My heartfelt thanks to all of my fellow Brownstoner addicts who showed up last night and made our gathering an absolutely fantastic event. It was wonderful meeting new friends and being reacquainted with old friends. To those who wanted to attend but couldn’t, hopefully we’ll have another party somewhere down the road. Special thanks to you Mr. B for allowing me to announce the event in the Forum and for joining us in the celebration. And I promise this is my last Forum post for awhile!


Comments

  1. Sorry for all the grief I caused, MM. I guess I still need work on the social etiquette of cyberspace. Although perhaps not as much as some other posters.

  2. Good morning comrades What and wasder,

    Now see What, this confuses me…you like a little smokey-toke, but I would think that would make you a little more r e l a x e d.

    And you like the hedge funder giving up on the pile o money thing – which I loved reading, btw. Someone with real integrity! There is hope there!

    I think you seem to thrive on this ‘negative attention’ model vs. a ‘we’re-all-in-a-heap-o-trouble-what-can-we-do-to-make-this-better model. When you could – and having met some of my fellow ‘stoners here, I feel somewhat confident in saying this – have been having good conversations with people and building a ‘coalition of the willing’.

    Just FYI, I threw out my crackberry and the 60+ hour/week job that came with it over a year and a half ago.

    Come to the next gathering, make up a new name – Fred, Schmedley or whatever, just come and see for yourself. Or not, stop by and see me on the cheese line either way. [gov’t cheese makes a decent grilled cheese sandwich in case you’ve never had it.]

  3. Good article What. This is one that I am in agreement with you on–throw out the blackberry and enjoy life! Love it. And I am very pro marijuana too. Thanks for posting.

  4. I somehow never spoke to 11233 either, and hope to next time, and would have enjoyed talking reno with Peter, too, but just got to say hi. It was a great group, all around, and I had a lot of fun.

    Pierre, tout est pardonne, mon ami. Dudette? From my opera days, I’m probably more of a dudessa.

    Bxgrl, you better show up, next time. A couple of rum toddies would take care of that bronchitis.

  5. biff, and all- so sorry to have missed it. I was hoping to be better but still sick with bronchitis. I did get my personal report from MM who made me sick with envy that I missed meeting so many good people. (sorry MM- you’ve been outed. Surprised the what, didn’t you!) Still laughing over the cocktail weenie comment- remind me never to piss you off.

    Hope there is another gathering- Biff, we’ll help you put it together. Maybe something for early December? A We survived Bush party perhaps?

  6. I going to paste the whole MoFo in here. This show the geniuses running everything! Kinda like you..

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVUE96d.HKyw

    Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks `Idiots’ for Success (Update1)
    By Katherine Burton

    Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.

    Lahde, head of Santa Monica, California-based Lahde Capital Management LLC, told investors last month he was returning their cash because the risk of using credit derivatives — his means of betting on the falling value of bonds and loans, including subprime mortgages — was too risky given the weakness of the banks he was trading with.

    “I was in this game for money,” Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter today in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. “The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.

    “All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other sides of my trades. God Bless America.”

    Lahde, who managed about $80 million, told clients he’ll be content to invest his own money, rather than taking cash from wealthy individuals and institutions and trying to amass a fortune worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

    “I do not understand the legacy thing,” he wrote. “Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.”

    Request for Soros

    He said he’d spend his time repairing his health “as well as my entire life — where I had to compete for spaces at universities, and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management — with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not.”

    He also suggested that billionaire George Soros sponsor a forum in which “great minds” would come together to create a new system of government, as the current system “is clearly broken.”

    Lahde ended his letter with a plea for the increased use of hemp as an alternative source of food and energy that segued into a call for the legalization of marijuana.

    “Hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products,” he wrote. “Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term.”

    `Innocuous Plant’

    He added, “The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country.”

    Lahde said the only reason marijuana remains illegal is because “Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers.”

    Lahde graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in finance and holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He worked at Los Angeles-based hedge fund Dalton Investments LLC before founding his own firm two years ago with about $10 million.

    Lahde wasn’t available for comment. A woman at his firm, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

    To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net

    The What

    Someday this war is gonna end..

  7. “Have you tried lithium? Zyprexa? Or are you taking Ketamine recreationaly?”

    hoe did you know??!! We have the same Doctor..

    The What

    Someday this war is gonna end..

  8. “What, I have a 700 credit score and just closed on a super- super jumbo loan. I am paying a normal interest rate.”

    Thanks Darkshit. Now I understand why you are acting like this, you has Wasder disease. I’m the voice that says “you made a mistake” but you attack me to justify your own madness. But that’s OK because now you are paying on my side of the yard.

    We are in a full crash red alert! This is the last days of the “Happy Happy Joy Joy” circle jerk. The force from the implosion from the Mutant Asset Bubble is going to be huge!

    You see Darkshit I don’t talk about Real Estate no more because that is so 2007.. This year we are talking about Wall Street, CDO, Federal Reserve, Derivatives, Mortgage Backed Obligations and Global Finance.

    I’m glad you brought into the Mutant Asset Bubble, FOOL!

    Here suck down some of this.

    Difficult Times, Difficult Decisions

    http://www.zillowblog.com/difficult-times-difficult-decisions/2008/10/

    “This week we are reducing our workforce by 25%. This was an incredibly painful decision for me and the leadership team, but, in the end, we concluded that we had no choice but to securely batten down the hatches as we sail into a major economic storm.

    The unprecedented economic events that are playing out on a global stage began in our own industry and have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgment. We are a young company that is not yet making a profit. Despite having sizeable cash reserves, we deemed the responsible course was to meaningfully reduce expenses, so that Zillow emerges from the other side of the recession in a very strong position, even if the recession lasts many years.”

    You see the Asshats think this is a joke or something. This shit is very real…

    The What

    Someday this war is gonna end…

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