Person of the month -April 2012

Trauma of the Month – in the Authors World :

An easy one this month. Liverpool Football Club (you know. Those left-footed retards who can’t beat any other Club but Everton) beating Everton 2-1 in the FA Cup Semi Final in Wembley. I am not sure why God does not listen to my prayers anymore !!! And why he destroys people’s belief in being Christian and Kind and Loving and Generous and Friendly and …………… And I thought that I had gone way beyond being 8 years old !!!

Irish/British/American Patriot of the Month :

I am giving this months award to Paddy McKillen who is alone (with an Irish flag) in standing up for his legal rights and fighting the decision of NAMA to sell Derek Quinlan’s stake in the 3 precious London Hotels/ Group (Corion) to the Barclay Brothers. Apart from the ‘discounted’ price which NAMA released the shareholding – to British Mercenaries who will over the next five years probably ‘significantly multiply’ their money (But it the NAMA world as long as it is NOT an Irishman, who gives a sh*t) – and a host of other ‘trinkets’ around the decision (which smack of ‘you cannot challenge or touch us because we have legislation that fully covers an inadequacies we may have had in arriving at our decisions or explaining our actions). But thats all for another day. All that is important this month is that Paddy McKillen is a person of enormous bravery, resolve and conviction. Enough to fully justify respect and admiration of the Irish people.

Irish/British/American Judas of the Month :

An Irish radio presenter wins the award this month. As a matter of fact he has probably already won the 2012 award. And if we had this award in 2010 and 2011, Mr Joe Duffy would be on a hat trick. What a COMPLETE  package of poison is this guy. He has one agenda as his daily shows spout populist and (economically) destructive content. Yes Mr Duffy cares little for Ireland. His ONLY interest is HIMSELF. And HIMSELF. NOT ONE show with anything positive or constructive comes from this guys heart or mouth or brain !!!

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Currency Corner

A surprising bout of strength in the Euro this week. Expect it to reverse as the Spanish economic problems gain greater prominence. Also take a possible ‘No’ vote in the Irish Referendum (yep they are being asked, again, to decide if they want to be Europeans). A possible ‘Hollande’ win in the French Presidential elections and ‘Miss Ugly’ (Ms Merkel) losing power in Germany. Yep hard to see the Euro remaining above 1.32 against the US$ for much longer. So off you go and make some money.

In relation to Sterling, the drop has been exaggerated.

My Yen/$ play has given us a nice profit over the past few months. Time to take profit and maybe even ‘reverse’ the trade.

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Equity Corner

Equity markets around the world are now being driven by those terrifying triplets – rumour, speculation and fear. These ‘guys’ know that the roller-coaster moves only when they turn on the ‘engine’. So be careful and don’t be duped by last week’s recovery.

Nice to see our investment favourites – Invensys (up 5% on the month), Man (up 4%) and Barclays (a nice 8% recovery). Suggest if you are sitting on profits, to liquidate half and ‘run’ the balance. One stock that I believe is well undervalued is Aviva – particularly given its takeover potential.

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Why women stay single…??????

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Did you know

a) that the lyrics of the song ‘My Way’ may have been written by Paul Anka but was set to a French song/composition – ‘Comme d’habitude’ (1967). Anka heard the song while on holidays in the South of France and flew immediately to Paris to negotiate rights to the song. The lyrics were specifically written for Frank Sinatra who had indicated that he wished to quit the singing business. This was 1968. To this day the record holds the title for the longest to be in the UK Top 40 – staying 75 weeks

b) China borders 14 countries (Russia also has 14) and has a land border of 22,200 kilometers and at 3.7 million sq miles of landmass is over 100 times larger than the island of Ireland. There are 22 provinces, 5 regions and two mostly self governed ‘special administrative regions (SAR’s) – Hong Kong and Macau. China also claims to ‘own’ the island of Taiwan as its 23rd province – relating back to the ‘unresolved’ Civil War (1927 to 1950) and

c) Did you know that two thirds of Israel is desert AND only 1% of the Planet’s water is fresh water.

 

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What’s happening in the UAE :

In a further signal of the intentions of Emirates, the world’s biggest international passenger carrier, it announced it will hire up to 10,000 professionals this year to manage its growth. The Dubai based/owned airline and travel Group has already nearly 60,000 people on its payroll.

The airline has a fleet of 171 aircraft, flies to more than 130 destinations and has an order book of 235 aircraft including 70 A380s and the airline’s network covers 95 per cent of the world’s population – reaches 6.6 billion people within 16 hours flying time. Most of the expansion will be to the Americas and India.

Etihad however remain my favourite airline. Some further great experiences recently. And at least aircraft on the AD to Dublin route are modern !!

And now a quick skip through other events and stories from this wonderful country.

Abu Dhabi airport handled (not literally) more than 1.1 million passengers this month. There is to be a change in the code as it affects bounced cheques in Dubai/Abu Dhabi – in future you will ONLY go to jail IF the ‘victim’ can prove ‘criminal intent’ at the time of issuing the cheque. Interesting how that will work !!! The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth machine was again in evidence this month with the ‘possible’ purchase of a stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and the actual purchase of a small stake in Brazils largest conglomerate – EBX Group. Mudabala was the vehicle used by AD in these cases. After a 10% increase in the Dubai Stock Market in February, March has been a more ‘sober’ month with a jump of just 4%. Not bad though for the two months. But even these attractive gains in equities have been dwarfed by some of the property price increases in some parts of Dubai. And on another good note for Dubai, DP World is to repay $ 3 billion of debt ………………….. EARLY. Just another sign of the ‘credit rehabilitation’ of the Emirate. There is currently a major publicity campaign underway in Dubai to reduce the number of deaths on the road to ‘zero per 100,000 of population’ by 2020. I am a bit confused. WHY the need to be ‘zero per 100,000 of population’. Is it not the same result if it were ‘zero per 10 of population’ or ‘zero per 1 million of population’. Zero is Zero no matter what the divider !!! Or am I missing something ????? Lets see how long the adverts remain on the billboards.

Two things I meant to cover in February was the truly wonderful interview given by Colm McLoughlin from Dubai Duty Free at the Dubai Open Tennis. He was being complimented by the host on Dubai Eye Radio for the wonderful success of the tournament (DDF are sponsors) in attracting the world’s best talent to participate. And in 2012 8 of the top 10 male professionals were present and also 8 of the top 10 females. Colm was then asked how he might be able to improve on this success in 2013 – the question was posed in a challenging way and in an attempt to put pressure on OUR wonderfully skilled orator and representative. I mean HOW could would it be possible to improve on the success that had been achieved to date…………. bringing the small Emirate of Dubai from international tennis obscurity to being one of the top 5 venues on the annual tennis circuit. But without a moment of hesitation Colm responded with an answer that provoked smiles and admiration from those on the station (and listeners) ………………… ‘well I guess if we get 9 out of the top 10 in either category, would do it’. Now print does not do justice or give adequate impact, BUT Colm is such a great ambassador for Ireland ……………. and Dubai Duty Free.

Finally one GREAT, but awful, story from Dubai is about a good friend of mine who owns a full building in International City. He has if fully let. For the past 5 years. So far so good. However a few weeks ago he got a water and electricity bill from Dubai Electricity for Euro 75,000 (for 12 months) to cover ‘common areas’. there’s a mosque been open for the last year it has water pipe connected from my roof and they’ve tapped into my electric cupboard and put  a supply to run about 20 fans 12 air con units and all the electrics. Now people can to go jail in this part of the world for calling Mosques ‘Common Areas’.  Only in Dubai !!

What the ‘shucks’ is happening in Irish Government and/or Banking :

I REALLY despair at what is happening in the attempts to put Ireland’s debt profile back into some form of order. Top of the list of this frustration is a) the Dept of Finance – which still functions the way it did, and with pretty much the same people, in the Celtic Tiger days with little extra knowledge or skill as to how to repair the damage and b) NAMA which is populated with people, bless their little souls, who are not trained or experienced enough to make the decisions or come up with the ideas that can accelerate Irelands debt recovery. And given that the Top 2 guys in this organisation are Civil/Public Servants HOW is it possible for this organisation to thrive. The solutions for Ireland require commercialism, sound judgement, clever and responsive decision making and rapid execution. To have NONE (of these qualities) OUT OF FIVE IS AWFUL.

Come on Mr Noonan (the Irish Finance Minister). After a good start in your job, you have collapsed into the same under-experienced, cronyism infected, responsibility avoiding and sad Minister as previous incumbents of this critically important function of Government

And the paralysis of NAMA is an embarrassment – particularly given the enormous annual running costs of this mis-managed ‘department of government’.

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