Meanwhile, back at the headquarters of my for profit think tank, I read George’s book today, The Crash of 2008 and What It Means. If you are interested in his view of the inter-market relationships and forces that were in place during the banking collapse last year, I recommend it. He traded actively during 2008, and he lays out the thought process(es) behind his positioning. He is a decent critic of himself in that he admits to many mistakes. He ended 2008 “modestly higher”, which he considers an accomplishment in a “period of almost universal wealth destruction.”

He candidly admits to missing the largest part of the crash, “Although I am an experienced short seller, I got caught several times, and in the end I largely missed the biggest downdraft, which came in October and November.”

He also talks to being slow to recognize the trend reversal (strength) in the dollar, causing him to give back profits. “Eventually I understood that the strength of the dollar was due not to people choosing to hold dollars but to their inability to maintain or roll over their dollar obligations. In a very real sense, the strength of the dollar, like the fever associated with sickness, was a measure of the disruption of the financial system.”

While the collapse was decently predicted, the rush to the dollar caught most off guard. Most traders–even the ones that made a killing being short the mortgage and mortgage related markets–would agree: it was surprising that the risk aversion trade became buying the dollar–the currency at the center of the collapse.

Green Energy

As the housing bubble that led to the collapse of 2008 deflates, another is being built. The massive investment in cleaner, more efficient distribution of energy is the next great growth industry. I invest heavily in energy. It is, after all, the mother of all markets. I’ll end with my favorite line of the book:

“Nothing is quite as profitable as investing in an early-stage bubble.”

And the beat goes on.

Sometimes when I get buzzed online, I strive to maximize it, adding value to the future highest bidder of the online public offering(s) of one of my spin offs. Bootstrapping an online presence on the information superhighway requires focus on three things that revolve around your green energy:

Define, make, sell–these are the planets. And the factory is the sun.

Marketing 101.

Given my status as a money manager to superheroes, I am interested in all things green, including green energy. Here is a link via Fresh Dialogues to an interview with Bloom Energy CEO and founder KR Sridhar: Power to the People with Bloom Energy. Rumor has it that Bloom is going to make an impact on the energy all around us.

“Bloom is a silicon valley based flexible fuel cell maker which aims to do for the energy industry what cell phones did for communications.”