Monday, March 28, 2011

THE ROGER HERTOG ROAST

I just received the latest issue of Commentary magazine. On page 1 they had photos of the Commentary second annual roast honoring Roger Hertog.

Congratulations Roger. My invitation must have been lost in the mail. Don't worry though, I have prepared a few words to honor you on your achievements.

A December 12, 2003 Washington post article titled “Alliance Struggles to Settle With Regulators” was summarized on the Motley Fool’s website as follows:

NY ATTORNEY GENERAL WANTS ALLIANCE TO ACCEPT A SETTLEMENT: A LARGE FINE, CHANGES IN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, AND LOWER FEES CHARGED TO MUTUAL FUND INVESTORS. ALLIANCE HAS THE HIGHEST AVERAGE FEE FOR EQUITY FUNDS, 2.09 PERCENT, AND THE SECOND HIGHEST FEE FOR FUNDS OVERALL, 1.63 PERCENT. ALLIANCE HAS SET ASIDE $190M TO COVER FINES, LAWSUITS, AND INVESTOR RESTITUTION. LAST WEEK ALLIANCE TRIED TO SETTLE THE CHARGES. ALLIANCE, THE SEC, AND NY ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE DECLINED TO COMMENT. SOURCES SAID REGULATORS “WANT MORE HIGH-LEVEL HEADS TO ROLL”.THE FORMER HEAD OF MUTUAL FUND SALES AT ALLIANCE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LP, SENT AN E-MAIL TO FORMER PRESIDENT JOHN CARIFA AND ROGER HERTOG, CURRENTLY VICE CHAIRMAN OF ALLIANCE'S BOARD, AND OTHER TOP MANAGERS IN JAN 2002 INDICATING THAT ALLIANCE WOULD ALLOW DANIEL CALUGAR, A LAS VEGAS INVESTOR, TO MAKE TRADES IN ITS MUTUAL FUNDS, OF A TYPE THE COMPANY NORMALLY PROHIBITED, IN EXCHANGE FOR PUTTING $51M IN 3 ALLIANCE HEDGE FUNDS. THE E-MAIL SAID CHAIRMAN BRUCE CALVERT IS OKAY WITH THIS.

I still find it absolutely amazing your involvement in this alleged super fraud being in the Vice Chairman position at the time.

The $600 million settlement entered into by Alliance, potentially to avoid any criminal or civil complaints against the company executives, was one of the largest settlements ever.

Did anyone bring this up at the Roast?

Monday, March 14, 2011

HEAR YEA! HEAR YEA! COMING FORTH THE ATALANTA SOSNOFF STORY

Hear Yea! Hear Yea! Coming forth the Atalanta Sosnoff Story.

A tale of hubris, greed, mistaken priorities and the near destruction of a good firm.

Stay tuned for the intriguing true story...

Friday, March 11, 2011

LEGENDARY INVESTOR - PART TWO

If you input a search for "Lewis Sanders Capital investment performance record" the first website Google refers to is a blog that I wrote about my version of the early years of my business experience.

I wish I could report otherwise but when I looked at the Vanguard Windsor Fund's performance record for 2010, it was ranked in the 87th percentile. According to public documents, Sander's firm, where he is CEO and Chief Investment Officer, began managing money for the Windsor fund in January 2010. (Historically the Windsor Fund seems to have ranked in the top half of money managers prior to the year in which Sanders joined its roster of managers.)

It would be interesting to see the individual performance of Mr. Sander's firm for the past year considering the lackluster performance by the Windsor Fund for 2010.

Needless to say, I am still having trouble with where Sander's "Legendary Investor" status emanates from.




Friday, March 4, 2011

BLOG OF THE DAY

Obviously the significant change in the price of oil affects all sorts of economic variables. Adjustment to meaningful price changes requires all sorts of variable economic changes. But our economy makes them and we go on.

Unfortunately the real issue is not so much the price changes. Imagine sitting down to negotiate with an opposing force that has all the power, whether it be military, contractual or any other form of overwhelming power, versus the party they are negotiating with.

Because of our inability to make significant adjustments to our oil usage we cannot negotiate with the oil suppliers from a position of equality, let alone a position of strength.

We cannot continue to delude ourself into thinking that they need to sell their oil more than we need to buy it. But imagine if the likes of Chavez, Kadhafi, Iraq, Iran or Russia decided to curtail shipments to us (somehow), there would be no Nash Equilibrium or literally any possible response short of catastrophe.

It is absolutely urgent that a great nation not stay in the position of ultra-vulnerability to the fluke of nature that placed oil in very unequal distribution around the world.

It's kind of like smoking, it will get you often enough to force most intelligent people to stop.

The situation with oil can't keep up whether the price is $75 or $175, the underlying weakening of our independence is overriding.
 

Shepard Osherow. All Rights Reserved