Compassionate Curmudgeon

Stringer Bell Reads Asimov

So there I was watching the season finale of The Wire the other night, and what do I see but a copy of the first volume of Isaac Asimov's autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, resting on Stringer Bell's bookshelf.

So Stringer Bell was an Asimov fan? Who knew?

Apple Bites Cramer

Jim Cramer was recommending Apple's stock again on Thursday:

iPod shortage! I knew it. I knew I was right to go get my iPods the day I had an analyst come on "Kudlow & Cramer" and say there was no shortage and that Apple (AAPL:Nasdaq) had a ton. I knew it because this product has no limits. And today, neither will its maker's stock, now that it has broken from the $65 strike that has contained it for so long.

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Whatever. Now that Apple has freed itself from the $65 orbit, I would be buying the December 65 calls hand-over-fist, for a double.

By tomorrow.

Trouble is, by the time Cramer's piece was published, the December 65 calls were already selling for about 2 bucks. It was downhill from there, as AAPL got pinned to 65 on expiration Friday, and the calls went out worthless.

Oh, yeah, a few minutes before the close on Friday, Cramer had another piece recommending buying Apple (among others) because it was trapped at the 65 strike. No mention of his previous day's bad call, however.

Bill O'Reilly, Coward

David Brock of the non-partisan Media Matters for America has a piece explaining why Bill O'Reilly is a coward.

Speaker of the House

Here are some Jeopardy-style answers under the category "Speaker of the House."

He was elected Speaker of the House by a margin of nearly two to one over his nearest rival for the first time during his freshman term as Representative from Kentucky.

He served as Speaker for a total of ten years, the longest of any Speaker during the 19th century.

He had to resign his seat in order to help negotiate the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 in 1814.

Whether or not he actually entered into a "Corrupt Bargain" with John Quincy Adams, the charge probably prevented him from achieving his greatest ambition: the Presidency.

One of his nicknames is the "Great Compromiser."

The questions can be found below, just scroll down...

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"Who was Henry Clay?"

As you have probably guessed, yes, I'm currently reading a book about Henry Clay.

Tobias v. Cramer

I note that Andrew Tobias and Jim Cramer have opposing views on Apple's stock (AAPL).

Tobias is suggesting that now is a good time to sell it, while Cramer thinks it's time to buy.

Now Tobias has a good deal of credibility with regards to Apple just now, having recommended it about a year ago when it was selling for about twenty bucks, and it's now well over $60, a 200% gain. Actually, he was a bit cagier; he recommended buying the long-term calls (or LEAPS) which could be had for around $4 and which are now worth around $43, which is nearly a 1000% gain.

He writes in part, "while I can make an (uninformed, seat-of-the-pants) case for AAPL at 200 a few years from now, I have to think that if you had the good fortune not to see or act on my earlier profit-taking suggestions, now you surely should. Sell."

Meanwhile, Cramer, whom James Wolcott likes to refer to as "Creampuff", sees things rather differently:

Maybe I'm just too Apple-centric, maybe because I just can't compete with my daughter's mini-iPod, maybe because every gift I have gotten her revolves around her Apple mini, maybe because I think that soon you will be able to buy an iPod that allows you to punch in some digits and download from Sirius Satellite (SIRI:Nasdaq) -- whatever the reason -- I just can't believe that Apple sits where it is right now and isn't higher.

Here is a stock that has the clearest shot to beat all the numbers for Christmas. It is a company that has the most momentum of any business I know. Best of all, it already has been downgraded three times. You have taken a substantial amount of the "Xilinx (XLNX:Nasdaq) -Altera (ALTR:Nasdaq) " risk out of it, precisely because it has been taken to the woodshed three times. No one else will do it between now and Christmas.

It should be pointed out that earlier this year, Creampuff, er, I mean Cramer, recommended buying Apple at around 28, but then got spooked out of it by a Wall Street Journal article at about 32 or so.

Decisions, decisions...

(In fairness to both of them, it should be pointed out that Tobias and Cramer have different time horizons. Tobias specifically recommended holding Apple for a year to benefit from the tax advantages of long term gains; Cramer's timeline is somewhat shorter. He seems to be suggesting holding it just until Christmas.)