Saturday, April 4, 2026

March 2, 2010

Lifestyle Management Inc.

Earlier today I was closing some deals when I remembered that it was time for me to address the eBusiness Cashual nation. I started eBusiness Cashual (eBC) while traversing a myriad of sumptuous hotels and satellite castles that Robin Leach could only add to his champagne wishes and caviar dreams. It was within these undisclosed locations that I made my formal Cashual breakthrough: my rags to riches tale is fodder for more than a Hollywood epic. I had undervalued myself—I had a higher purpose.

As this indubitable knowledge materialized, the eBC concept was conceived—yet it remained unborn. The possibility hung in the air in front of me like a 15-year-old awaiting his driver’s test. Still the dream was taking form, and I believed in it.

Laboring to birth my business brain-child, I considered the most important aspects of industry and production. The best businesses are the ones that empower others to create their own businesses. Think eBay or Google or Amway. How many people have founded businesses upon the generous platforms of the these giants? The catch: though free to a large audience, these businesses do require some fees to be paid. Someone is taking a cut. But If I could come up with a business so robust that it was impervious to these cagey cuts, a profit would be profit.

Now I have transcended entrepreneur and become philosopher. If I define my business as one that empowers others, but also disables the process of profit skimming, I may just have a new concept: the reverse pyramid scheme!

Standing atop my pyramid and reveling in my intellectual bounds, I realized after all, it is all about me. In attempting to explain how it wasn’t, I confirmed that it was. The best businesses are free to a very large audience, are viral, and no one else takes a cut of the profit. Deducing through the algorithm, it becomes clear: The best businesses are lifestyles.

Thus the painfully beautiful birth of eBC—the lifestyle of Vinnie Vega—sprawling in it’s newborn purity before you. EBC is a collaborative enterprise contact management cloud solution from which we can all gain. It is what it is. There is no face or book in it. Here at eBC, we start in the street, steady on our feet, and we always keep it eBusiness Cashual.

We Love You eBC.

February 16, 2010

Sovereign Outlier Triangulation

As the previously documented sovereign event approaches, the uncertainty that remains draws me closer to the prosperity that will effect the collective consciousness of my readership connection. To further dissect the economic scenario that is playing out, I will offer some thoughts on where things are, what could cause things to reverse, as well as how to best prosper from the sovereign contagion that is spreading like wildfire.

Greece

In my prior post, I outlined the sovereign default risk that we face—somewhere, sometime soon. Several geographies are flashing extremely risky scenarios. Greece is in need of a bailout and they lay on the precipice of disaster if some aid is not found. Any proposal of aid I have seen will not be a solution, rather a band-aid on a broken bone. However, a band-aid could buy Greece some time–which they are in dire need of.

Ireland

Economic woes in Ireland are severe, and they are not being given the focus they require. Further trouble in the place where I kissed the Blarney Stone could be the impetus for the contagion to spread further, causing the market dislocation that I anticipate.

Dubai

Risk in Dubai is priced where it was at the height of 2009. Further trouble and inability to restructure will cause fallout in Dubai—which will affect Europe, which will effect Greece, and the dominoes will continue to tip. Last week in Dubai, I found money dealers paying extremely large mark-ups for physical gold. Indeed, rumors of gold being used as legal tender in Dubai are true. Again we see my thesis substantiated: the risk aversion trade here is not the US Dollar, rather the precious metals–gold and silver.

Spain: The Wild Card

All of the above geographies could stabilize, or with further troubles, could act as catalysts for the contagion to spread quicker than it already is.

I’d note that Spain was a large driver of contagion over the past two years. The housing bubble in Spain was by far the largest real estate bubble compared to anywhere else. They also face a severely high unemployment rate. However, even with all this trouble, spreads on banks in Spain are not showing the stress they should. When the stress of the housing bubble and unemployment rate percolates into Spanish banks, it will be easy for Spain to pick up where it left off. More in need of a bailout this time, Spain will contribute to the strain in Europe, affecting Greece, affecting Ireland…tip, tip, tip.

All That Glitters

Though the catalyst remains uncertain, the looming event is undeniable. Remember, when the entire universe lunges to take risk off the table in a reaction to what I anticipate, gold will stand, glittering amidst the debris. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: if you don’t own gold, you should.

And the beat goes on.

October 16, 2009

My Mechanic

Meanwhile, back at the office, I continue to be highly addicted to the internet. You can understand my trouble. I am, after all, convinced that I am a computer and a marketed product–the result of an algorithmic breakthrough by the AI community of the future (or past). Imagine how tough it is for me to go offline.

My addiction has me projecting my fears onto my health, but my mechanic gave me a clean bill just other day. She said that my real time operating system is stable–which I already new seeing that it is UNIX based and I programmed it–and that everything seemed secure.

“Enough about the electrical stuff,” I said to her. “Tell me how my user interface is?”

“Great,” she said, “and you always make me laugh, Vinnie.”

“I always will,” I said on my way out the door.


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April 5, 2009

Journalism

The markets move like the ocean, and I am but a drifting trader weaving in and out of the waves. Sometimes the sets come in with such poetic, rhythmic motion that the probabilities within almost chant like a lucid, soothing mantra. Other times, there is so little visibility and the tides are so variant that there is no predicting the next swell or crest. Some find it reassuring to believe that Mother Nature is predictable, but it truth, she is not. She simply beats to a rhythm.

The charge of the trader is to know that you won’t prevail in every attempt–you can’t catch every wave. You can be riding the most picture perfect trend, and it can fall apart without any warning at all, like a tunnel turned breaker. We can take solitude in the fact that a new wave will always takes it’s place. Opportunity always abounds in places where buyers meet sellers and vice versa.

As a journalist of finance, I must understand one thing for certain: there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. I am not pretending to be objective here in these pages. That would be a joke. I think Hunter Thompson summed up the theory of Objective Journalism when he covered the campaign trail in 1972.

“The only thing that I ever saw that came close to Objective Journalism was a closed-circuit TV setup that watched shoplifters in the General Store at Woody Creek, Colorado. I always admired that machine, but I noticed that nobody paid much attention to it until one of those known, heavy, out-front shoplifters came into the place…but when that happened everybody got so excited that the thief had to do something quick, like buy a green popsicle or a can of Coors and get out of the place immediately.

So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here–not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

I attempt to paint a picture of my particular vision of probabilities, and it is a perception that will not be replicated in mass prints. As the subject, I can’t possibly be objective. The mere fact that someone may read these pages will make this trader potentially observed. As Heisenberg states, “the observer changes the thing observed.”

By writing about things I contemplate, it is possible that I become observed. In becoming observed, I will change. The observer changes the thing observed. So why write? Why invite observation? Because it will make me better. Because it is time. Because it will challenge me more. My “read” on the markets will have more clarity. The more I benefit others, the more I am observed, and the better that will make me.

All along, I have the good fortune to chronicle for the world the thoughts of a speculator who thinks about winning not in terms of frequency of correctness, but by magnitude of rightness.

Peace

The Impersonator

The Impersonator

January 14, 2009

Reality TV and Physics

The observer changes the thing observed
-Heisenberg

Let’s have a discussion about the Heisenberg Principle through a current example : Reality TV.

Why has reality TV become so popular? Because the title implies that you are viewing reality. But you are not. You cannot be. Because as Heisenberg says: The observer changes the things observed.

And therein lies the paradox. By definition, reality TV cannot be reality. Yet at times we think it is. And that fascinates all of us.

Peace

Some of You Don't Believe

Some of You Don't Believe