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Should Wall Street Have Saved Itself?

“...some of the people who struggle the most are high-IQ sorts, with a tendency to over-think trading decisions.”

- Paul Kedrosky

Paul currently comments on Wall Street,

“...blaming the banks for doing what they had to do....”

Typical of a PhD type to over-think mocking parody. Your sarcasm is sorely appreciated by this PhD type, also out of the University of California, but not the sun tanned surfer, party hard campus down south, your San Diego campus. No, I am up here at our traditional straight laced conservative right-wing farmer agricultural campus, Riverside.

As you know, PhD types typically have not a cow lick of common sense. You have some common sense. I have my share of common sense. Your common sense is displayed through your frequent sarcastic articles aimed at mockery of the powers that be; sometime during the course of your life you learned to question societal dogma.

My common sense originates from being born penniless, ignorant and bare foot on a rural Oklahoma farm, literally on our farm. We were richly poor. Life on our farm could not be better although we had no car, although electricity, telephone and television did not come to our farm until the late Sixties. We never went hungry, well, almost never. All of our needs were provided through farming. A good life, there were even years our family was able to save up a few hundred bucks over the course of a year.

Personally, I would rather still be a farmer than a PhD type over-thinking my stock trading.

My Choctaw elders taught me about life, pride and integrity. Grandpa, an Anglo, taught me about being fiercely honest, usually by taking a switch to my bare butt.

We bartered a lot corn for socks, boots, coveralls along with pots and pans. Sometimes we sold corn to our local community. Grandpa taught us, after leveling off a bushel of corn, to add two quart Mason jars of corn to maintain our family reputation for fierce honesty. When we sold a gallon of raw milk, we always tossed in a pint of fresh cream. A dozen eggs from our farm counted fourteen. Behind Grandpa’s back, we always gave a couple of free quart Mason jars of white lightning to our local sheriff in exchange for his overlooking our still which we operated far off in a pine forest on our farm land. We played the survival game fair and square although Grandpa never knew we were bootlegging. Grandma knew, though.

Wall Street has no common sense. Wall Street is engaged in a business of selling empty bushel baskets with a promise of filling those baskets with corn, sometime in the future. Surprises me how many people will buy empty bushel baskets based only on a promise of future rich rewards.

This is what Wall Street leveraging is all about; selling empty bushel baskets of promises. Maybe this is just we Okie farmers have a bit more common sense than to buy empty bushel baskets, even if we do drink white lightning.

I do not know. Reckon I figure the old fashion way of doing business is the right way. Folks around our farming community always came to our farm to buy crops, milk, cream and salted pork knowing they would enjoy a really good bargain, along with enjoyment of swapping lies and swapping tall tales, along with swapping a blackberry pie for a gallon of our raw milk.

Wall Street has no common sense, has not enough sense to toss a few handfuls of corn into their empty bushel baskets so naive and gullible traders will think they are receiving something in exchange for their easily and soon parted money.

Yes, Wall Street should save itself and Wall Street is to blame for these financial crises which plague us like blood sucking ticks and chiggers back on our Oklahoma farm. Wall Street should grow some corn to show off, to sell, to take to the general store to barter. Wall Street simply has not a cow lick of common sense; their heads are empty bushel baskets.

What do I know? Heck, I am just an ornery Okie farm girl who likes to sip white lightning while telling really tall tales about my wild Choctaw lifestyle. Well, I have sense enough to keep my doctorate degree buried under reams of paper in a bedroom closet so none will think me to be a PhD type who has not a cow lick of common sense.

I also have sense enough to fill up a bushel basket with corn until overflowing. I am honest.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

In the Wake of Bear: I-Bank Regulation Now in Fed's Hands

You are the Prince of Wall Street. I am the Witch of Wall Street.

Prince writes, in part,

"Leveraging through derivatives will probably end with an order from the regulators against such actions."

I would not hedge a bet on this, certainly not under Bush's administration. Regulatory enforcement and regulatory actions, both are down significantly since Bush fired aggressive SEC chair Bill Donaldson then replaced him with a known crook, Chris Cox.

Some quick SEC numbers generated by the White House:

Cases Successfully Resolved:

Donaldson - 98%
Cox - 92%

Cases Filed After Complaint Initiation:

Donaldson - 69%
Cox - 54%

Monetary Disgorgements / Penalties Ordered

Donaldson - 86%
Cox - 55%


There is no doubt new regulations are needed to strap a leash on this new class of Wall Street criminals. However, a leash serves no purpose when our government actively discourages enforcement of securities regulations and discourages enforcement of our laws; Wall Street criminals are allowed to run wild upon our streets while their leashes hang on a wall in the SEC chairman's office.

Is not this the true crisis we Americans face today?


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

The Credit Crisis and Potential Shorts

Ah ha! You boys are talking all around the true opportunity to make long term profits off this financial sector crisis. This true opportunity is to roll much of your money over into real estate.

Stock traders frequently chase around different market sectors based on anticipated better performance within a given sector. Stock traders often do not think of sectors outside our traditional stock market sectors.

Real estate investment will prove a very viable investment in the long term, with long term being a number of years away. The real estate market will recover, always does, but will recover very slowly as is expected and as is historical. There is a way to profit and multiply your profits in the real estate market. This method is to purchase rental homes for income.

Only trick to rental home investment is location, location, location. A typical three bedroom, two bath home is a more attractive neighborhood is an excellent investment; we have never lost money on income real property. Our equity value moves up and down in the short term, but long term growth is typically better than most long term stock investments.

Home prices have not quite hit bottom but are coming very close. Some micro-regions are now beginning to display increases in home prices, others have stabilized, most regions are still yet to fall another two to four percent. Timing of purchase of real property is not too important but is to be considered. This is a hot buyer’s market for real estate; prices will not be this low ever again during your lifetime.

Opportunity here is double. There will be equity growth plus enjoyment of monthly rental income. Equity growth will be somewhat slow to resume but monthly rental income is quite reliable; a virtual guarantee if you properly manage your rental homes.

Here in Southern California, an average home in a decent location will fetch a rent in the range of $1200 to $2000 per month. This is a decent fixed income. Demand for rental homes has skyrocketed right along with foreclosures skyrocketing. We enjoy a waiting list for our rental homes, a very long waiting list.

Of course there is upkeep, taxes and such. This carves out about one-fourth of yearly income.
Rental homes do require work, especially if you buy a “fixer upper” type home but there is no better money earned than sweat equity. Sometimes a headache dealing with tenants but income is very consistent, very reliable, very low risk.

Concept is, on the average, you enjoy ten percent growth in equity per year plus your annual income from rent collected. This is a very decent growth in your money. Equity moves up and down with market value but, historically, always moves upward. Rental income never moves downward and enjoys room for modest increases in rental fees, especially between tenants.

Our approach to buying real estate is to always pay cash. We have no mortgages making for an excellent equity position. However, most are not willing to work at real estate investment for decades to earn a position of being able to pay cash for homes. There is an alternative. This is to make a down payment of fifty percent then finance the rest. Typically, your rental income will pay your mortgage payment, with fifty percent down on the purchase price. If a lesser down payment, your rental income will not quite meet your mortgage payment which is a bit of negative cash flow but your equity growth compensates for this. Other words, your tenants pay a majority of your mortgage payment, you pay a little and realize gains in equity growth. More succinct, your tenants are paying for your purchased house.

This is an excellent time to roll your money over into real estate. Again, location of a home is extremely critical. A decent neighborhood is a must typically gauged by a location within a good school district and a safe neighborhood, which parents want.

A caution is some regions in our country will experience continued falling in real estate prices to a rather severe degree. Typically, rural, industrial and urban centers are not good locations. This is to be carefully considered and carefully researched.
Regions like Southern California, lower Florida, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Seattle, New York, Boston and other popular cities, out in the suburbs which are attractive to family living, these are types of micro-regions which will recover first and display the greatest growth over the years. In some cases, equity growth can be up to 15 percent to 20 percent per year, in a high demand location, often suburban areas surrounding major job market centers.

Real estate market crashes like today’s do not come around very often. Usually crashes like this are twenty to thirty years between. Chances are very high this is the best buyer’s real estate market you will witness during your lifetime.

Should you be looking to safely profit on this credit crisis, consider buying income real property.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation

Are These "Once In A Lifetime" Moves?

Two young boys at Bespoke Investment Group, comment in harmony,

"It usually takes 5 to 10 years for these stocks to move this far down and this far up again. In the current market environment, it takes less than 24 hours."


Don't you young boys just love this wild roller coaster ride? Tell ya, this really excites me.

These are times when decades of stock trading experience pay well and I am earning boat loads of bucks through high anxiety, high risk day trading.

Fundamentals, out the window with the baby. Technicals, might as well be drawing cartoons of Mohammad. These are market conditions, within the financial sector, requiring quick assessment of trader perception based solely on volatility of share prices. This quick assessment is keeping your ugly mug plastered to your live feed while watching minute-by-minute changes in trending.

Not for everyone, not for almost all, certainly not for young boys who fancy themselves savvy traders, these are conditions under which those very few with lots of experience and a willingness to take on extreme risks, can made gobs of money, or lose gobs of money.

I am loving this wildness in the markets. If I could this my way, our stocks markets would be this wild on a daily basis; this is exciting.

Probably kinda scary for young boys, though.


Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation