of the house brimming with confidence. I suspect my father called the man at the drugstore and told him he was in for a wee bit of entertainment and could he please be kind as he went about saying no to my request for a pack of rubbers. I’m sure my father told him to ask me what I wanted them for because he knew the man would get quite a kick out my response. Which is exactly what happened. The man did ask me what I wanted them for, I said I’d read the directions, and the man said I should come back in a few years when I probably wouldn’t need directions.

Humor and entertainment aside, my father also knew when – and how –  to protect his son from fear, from feeling in danger. One winter day we were driving towards Pearl River proper on Washington Avenue. It was a snowy day, the plows were out.  Almost immediately after Washington Avenue passes Lincoln Avenue it takes a rather steep downward dip, perhaps a quarter mile or so in length. As we came over the rise and began our decent, we saw about six or seven cars stuck at all different angles at the bottom of the hill. It was still snowing and the hill was very slippery. We began to slide slowly down the hill right towards the stuck cars. “Well,” my father said, in a totally calm and matter of fact voice, “looks like we’re gonna hit.” “It’s like bumper cars,” I replied. “Seems so,” said my father. And so it was that we bumped into a couple of the cars and came to a stop. No one was hurt. Years later I realized that not once was I scared. My father was so calm and serene it didn’t cross my mind to be scared. How different my experience would’ve been if he’d gotten all wound up over the fact we were sliding down a snowy hill.

I share all this with you because I hope you have or have had someone in your life like my father. Someone who loves you completely simply because you are you and need not be anything but you. Life has taught me this is not a common experience. And while I was only 15 when he died, you can be sure I wouldn’t give up those 15 years with him for a thousand years with anyone else. So when the clock reaches 1:43 this afternoon, I will be thinking about my father. I will be grateful for the four years I’ve reached that he didn’t and I will, as I always do, tell him that I am doing the best I can, which is all any of us can do, and is exactly what my father would want me to do.

I love you, Daddy, my whole wide world.

The Tightening Noose

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It is very rare my anger fires-up to slam the table top with fury level. Yesterday it did, blisteringly so.

When you are on a fixed income society deems worthy of a rent subsidy (Section 8 in my case) the rule of thumb is one-third of your income goes towards your housing, the subsidy pays the balance.  If you are single like I am, you have what’s called a one-bedroom voucher. The amount of rent your voucher provides for is determined by where you live. A one-bedroom voucher provides for a higher rent in, say, Westchester, New York, one of the wealthier community in the country. For a less prosperous community, the allowable rent would be lower. That’s fine. I’m okay with this.

Okay then. My current lease will be up soon and so I recently submitted documentation of my income to the area housing authority that oversees Section 8.  My monthly disability has gone up $18 and my monthly medical expenses (medication co-pays) have gone up $17.20 which means I am dancing on air with an 80 cents a month increase! (That dreamed about cabin cruiser will be mine in no time!) So, my income is pretty much the same as it was last year, which is why I nearly exploded in fury when I received notification yesterday that my portion of the monthly rent will increase by $45. That’s a big hit when you have a little less than $300 to cover food and gas for a two-month period.

I was boiling. On the phone, leaving a voicemail for the housing authority, hand slamming down on my writing table. Fury. There had to be a mistake. One third of my income to housing, cool. But an 80-cent increase in monthly income doesn’t translate into a $45 a month increase in rent. I was wrong. (Math and I have never been on friendly terms.) What I didn’t see coming was this: the allowable rent for a one-bedroom voucher in my area has been drastically reduced, anything over the reduced amount comes out of my pocket. It is moments like this when I want to throttle those hell  bent on protecting the rich and gut the middle class and the poor because God forbid those selfish slivers of slime sacrifice….what exactly?

Now, if someone reading this responds by attacking the government as if the government was and is this big bad nasty-ass entity, let me ask you something. Where exactly are the offerings from the private sector? Hmm? As for the very small minority who thinks that I or anyone in my position like it here because we are leeches, here’s a thought. Let me give you a segment of my life experience to live with; let me fire a bullet into your brain at point blank range, then come talk to me about how much fun your having.

By the way, the woman from the housing authority that works with me and the staff from the area Independent Living Center were very kind, very gentle, and very allowing of my anger and upset yesterday. God bless’m. They’re in no danger of being overpaid either.

In the meantime, the noose tightens, the pressure mounts. Thank God for books and coffee and friends and music and nature and, most of all, life.

Meet the Hedge Fund Managers Turning a Profit on the Sandy Hook Massacre

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This post courtesy of The Sparrow Project

[New York, NY] It has been argued that capitalism, if given the opportunity, would devour its own legs and collapse upon itself.  Putting all hyperbole aside, what would you do if you learned that a US company was actively monitoring national tragedies like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, only to develop reflexive investment strategies designed directly to capitalize off the pain, suffering and hysteria, in the wake of those events?  Would you be in disbelief of such wanton disregard for life? Would you chalk it up to business as usual, for Wall Street’s most parasitic actors? Or, would you take action to stop it?

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Enter, Stage Left — Two of the Worst People in the World…

While some of the nation’s largest hedge funds and money managers have paused in the wake of Sandy Hook to review their portfolios for exposure to gun stocks, and in some cases begin the process of selling off their gun assets, two hedge funds have done just the opposite. Jeffrey Altman, Founder and Portfolio Manager for Owl Creek Asset Management, and Robert Bishop, of Impala Asset Management, each seized an opportunity in the days following the Sandy Hook Shooting, to purchase millions of shares in gun stocks (1,616,300 shares [valued at $13,642,000] and 893,938 shares [valued at $27,787,000], respectively). Notice of Altman’s and Bishop’s purchases only became available when they disclosed their fund’s 4th Quarter 2012 holdings to the SEC, in February [HERE, and HERE]. Altman’s and Bishop’s intentions, as deduced by peers in asset management, are to turn the fears and murmurations of new gun regulations into profits, as a newly fabricated demand for firearms like the Bushmaster .223 Caliber Assault Rifle, the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini-14—each potentially at risk of regulations—outpaces their supply on shelves at retailers.

Jeffrey Altman: Chronically Single, Economically Depraved…

Jeffrey-Altman_Owl-CreekDepicted by his Bridgehampton neighbors as a man who is “chronically single” and meticulously decorates the walls of his 7.9 million-dollar Ambleside Lane home with “series of Warhol-esque prints of semi-nude women,” Jeffrey Altman is not just the ‘Fox of Finance’ flirtatiously depicted in his 2010 New York Magazine profile, he is also a deeply cynical person known for making morally bankrupt decisions for profit.  Altman began his career in 1985 as an assistant to Michael Price at Heine Securities. It was at Heine that Jeffery made a name for himself by profiting off of distressed assets. In 2001, just as he was about to make the transition to managing his own fund (Owl Creek), Jeffrey commented in a Forbes Magazine roundup titled ‘Let us Prey’ wherein he gave advice to fellow “vulture” capitalists…

“Even the smaller-time vultures, with $50 million to $100 million under management, have to focus on a smaller number of opportunities” — Jeffrey Altman

The fact that Altman uses the term “vulture” when referring to his peers should be telling in itself, but it is how he sees “opportunities” that is the most noxious. When most of the nation was drowning in grief in the days that followed the Sandy Hook shooting, Altman saw an “opportunity” to profit off the murder of the 6 Sandy Hook faculty and 20 elementary school children.

On Friday December 14th, 2012, at approximately 9:32am, just two minutes after the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, Adam Lanza exited his black Honda Accord outside of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Before entering he shoots out the school’s glass double-door entrance. As Lanza begins shooting children inside, 77 miles away on Wall Street, brokers are buying and selling shares of the Smith and Wesson Holding Company (SWHC) for $9.54 a share. By days end 28 people would die, including Lanza and his mother, and shares of SWHC would see a decrease to $9.13 per-share.

It would not be until after the weekend that SWHC would take their biggest hit.

During the weekend of December 15th, 2012 every media outlet was saturated with coverage of the massacre. By Monday morning many investors will express a crisis of conscience in owning shares of SWHC, the manufacturer of the AR-15 Assault Rifle (Lanza’s Bushmaster Rifle was modeled after the AR-15). By Tuesday, December 18th, 2012, SWHC would fall to a 6-month low of $7.79 per-share. This is where Jeffery Altman seizes his “opportunity.”

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Altman’s process is to purchase equity in a distressed company if he feels its listing is undervalued or if he feels he can advocate for the companies listing to reach a higher value. Applying this process, Altman, on-or-around Tuesday December 18th, paid approximately $12,590,977 to acquire 1,616,300 shares of SWHC, the supposition being that it was only a matter of time until the national debate over gun control—reinvigorated by the tragedy at Sandy Hook— would trigger an avalanche of gun sales, specifically at-risk guns like SWHC’s AR-15. In practice, Altman’s morally bankrupt process has already turned a profit. Should Altman decide to sell his stake today, he could receive approximately $14,886,123, which would pay out an approximate profit of $2,295,146. The fact that Altman has not already sold his shares should indicate that he believes that SWHC will continue to appreciate in value, regardless of any investors jumping ship after Sandy Hook.

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The Wolf in the ‘Riding Hood’ Stories…

On the evening of December 14th, 2012, while Sandy Hook Elementary School is cordoned off with yellow tape, 30 miles away in New Canaan, Connecticut, an exhibit at the town’s historical society, titled “Seeing Red” celebrates a piece of predatory folklore. The exhibit provides a historical overview of the many versions of the “Little Red Riding Hood” story, with gleeful emphasis on the older, lesser-told versions of the story wherein Little Red and her grandmother suffer a far more gruesome fate, each being ravaged by the wolf. The primary sponsor of the exhibit is Robert Bishop, a New Canaan resident and portfolio manager of Impala Asset Management (pictured holding an anthology of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ below).

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Robert Bishop belongs to the same predatory class of investors as Jeffrey Altman. Like Altman, on-or-around Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 Bishop pounced on an opportunity to purchase 346,252 shares of the Smith & Wesson Holding Company (SWHC) and 547,686 shares in Sturm Ruger & Co (RGR) [valued at $2,922,000 and $24,865,000, respectively]. Sturm Ruger, manufacturer of the Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle used by Anders Breivik in the 2011 youth camp massacre on Norway’s Utøya Island that killed 69 people and injured 110, also hit a 6-month low price of $40.60 per-share on December 18th, 2012 and has seen asteady increase in value thereafter. In the wake of the Norway massacre and the theatre shooting in Aurora Colorado the AR-15 and Ruger Mini-14 have been stigmatized as weapons of choice for deranged mass murderers. The fact that anyone—let alone someone who lives a short distance from Sandy Hook Elementary School—would seek to purchase positions in these manufacturers and hedge their bets on a future inflated value, means that they have to be able to either turn a blind eye to the horrific realities tied to those stocks, or that they are literally Wall Street’s own manifestations of the predatory monsters depicted in fairy tales. Any psychologist would have a field day attempting to analyze why a predatory investor like Bishop has such an affinity for a tale of a wolf brutalizing a young girl.

“Activist” Investing?

The term “activist investing” is used in Bishop’s and Altman’s “vulture” community, largely when referring to instances when a hedge fund like Owl Creek purchases a large portion of a company’s equity in an attempt to manipulate the boardroom workings of that company (install a board member, replace management, etc) but there is also a less talked about, media-related, element to hedge fund advocacy. In order to navigate tricky insider trading laws, hedge funds use a “heard it from a friend” style when scooping stock picks to the financial blogosphere. While Altman seldom responds to media requests, he does not think twice about scooping financial bloggers about a company he wants to send droves of investors to. In the example of SWHC, the scoop was picked up by Brian Nelson’s online financial analysis service, Valuentum, who on March 6, 2013, published a syndicated online report on SWHC’s momentum titled ‘Smith & Wesson Rides the Gun Boom’ the following is an except from Valuentum’s report…

“Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson (SWHC) announced fantastic third quarter results, as demand outpaced supply. Revenue increased 39% year-over-year to $136 million, handily exceeding expectations. Earnings, adjusted to reflect continuing operations, more than tripled year-over-year to $0.26 per share, exceeding consensus estimates.

We’re not surprised by the results, as other firms like Cabela’s (CAB) and Big 5 (BGFV) reported that gun sales have surged in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy and fears of new gun regulations. The trend looks durable at this point, and with the general lack of compromise in Congress, we think it could take awhile for any new national gun legislation to surface.”

Republicans Secretly Cheering for Gun Control?

We should be careful not to conflate Altman’s and Bishop’s intentions with the heated and largely partisan debate surrounding our nation’s abusive relationship with the gun industry. A review of the FEC’s records of 2012 political contributions shows that most of the principals of the 20 hedge funds that hold significant gun investments also contribute large sums of money to Republican candidates, but the fact that they identify as Republican does not, in all cases, spell blind allegiance to the gun industry.

Cerberus Capital Management, owner of the single largest portfolio of gun company assets and whose predominantly Republican board includes former Vice President Dan Quayle, made a statement to the press, four days after the Sandy Hook shooting, that they would begin the process of selling their 94% stake in “The Freedom Group,” a gun manufacturer portfolio valued at ~$700-957 million, which includes nearly the entire private equity of Bushmaster Arms (manufacturer of the .223 caliber assault rifle used by Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza). Similarly, Tiger Global Management, CEO Chase Coleman, named the “hottest money manager on the planet” by Forbes Magazine, and a significant contributor to the GOP, showed no hesitance in quickly (albeit quietly) selling all of his 800,000 shares in Sturm, Ruger following Sandy Hook.

Similarly, both Jeffrey Altman and Robert Bishop donated significant amounts of money to Republican candidates in 2012, but unlike Cerberus Capital and Tiger Global, Altman and Bishop are both buying in when the largest players are bowing out, and a key ingredient in their profit making formula IS gun control (or at least a perceived threat in the marketplace of future gun regulations). Both Altman and Bishop need the looming specter of gun control to provide the momentum needed to watch their positions in SWHC and RGR steadily climb. Even more telling is the indication in Valuentum’s report that due to the dysfunction of congress, any regulations may take some time to manifest, and until then the price will steadily climb, unless someone steps in to do something about it…

Holding the Monsters Accountable…

As you read this Jeffrey Altman and Robert Bishop will have already made millions of dollars in profits from Sandy Hook. They are only able to do this because they are accustomed to having no one hold them accountable for their economic depravity. Utah Phillips, a celebrated singer-songwriter and environmental advocate once said, “the earth is not dying, it’s being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” Indeed Phillip’s words seem all too appropriate when applied to the case of these two hedge fund managers who have decided to turn a profit off of Sandy Hook. Altman and Bishop are proof positive that monsters are real …and they summer in the Hamptons.

These men should be viewed as no less a threat to our communities than sex offenders, and should be ostracized by their colleagues and neighbors no differently than sex offenders.

Compiled below is a list of contact information for Owl Creek, Impala, Jeffrey Altman and Robert Bishop, as well as ways you can contact their colleagues to politely inform them about Altman’s and Bishop’s efforts to turn Sandy Hook into a profit.

We demand nothing short of a complete sale of their positions in SWHC & RGR with any profits made from their sales donated to the families of Sandy Hook victims.

The Unedited You

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When I was a boy one sure place of refuge was the seemingly endless woods behind my house.  Then and now there is something deeply magical, spiritual and healing about immersing myself deep in nature.

When I was growing up there were two settings in life in which I could be me without fear: in the woods and on the stage. There were all too few relationships in life that afforded me that same sense of safety; my father was unquestionably my refuge, the greatest gift of my life, then and now.  He died when I was 15 (he was just 55) and my ability to feel safe in the world being me vanished for many years.

This year I am going back to the woods. For some time now I’ve been pondering life’s next steps and watching closely the lives of those around me, the choices they make, the sacrifices they make, and, all too often, in my view anyway, the tendency so many have to give up integral parts of who they are in order to be accepted by the people and or communities in their lives. Life is too damned short to be anyone but who you are. I would think if there is any one singular purpose to life we can agree on it is we are here to be who we are. How could it be otherwise?

I’ve seen many deny themselves the right to be themselves, twisting and distorting their realities so this person will like them or that person will love them or those folks over there will think well of them. While there is certainly a place for healthy compromise in life, giving up integral pieces of who you is self-destructive and builds resentment.  And, it has been said, accurately I believe, that resentment is a poison you take and hope the other person dies.

One of the beautiful things about life is that each of us really does march to his or her own drummer. Those that have the capacity to accept and experience differences are in for a glorious time of it. The essence of who you are is not placed at risk and should not find itself denied or in danger because of differences between people. How boring life would be if we all marched to the same drummer!

And so it is that this year, among other things, I will be looking to spend far more time deep in the woods. There is glorious  knowledge to be found there. Einstein and Wordsworth realized that nature is perhaps the greatest teacher. Einstein: “ Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” Wordsworth: “Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.”  And then, of course, Shakespeare was spot on when he wrote: “And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

I am not interested in being an edited version of myself. I hope you, my reader, have found or find the courage to be you, the unedited you. I suspect you will find the unedited you is a beautiful place to be.

Thanking Messrs. Wilde & Thoreau

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I love and cherish various phrases that, for me, put reality in a clear light, and, in some cases, inspire.  I like phrases that right-size some or all of life’s ingredients. Lately, I’ve been spending time with Oscar Wilde’s, “Be yourself’; everyone else is already taken.” While there appears to be a nearly endless string of speculations as to why we exist in the first place, I think it safe to conclude that part of the answer – no matter the speculation – is, to be yourself.

(Note: I will not be surprised if a reader writes in informing me that one or more meaning-of-life speculations does not include, to be yourself. More than okay. In the event I am so informed, I have my response fully polished and ready to go: I don’t agree.)

So many of us get the message or messages that there is something wrong with who we are. That somehow, were we to give ourselves permission to, as Henry David Thoreau wrote: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” we would be mucking up the works. Not true! Giving ourselves permission to live the life we’ve imagined will undoubtedly result in a happier life. In the first place, living the life you’ve imagined likely means you will be engaged in things you enjoy. Whether you meet every single solitary goal is, when it comes down to it, not the sole point of things. The joy and wonder is the journey itself. Conversely, denying yourself permission to live the life you’ve imagined or, more precisely, denying yourself your right  to be you, will undoubtedly result in a less fulfilling and, as a result, less happy life.

There is another gift that comes with being yourself. You will find yourself among those of similar interests, a reality that makes for solid and healthy friendships (or more) because you don’t have to abbreviate or surrender parts of yourself in order to connect with the others.

Yes, it is quite true that no two people are alike which means any two people will have their differences. There will be, in any meaningful connection between people, the need to compromise. But, and listen closely, healthy compromise and giving up who you are are worlds apart. Healthy compromise is a way of adapting to your environment which, of course, includes the people in your life. Compromise, adaptation, is how species continue to exist and, if they are lucky, flourish.

Compromise promotes one’s growth. Giving up who you are stifles growth, fuels resentment, and leads to a story that never ends with the words, And (he, she or they) lived happily ever after.

So, this writer would urge you to heed Messrs. Wilde and Thoreau: Be yourself; everyone else is already taken, and, Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.

Lastly, consider this. Had Messrs. Wilde and Thoreau not given themselves permission to be who they were, we would not have these two wonderful quotes to guide and empower us.