FOREVER STAMPS

Mark Lefler: “Your ‘forever stamp’ program is a hit – 1.2 billion sold since April and climbing!  Click here.”

 

F Well, it’s hardly “my” program – it’s inconceivable to me that many others hadn’t been pushing the same idea for decades.  But then, it’s also inconceivable to me that the Postal Service wouldn’t just make all first-class stamps “forever” stamps, whatever their price might be in any given year.  Not only would this be so obviously customer-friendly, it would also spare the Postal Service the idiotic chore of returning a letter for an additional 2 cents. 

 

People could hoard forever stamps, if they wanted to beat the price hikes.  But that would mean, in effect, their lending money to the Postal Service at 0% above the inflation rate – a cost of funds the Postal Service should accept with enthusiasm.

 

My question:  why would anyone buying first-class stamps not buy the “forever” variety?  (Thus far, most don’t.)  And my follow up: why would the Postal Service want them to buy anything but?

 

GABBROIC DYKES

So the joint venture partner of Borealis subsidiary Roche Bay says it has completed 8 of its planned 52 drill holes and that:

 

The Roche Bay, iron formation deposits are interpreted to be steeply dipping isoclinally folded iron formation flanked by calc-silicate metasediments.  Geologic analysis suggested the eastern flank of the "C" Zone has been intruded by late stage gabbroic dykes. Accordingly zone 2 is likely part of zone 1 which has been separated by a gabbroic dyke.  Depending on the thickness of the separated iron formation units and amount and thickness of the intercalated dykes, zone 2 is also as a significant iron ore target. More detailed mapping and geophysics is required to better define the more promising target areas before more systematic drilling is undertaken.

 

F If you understand even one sentence of that, you are a better man than I am.  But I’m not selling my Borealis.

 

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

(Which I dissed Friday.)  George Hamlett:  “Boy, are you going to hear it from the technicians.  I’ve always found technical analysis very useful in timing both buys and sells.  For what it’s worth, I sold FMD in mid-February when its chart got weak – at $50.  I haven't followed it since. I use technical trading signals to determine entrance and exit points for stocks – but not to choose which ones to follow.  I don’t do the charts myself.  For the past couple of years I’ve been using MarketEdge, and their signals have worked well for me.  No, it hasn’t doubled my net worth.  That requires outright speculation. It’s just a question, basically, of watching the effects of money flows to shorten the odds of owning appreciating stocks, and lengthen the odds of owning downers.  Before I did this, I got smoked pretty good in the tech wreck, and I started to pay more attention after that.  I haven’t joined any of the value-growth-smallcap-largecap-tech- fundamental ONLY churches.  I’m a committed pragmatist.  No Kool-Aid around here.  This year I’m up about 20%, but that includes a generous portion of Gold ETF as well as some small speculations.”

 

F I think one could have avoided the tech wreck even with old-fashioned fundamental analysis and common sense.  But I do know smart people who keep an eye on the charts as one more input in informing their decisions.

 

BACK PAIN

Jim M:  “Charles should run (not walk) to egoscue.com.  The technique is all about biomechanics, and correcting musculoskeletal problems that you never knew you had.  One office visit (and regular application of some very simple stretching exercises) resolved five years of chronic neck and jaw pain for my fiancée.”

 

RUNNING MYM FULL SCREEN

Tony Fonseca:  “Here’s a site I believe will be useful to MYM 12 users.  It lets you download DOSBox Ver. 0.71.  With it, and my Windows Vista Home Premium Edition OS and 19" monitor, I get full-screen horizontally and about 1" margin on the top and bottom.”