Author Archives: java

Confessions of a Union Free Rider

“We believe that the American workers employed in the American way are unbeatable” – Thomas Watson, Jr. to Nikita Khrushchev (The Spokesman, September 22, 1959) On September 21, 1959, Nikita Khrushchev toured an IBM plant in San Jose, California. In Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, Nikita’s son Sergei remembered how his father wasn’t […]

Dry Powder is an Asset Not a Failing

In 1998 Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) lost $4.6 billion in less than four months. Although the hedge fund was led by Nobel Prize winners (Myron Scholes and Robert Merton), noted professors, a Federal Reserve vice chairman and well-known Wall Street arbitrage experts, it made one of the most basic — but costly — investment mistakes. […]

Missing Lou Krieger

On December 3, the noted poker author and my friend Lou Krieger died of cancer. There are so many things to be said about Lou’s contributions to the poker world and how he nurtured a new generation of poker writers. But this is what I said on Hold’em Radio’s tribute show to Lou. I want […]

Gasoline Prices: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today crude oil prices turned lower on speculation that the U.K. and U.S. might coordinate a release from of their strategic oil reserves. If true, it is probably motivated by a desire to shake out speculators. (I wrote about this strategy in a previous post here.) In the short-term, it may even tamp down gasoline […]

Home = A Place You Can Scratch What Itches

It’s like going home again. And by home, I don’t mean to invoke a Rockwellian ideal, baked in nostalgic fantasy. On the scale of dysfunction, it’s probably closer to Shameless than it is to Ozzie and Harriet. But by every measure, Dan Michalski and Pokerati are family. This January, I started contributing to Pokerati, providing […]

With Apologies to Douglas Adams, Nassim Taleb and Every Major Religion: Why Investors Should Learn Poker in 2012

“It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties.” Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) from Hitch-22: A Memoir In Douglas Adams’ book Life, the Universe and Everything, the computer Deep Thought comes up with the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe […]

Open Letter to Herb Greenberg: The Problem is Unemployment, not Unemployment Insurance

I like CNBC’s senior stock analyst Herb Greenberg. I generally count on him for his solid and thorough research. But last week, he wandered off into an anecdotal wilderness. So this is to Herb, in honor of Labor Day. Dear Herb, I watched some of your CNBC “coverage” on unemployment insurance, where you implied that […]

Complicit Regulators: The US Federal Reserve and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission

Thirteen years ago today, James G. Rickards received a phone call: “Jim, we just lost 500 million; you’d better get back to Greenwich.” Soon after, he would be called upon to broker a $3.6 billion bailout of the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM). It was paid for by big banks and orchestrated by […]

Pokerboyz Minus One: RIP rggator

When we all met 10 years ago – first on the internet, soon after in “real life” – it was clear we collectively had fewer years ahead of us than behind us. We weren’t young. And poker, after all, wasn’t the only vice we shared. But in an unofficial poll, Randy didn’t make anyone’s top […]

The IEA Beaned the Mascot and the Anatomy of a Bluff

“I wouldn’t dig in if I was you. Next one might be at your head. I don’t know where it’s gonna go. Swear to God “- Crash Davis In the movie Bull Durham, veteran catcher Crash Davis advises rookie Nuke LaLoosh to bean the team’s mascot. This bluffed lack of control convinces the batter to […]