America's on Sale - Be Like the Turkey and the Eagle

What a Turkinanamous Week!

When the choice for a national symbol was being debated, Ben Franklin lobbied for the turkey. Any hunters out there know just how cautious and wily the wild turkey is, which is why hunters consider a wild turkey a prize catch. And if you can get past the buzzard look of its featherless head, the turkey is a pretty attractive bird, with nice tail feathers and an impressive mating dance. Good eating, too. The bald (meaning “white” headed) eagle, Franklin argued, is basically a scavenger, putting it on par with vultures - not an appropriate symbol for a great nation, in his opinion. But it is a darned fierce looking bird, with impressive talons.

Still, scavenging and survival has its place. In light of what has occurred in the U.S. capital markets, and the devaluation of virtually every U.S. publicly traded company, the symbolism of scavenging may not be entirely inappropriate.

Vultures, unlike vulture capitalists, don’t exactly take advantage of their food sources. They’re just smart and observant enough to spot a bargain when they see it. A little bit of observation can yield a great reward with little effort and marginal competition. Turkeys don’t scavenge. Bald eagles aren’t above scavenging, but they’re not exactly buzzards. They have the talons and beaks to catch a live one if the opportunity presents itself.

Turkeys are picky about what they eat, but eagles are not. So in this Thanksgiving season, it’s a good thing, as an investor, to contemplate being a combination of turkey and eagle. Be willing to scavenge the tastiest moose meat, like the eagle, but be wily and finicky like the turkey to find the best berries and seeds. America is on sale, and there are bargains galore out there, but they’re only bargains if they aren’t tainted.

So just a little bit of advice for the upcoming holiday stuffing season: take a close look at the tremendous investment food sources out there; look at the fundamentals and management smarts; analyze the challenges and the opportunities; and zero in on the tastiest opportunities. If, in the coming months, you can synthesize the wily turkey and the discerning and fierce eagle, you should be served amply in the long run.