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Golden Age of Dividend Investing?

We Are in the ‘Golden Age of Dividends,’ Says Hersh Cohen

Excerpt:

Are we in "the golden age of dividends"?

Hersh Cohen, who has been investing professionally for 45 years, should know - and he says it is indeed the best of times for income-seeking investors, thanks to low dividend taxes and the proven commitment of great American companies to share their cash with shareholders through higher payouts.

Cohen, co-chief investment officer of Legg Mason Inc.’s (LM) ClearBridge Investments and co-manager of ClearBridge Equity Income (SOPAX), says in the attached video: “I’ve never seen anything like the last five months” in terms of the frequency of generous dividend hikes. “Dividends have exploded to the upside.”

Comment: Image source is hybrid. Here with this special effect. Our only non-dividend paying stock is BRK-B which I bought for my wife as a birthday present.

I couldn't stop laughing

Dad is Fat

Jim Gaffigan on Dad is Fat: "My son wrote the title of this book on a dry erase board one day and it cracked me up."

I laughed at every preview page I read. Sample:

This will not be a fun day!

I've procrastinated as long as I possibly could!

Foreign Stock Investing - iShares International Select Dividend ETF

iShares International Select Dividend ETF

Comments: Another way to go with foreign stocks is to buy a bundle of them with an ETF. Link above has detailed information. Disclosure: as of today, I have a position in IDV.

Standing up for the Redskins

Roger Goodell defends Redskins name in letter to McCollum

Excerpt:

Rep. Betty McCollum and the Congressional Native American Caucus waded into the simmering debate over the political correctness of the Washington Redskins name last month, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has told her the name is here to stay. McCollum and members of the caucus sent Goodell a letter in May asking him to consider changing the name of the Redskins, calling it "derogatory, demeaning and offensive," and a "slur akin to the N-word." The name is a source of ongoing conflict in the NFL and in Washington, and the brand is a subject of a federal trademark lawsuit. But in a June 4 letter to McCollum, Goodell said there is vast public support to keep the name, and that it was never intended to offend. Rather, the name was meant to honor Native Americans even after the franchise changed its name from the Boston Braves in 1933 (there was a baseball team of the same name. The franchise moved to Washington in 1937).

Comment: Full text of Goodell letter

Why Greece cannot fire temporary workers

'Haven of waste': Cash-strapped Greece pulls plug on state broadcaster

Excerpt:

Athens promised its creditors this week to dismiss 4,000 civil servants this year, including 2,000 by the end of the summer and 15,000 by the end of 2014.

That may not sound daunting in a public work force of around 650,000. Yet, through more than three years of drastic budget cuts and a rapidly shrinking economy, the debt-ridden country has yet to fire a single government employee.

To understand what the government is up against, consider the case of Georgia Tsiounis and more than 10,000 other “temporary” workers.

Eight years after landing a four-month contract with the municipality of Athens to water flowers and trim trees while other workers were on vacation, she was told recently that her services would be eliminated after her latest contract ends.

Rather than meekly accepting her fate, she turned to the well-worn tactic of filing a restraining order seeking to make the job permanent. While she may well lose in court, legal analysts say, she cannot be fired while the case is pending.

Given the glacial pace of Greece’s overburdened and inefficient court system, her case and thousands more like it will not be heard for nearly two years.

Comment: Messy

China's rubber alien brings to memory the Cardiff Giant

Chinese farmer jailed for making a rubber alien

Excerpt:

Shortly after he proudly posted photographs of his alien on the internet, he was arrested by the police for five days for "fabrications" that "disturbed the public order". Mr Li was forced to admit that he had indeed sought to use his model, held together with chicken wire and glue, to mislead his fellow Chinese about the existence of celestial creatures.

Comment: The Cardiff Giant (image below). The Chinese government has no sense of humor!

Investing in Foreign Stocks

Followup to Investing Abroad. Click through to WSJ article. What I've learned (and I am still a learner!). I only have access to United States exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ, OTC) and so if I have a foreign stock I have it via an ADR.

• The small chart above has stocks that I either have a position in (clear rows) or would like to have a position (blue rows). The larger chart below (click to enlarge) has greater detail (PE, Yield, Withholding)
• This WIKI article on ADR's is worthwhile. For example, DANOY is the ADR for Groupe Danone which trades as BN in Paris.
• Some foreign stocks have withholding taxes on the dividends. This is a problem if one has the foreign stock in an IRA account as there is no provision in the US tax code to recover that tax. This is NOT a problem if one has a foreign stock in a non-tax-deferred account as the withholding tax is easily recovered when one files taxes. The foreign tax is accounted as if it is tax paid to the IRS. Very simple.

Updated:

On investing in foreign stockshttps://t.co/Kzxb9rD0ST pic.twitter.com/RbKXrEYOd6

— James Peet (@jrpeet) January 3, 2018

Investing Abroad

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

How Much Should You Invest Abroad?

Excerpt:

So the real question I think is: What is a non-U.S. investment? Is General Electric or Coca-Cola a U.S. investment, or is part of each company a non-U.S. investment given that such a large portion of both companies' revenues and earnings come from overseas? To date, corporate domicile has typically been the litmus test for the categorization of an investment as domestic or international. Going forward, I think it's important to pay attention to the source of revenue and profit generation, a focus which over time may shift what exactly is owned in a portfolio to generate that 30% to 40% recommended non-U.S. exposure.

Comment: I anticipate doing a followup blog post about what I view to be solid overseas investments. Video and quote above from Network

22 years later - Alleged Father's Day Bank Killer - meets "the Judge of all the earth"

James King, key figure in mystery of Denver Father's Day Massacre, dies

Excerpt:

The man tried and acquitted in Denver's infamous "Father's Day Massacre" case has died after living a shunned existence for 21 years and recently suffering from dementia. But James King's passing has not quelled speculation about whether he got away with killing four bank guards on June 16, 1991.

Comment: More information on the crime here and here. Reference to God the Judge is from Genesis 18:25, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?". A New Testament reference would be Acts 17:31, "He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead"; Romans 2:16, "God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ"; and 1 Peter 4:5, "They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead"

"Slacker" Snowden "spills his guts"

The slacker who came in from the cold

Excerpt:

Think you’re a loser just because you dropped out of high school and never finished the military training you began? Think you’re a dud just because you work as a security guard even though you dreamed of becoming a global savior? Well, don’t beat yourself up. You, too, can become an international super spy like Edward Snowden. Snowden, 29 and possessing all the qualifications to become a grocery bagger, instead gets hired by the National Security Agency as a security guard, after dropping out of high school and the Army.  This naturally brings him to the attention of the Central Intelligence Agency, which hires him and sends him to Geneva, Switzerland, with diplomatic cover and a high security clearance. With all that on his résumé, he gets scooped up by defense contractor colossus Booz Allen Hamilton, which assigns him to work at an NSA facility in Hawaii for a reported $200,000 per year. This allows Snowden to rent a house near the beach for him and his girlfriend.

Comment: Parallels with Catch 22

Snowden shook his head feebly. "I’m cold," he repeated, with eyes as dull and blind as stone. "I’m cold." "There, there," Yossarian, with growing doubt and trepidation. "There, there. In a little while we’ll be back on the ground and Doc Daneeka will take care of you." But Snowden kept shaking his head and pointed at last, with just the barest movement of his chin, down to his armpit. Yossarian bent forward to peer and saw a strangely colored stain seeping through the coverall just above the armhole of Snowden’s flak suit. Yossarian felt his heart stop, then pound so violently he found it difficult to breathe. Snowden was wounded inside his flak suit. Yossarian ripped open the snaps of Snowden’s flak suit and heard himself scream wildly as Snowden’s insides slithered down to the floor in a soggy pile and just kept dripping out. A chunk of flak more than three inches big had shot into his other side just underneath the arm and blasted all the way through, drawing whole mottled quarts of Snowden along with it through the gigantic hole in his ribs it made as it blasted out. Yossarian screamed a second time and squeezed both hands over his eyes. His teeth were chattering in horror. He forced himself to look again. Here was God’s plenty, all right, he thought bitterly as he stared — liver, lungs, kidneys, ribs, stomach and bits of the stewed tomatoes Snowden had eaten that day for lunch

Image Source.

Investing in "a twitchy market"

100-Point Dow Swings Are Back

Excerpt:

For the seventh time in the past ten sessions, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is moving at least 100 points, up or down, from the previous close. The cause of the volatility is hard to pin down since it is almost equally split between rallies and sell-offs, as well as domestic and foreign worries or hopes.

Today's early jitters appear to be pegged to the fact that the uber-easy Bank of Japan held pat and did not see the need to be even looser with their devaluation efforts. Fortunately, better-than-expected Small Business Confidence has tempered the disappointment, forcing investors once again to make a buy or sell decision on a twitchy market.

Comment: Image Source. Advice:

• Watch the market daily if one wishes. But do not be overly euphoric on market upswings or overly morose on downswings. This leads to the next point:
• Don't invest emotionally! 
• Schedule investments. Examples: $ 300 on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Our schedule is weekly.
• Spread buys. For example today we bought 5 shares of Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. Our objective is to acquire 100 shares. This will take multiple weeks. By the time we have acquired 100, we will probably have 10 -15 buys over several months. 
• Buy on fundamentals. Example. We have a high degree of confidence that SWK will pay a 2.5% dividend.
• Follow the value investing principles of Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel
• Hold for a period. I expect that we will have SWK for more than 3 years.
• Remember that Sometimes Mr. Market behaves like 'a psychotic drunk'"

Stanley Black & Decker

5 Cheap Fast-Growing Dividends

Excerpt:

Stanley Black & Decker manufactures tools and engineered security solutions across the globe. The company was formed after The Stanley Works acquired Black & Decker Corporation in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 -- Stanley's shareholders own around 50.5% of the combined company and Black & Decker shareholders own the rest. The company's top segment is its construction and do-it-yourself unit, accounting for some 50% of revenue. This segment manufactures and markets hand tools, consumer mechanic tools, storage systems, pneumatic tools and fasteners.

The secret to Stanley's long-term growth includes investing two-thirds of its capital in acquisitions and growth, and returning the other one-third to shareholders. As well, Stanley has a diversified customer base and a presence across the world.

As for the long-term growth, the company is looking to expand into emerging markets, creating a smart-tools market, and tapping opportunities in the offshore oil and gas pipeline market. These and other initiatives are expected to contribute $800 to $900 million of annualized revenue growth and $200 million in operating income over a three-year term -- the revenue breakdown is $150 million in 2013 and $350 million each in 2014 and 2015.

Comment: Top image source ... Ebay (search for antique Stanley tools). Why we are buying Stanley: 45 years of increased dividends, known for quality, housing industry improving, DIY'ers like their tools , strong brands

Boring Holiness: Unknown Laboring .... Providing for Self and Family

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. (Ephesians 4:28)

We have laborers at the house today (continuation from yesterday). Two younger men (one is 42, the other I gather from his HS graduation of 1994 would be about 38) are installing carpet in out lower walk-out level. I was just downstairs talking to them and asking about their business. I hope to give each a Gospel of John later today when they are finished. Image source

Over the last year I've seen some disturbing things among some who are "called" to the ministry. Here's a partial list:

• A lack of what I would call worldly ambition to provide for ones own self and family. (1 Corinthians 7:33, "But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.) The English word - "world" is the Greek κόσμος - that same nasty word used in 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him". For some the 1 John 2:15 truth has been driven home without the counterbalancing truth of 1 Cor 7:33. There's some pretty unexciting things in life ... like having decent brakes and tires on the car you and your wife drive. Or heat and light for the house, and paying taxes, and saving for emergencies and saving for the day when one cannot work.
• A dependence upon others gifting to meet one's needs. Examples:
• Not having adequate or even any medical insurance, and then when the need comes, the government has to step in or the hospital and / or Doctors have to write off or dramatically reduce the bill.
• I recently received a prayer letter from a missionary asking for donors to pay for their adult child's education at a private (read that Bible) college. What ordinary Christian can send a letter out asking for donors to pay for their adult-child's education? None!
• Leaving a financial mess behind. Anyone who bought a house in 2005 or 2006 is likely underwater on his mortgage. There are programs in place to help homeowners - see HASP . I am  aware of a young man "called" to (not naming the foreign place) who basically walked away and moved away from his mortgage to have the home short-sell to be free of the financial obligation.  
• One last peeve with a introductory explanation. Last year a friend from church explored a mission field in South America. We contributed a small amount (as I recollect $ 100) to help them finance their trip. As it turned out, after examining the field, the husband and wife decided it was not the Lord's leading. This couple is in their mid-thirties. I have no regret helping in a minor way to pay for their trip. We've done this a handful of other times as well: a couple visiting Brazil, a single woman spending nearly a year in Israel, et cetera. In all of these cases the persons had some sort of Bible college or seminary training. They were honest seekers of the Lord's will and we helped out in a minor way. My peeve is with teens asking for money for this summer ministry or the next. Every May or June we receive a handful of such requests. Here's my questions: if you knew you wanted to do this, why didn't you work for a year babysitting, shoveling snow, mowing grass, et cetera to earn one's own way? I would think that a teen could easily earn $ 2,000 in a year for a summer trip. That's how we did it in my youth! Frankly just eschewing a smart-phone for a year would enable one to save enough for such a trip. And then I am peeved about the teen missionary burden for evangelizing youth in Jamaica, New York state, Mexico, or France. Are there no lost young people in Robbinsdale, Elk River, Rockford or Plymouth? I mean why does a teen need to fly half way across the country or to another country to evangelize?!

There is a boring, quiet, nose-to-the-grindstone Christianity and it is often ignored and not celebrated or honored. It is the quiet life of glorifying God by working and earning - paying bills and giving to the Lord's work while providing for self so one is not a burden upon society.

DNA swabs will cripple Law and Order ... hourlong shows become eight-minute Webisodes

In DNA Ruling, a Cruel Blow to Scriptwriters

Excerpt:

Here is the plot of a generic hourlong police/court drama in the mold of “Law & Order” and its imitators from any time in the last two decades:

¶Minute 1: A crime is committed.

¶Minutes 2-5: An obvious suspect is detained.

¶Minutes 6-55: The suspect’s lawyer and the authorities do a lengthy dance over DNA evidence collection and admissibility, which eventually results in the discovery of a previous offense.

¶Minutes 56-60: The suspect either is convicted of the new crime or he turns out to be a red herring, whereupon a minor character is revealed to be the culprit.

If the real-life police are now taking cheek swabs and matching suspects to a database only seconds after they are initially detained, those hourlong shows become eight-minute Webisodes, and a lot of writers and actors are out of work. The Supreme Court has not merely changed the rules of crime-fighting; it has changed the rules of television.

Comment: That would the the original cast in the image above!

"A desire named streetcar" - the latest urban planning fad

Bringing streetcars to Minneapolis: Some perplexing twists and turns

Excerpt:

Minneapolis is not alone in what Finance & Commerce, the local business daily, called "a desire named streetcar." Atlanta, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C., among others, have either started operating a system recently or are in the process of getting one launched. Even pipsqueak Missoula, Mont., (population 67,000) has one under consideration. The revival has come partly at the behest of the federal government. In 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pledged $280 million for urban-transit projects, such as streetcars, and the Department of Transportation has been doling out millions ever since.

There is a contention floating about — mainly from Randal O'Toole of the right-leaning Cato Institute — that streetcars are just the latest urban planning fad designed to benefit engineering and construction companies.

... Another looming question is: Who will pay for operating and maintaining the line?

Comment: See also Minneapolis Advances Streetcar System Plan and A train linking Minneapolis and St. Paul? We had that scoop in 1984. Perhaps they could fund them with Pull-Tabs!?

Nicknaming restructuring and lay-offs

Banks Mask Pain With Colorful Nicknames

Excerpt:

There’s nothing like a delicious-sounding nickname to cushion the blow of a painful restructuring. A seemingly endless procession of giant banks have embarked on internal reorganizations in recent years, mopping up messes that originated before the financial crisis. Instead of simply calling the processes what they are – slow and often messy overhauls that can result in shuttered businesses, large losses and laid-off workers – banks have cloaked the restructurings with cheerful monikers.

 .... in the U.K Lloyds Banking Group has adopted Project Verde as its codename for its oft-delayed plans to sell hundreds of its branches. The codename isn’t much of a secret, as Lloyds executives routinely refer to it in public and in official statements.

Not all banks are very creative with code names, especially when it comes to cost-cutting efforts.

Deutsche Bank used Project Integra as a moniker for its investment-banking cost-cutting.

In the U.S., Cleveland-based regional lender KeyCorp has “Keyvolution.” Wells Fargo has Project Compass.

Bank of America’s is Project New BAC (a reference to the bank’s ticker symbol).

The nicknaming trend has drawn ridicule from – who else? – J.P. Morgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, who has told analysts that his bank is always focused on keeping costs low and doesn’t need silly nicknames to showcase the mission’s importance.

Comment: Insider .... when someone gets laid off we call it "getting compassed". Image source.

Frank Lautenberg: Soldier, Salesman, Senator

First a Business Leader, Then a Senator

Excerpt:

In 1954, Mr. Lautenberg joined tiny Automatic Payrolls, founded a few years earlier to prepare paychecks for textile mills in Paterson, N.J. Automatic moved to the basement of a hotel, which also held the office of Mr. Lautenberg, then a salesman for the Prudential Insurance Co. Already acquaintances from school, Mr. Lautenberg got to know Automatic's founder, Henry Taub, over coffee in the building's restaurant.

"I became intrigued by this service that he was offering, and I volunteered to sell it with no compensation, to prove the worth myself," Mr. Lautenberg told The Wall Street Journal in 2011. Weeks later, he became the company's first salesmen.

Outsourcing work such as payroll was unusual at the time, and Mr. Lautenberg's job involved selling businesses on the concept. "The notion of letting people see your private records was pretty foreign," Mr. Lautenberg told The Journal.

ADP grew quickly, and in 1961 issued stock to fund the purchase of computers. Soon it was handling brokerage clients on Wall Street.

"He was a street guy and he was an intellect," said Joe Taub, the founder's brother and an early ADP employee. "Not many people have that."

Mr. Lautenberg eventually became chairman and chief executive as ADP expanded into Europe in the 1970s. By the time he left to serve in the Senate in 1983, annual revenue totaled $500 million.

Comment: I'm not a fan of his politics but he was a phenomenal man: The oldest (in my mind - too old) Senator, the last WW II vet in the Senate. Kathee has ADP stock in her IRA.

On Downsizing

12 Steps to Downsizing Success
How to Downsize in Retirement: Checklist and Tips

Excerpt (from 1st article):

Almost everybody talks about downsizing, but not that many folks ever get around to it. But those that do go through the wrenching process of downsizing tend to be very glad they did it.

... Understand the target. In other words, what is the size of your new home, and what can it accommodate? Will your great-grandfather’s tall case clock fit under your new ceilings? Do you have more rooms of furniture now than will fit in your new home? Knowing the dimensions and capacities of your new home will give you a good idea of what you should be de-acquisitioning.

Comment: Image source. My target is approximately 1500 square feet. We currently have 4 bedrooms. We need to get rid of two bedroom sets. Also ultimately the very large desk in our den will needed to be divested. We have 2 eating areas: a large dinning room set that seats 6 with standard seating and has leaves. We want to keep this. We have an antique kitchen table that we will ultimately need to divest of (but it needs to stay in the family as it was my Grandmothers).  So far we have gotten rid of three couches. Also a large leather chair that was in our family room.

Ever heard of the "Hindenburg Omen"?

Is The Stock Market Headed for A “Hindenburg Omen” Disaster?

Excerpt:

The “Hindenburg Omen” is a technical pattern that is said to foreshadow market crashes. When two out of four very specific technical events happen in a 36-day period, there’s an increase chance of a crash within the next 40 days, according to the theory. The four events are:

1. The number of new 52-week highs and new 52-week lows are both more than 2.8% of advances and declines in the New York Stock Exchange.
2. New 52-week highs are less than twice new 52-week lows.
3. The 10-week moving average of the NYSE is higher than it was 50 trading days ago.
4. The McClellan Oscillator (an indicator of whether a market is overbought or oversold) is down the same day. According to Krisnky, all four events happened on April 15, and again on Wednesday of last week.

Comment: See the WSJ "Chart of the Day". I'm a value investor not a technical trader.  But sounds like a Summer Hollywood blockbuster!

Ex-dividend date - Who gets the dividend? (The seller or buyer?)

Dividend Declaration, Ex Dividend and Record Dates
Wiki: Ex-dividend date
Example above from Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (SWK)

Excerpt:

The ex-dividend date is two business days prior to the record date. To be a stockholder on the record date an investor must purchase the stock before the ex-dividend date. The latest date he can buy the stock to be a stockholder on record and be entitled to the dividend would be one day prior to the ex-dividend date (this includes extended hours (pre-market and after-hours) of that day) to allow for the three stock trading day settlement of the stock purchase. If the investor purchases the stock the day before the ex-dividend date the investor would be a stockholder on the record date and would be entitled to receive the dividend payment.

An investor who wishes to be entitled to the dividend does not have to wait until after the record date to sell the stock; however, the investor must hold the stock until the ex-dividend date. If the investor were to sell the stock on the ex-dividend date or afterwards, the investor would still be entitled to the dividend payment. In this example, assuming that the investor purchased the stock one day before the ex-dividend date, the investor would be a stockholder on the record date. If the investor sells the stock on the ex-dividend date, the buyer of the stock would be a stockholder one day after the record date given the three stock business trading day settlement. The person that bought the stock would not be entitled to receive the dividend.

Comment: Image below is from the One Mint article. Very helpful.

Pinnacle 3661 .... Kathee on way home

Comment: Looking forward to seeing her in about 2 hours

The Worthless Won (North Korean Won)

Insight: North Korean economy surrenders to foreign currency invasion

Excerpt:

Faith in the North Korean won crumbled when Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, ordered the sudden revaluation of the currency in November 2009.

The government chopped two zeroes off banknotes and limited the amount of old money that could be exchanged for new cash. The move, seen as an attack on private market activity at the time, spurred a rush to hold hard currency.

It also quickened inflation and according to South Korea's spy agency, sparked rare civil unrest in one of the world's most entrenched authoritarian states after North Koreans realized the won was not a safe store of value.

The government is widely believed to have executed the economic official who oversaw the revaluation. Dollars have circulated in North Korea for decades, partly because of the cash siphoned off from official foreign trade. The rise in the use of yuan is a more recent phenomenon and reflects a surge in trade and smuggling between North Korea and China along their 1,400 km (875 mile) land border, where a lot of the currency changes hands. Official trade with China is worth $6 billion annually.

Black market rates illustrate how far the won has fallen since the revaluation. It has plunged from 30 to one U.S. dollar to about 8,500, according to exchange rates tracked by Daily NK. The current official exchange rate is about 130 won per dollar.

Comment: Buy on Ebay if interested

Kathee's flight Cancelled - stuck in Cincinnati

Comment: Was to have departed at 3:40 pm Eastern ... delayed one hour at a time until finally cancelled. Kathee has a hotel voucher .. and is to fly back tomorrow a.m.

Updated: Kathee at Airport Hilton ... scheduled on flight first thing AM

High School Yearbook

I found my high school yearbook online at Classmates.com

Here's my page ....

So serious looking! Can't find me ... scroll down ... 

On the next row .. far left is my best friend from High School .. Joel Perry (Stanley Joel Perry Jr.). Because homerooms were grouped by alphabet, I was with these people for homeroom for 4 years. In many classes Joel had the seat next to mine. Joel was born 1 day before me (August 18th, 1949) and died on my birthday on August 19th, 1996 at the age of 47. 

Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen
Location

Comments:

• Day 2 without the wife (in Cincinnati for a bridal shower)
• I woke up at 7:30
• I had a diet Pepsi for breakfast
• Did some financial stuff
• And went out at 11 a.m.
• I've heard about this place and it is all good. I was not disappointed. 
• Parking: I went around the block (really long blocks because of one ways and do-not-turns) three times. Finally parked in front (near) of the W at a metered spot. With my handicapped placard, was free for 2 hours
• I had the corned beef hash. Hell's Kitchen has home made peanut butter and I had that with my toast. 
• The location is on the LL level .... elevator down
• As one might expect there is a comic-book style "hell" motif. Not offensive and kind of fun
• Staff very pleasant
• A band called The Church of Cash (think Johnny Cash) was performing.