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Janet Tavakoli | Super Bowl Spirit and a "Football" side note on David Einhorn

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Latest from Janet Tavakoli -- Chris

Super Bowl Spirit and a "Football" side note on David Einhorn

My favorite football introductory book is an out-of-print book by Joe Namath, FOOTBALL for Young Players and Parents.  You may enjoy my favorite lines as you get in the mood for the Super Bowl (below after the side note):

Side note on David Einhorn: Of course I’m talking about American-style football, not soccer aka football.   You may recall Cornell educated David Einhorn’s Alfred E Newman worthy quip in defense of his U.K. insider trading—“This resembles insider dealing as much as soccer resembles football."  It’s an insult to the global financial community’s intelligence on many levels, unless he meant to say that his actions were exactly insider trading.

That wasn’t his only silly remark.  After he received material non-public insider information, he claimed that his prior request not to be wall-crossed should have covered him, and others should have protected him from material information.  If only saying the magic word like abracadabra in advance could make future unpleasant developments go away.  According to Einhorn’s nonsense, all you would ever have to do is say you don’t want to be wall-crossed to be absolved of trading on material non-public information gleaned in a subsequent conversation.  As if.

Then there was Einhorn’s assertion that his trading on this information wouldn’t have been a problem in the U.S.  It would likely have been an even bigger problem in the U.S.  Greenlight owned more than 10% of the shares of Punch, and if this had happened in the U.S. with shares of a U.S. company, Einhorn would have been an insider by definition.  He received material non-public information.  I’m surprised his shareholders didn’t challenge his perception on this point, since it likely would have been a much bigger problem in the U.S.

As for governance at Greenlight, Einhorn admitted he didn’t consult lawyers or compliance before he commenced trading.  This is one of the weaknesses of the hedge fund model.  “It’s okay ‘cause I said so and I run the joint,” just doesn’t cut it.

Finally, the financial press talks about David Einhorn’s many good qualities, and I have no quibble with that.  But the press seems to have amnesia when it comes to the fact that he served on the Board of Directors of infamous New Century—smaller than but just as corrupt as Countrywide—from early 2006 until its bankruptcy in March 2007.  I cheered when the Ohio Attorney General kicked the corrupt mortgage lending carpetbaggers from New Century out of Ohio in March of 2007 and barred New Century from doing business in the state.  New Century could no longer originate new mortgages, could no longer collect fees, could no longer foreclose, and could no longer evict consumers.  New Century was sued in several states for alleged fraud on borrowers.

Excerpts from Joe Namath’s, FOOTBALL for Young Players and Parents

“The thing is, a team game is so much fun.  You’re working together.  You’re really sharing an adventure.”

 “You learn you can do your best even when it’s hard, even when you’re tired and maybe hurting a little bit.  It feels good to show some courage.”

 “Maybe you’re falling down, some guy is trying to block you—and here comes the runner.  TACKLE him!  I don’t care how.  GET him.  Desire is vital for a tackler.”  [Not the best advice for Strauss-Kahn…]

 “The first thing I tell every young quarterback is this: have a mental checklist when you come out of the huddle.  You want to know EXACTLY what you are going to do.”

 “Turn your head quickly to where you have to go.  The rest of you will follow.”

 “The best way, in O.J.’s words, is to ‘fake them tight.’  Fake the tackler just a bit, then cut close to him, even if he gets an arm on you.”   [It worked for O.J. later in his criminal trial.]

 “You don’t have to knock the guy flat.  All you have to do is hit him in the right spot at the right time.”  [Great advice for girls in martial arts / self-defense.  The goal is to get away, not get fancy.]

 “Every now and then we see a young runner who has a big head.  He’ll think he’s so good carrying the ball that he doesn’t have to block.  All that means is he won’t play very long.  [Long only funds that never hedge.]

 “If you’re the first guy to the ball carrier, you TACKLE him.  If two or three of your buddies arrive, maybe one of them can strip the ball and cause a fumble.”

 “Make him REALLY worried.  Get him backing up.  Get him running back toward the goal line.”

 “Really you catch a football with your EYES.  And your MIND.  You watch it so hard, you just concentrate on it so much, that there is no way you can drop it.”

 “A good pass receiver doesn’t want to catch MOST passes.  He wants to catch EVERY SINGLE PASS.  There really isn’t any excuse for dropping a pass.”

 

“A linebacker can’t afford to have tunnel vision.  You have to see many things at the same time.”

 

“The key to this—for a linebacker—is to get a good jam on your man.  Maybe you’ll be covering a tight end, maybe a back.  But the first thing you do is JAM the guy.”

 

“Get it in your mind that nobody is going to stop you.  Throw guys, run over guys, JUMP over guys.  Whatever you have to do to get the quarterback.”

 

“You will learn that the guy who stays cool and calm, the guy who can keep thinking when everything is crazy around him, that’s the guy who comes out on top.”

 

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Mon, 02/06/2012 - 19:53 | 2132364 indio007
indio007's picture

Joe says, "I wanna kiss you"

I don't think that's in the book though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc65NC44dSk

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 17:30 | 2124819 blunderdog
blunderdog's picture

what's she talkin about?

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 17:33 | 2124810 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Good 'ole Joe Namath.

Good advice in general, not just football.

"I just might ask for my old job back."

lol...classic Joe.

Thanks.

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 17:04 | 2124694 steelhead23
steelhead23's picture

Oh God, Janet knows football too?!  I want her more than eva.

Sat, 02/04/2012 - 14:08 | 2126724 Fleet Street
Fleet Street's picture

Steelhead, I have got to agree with you, Janet T apparently is the full package: finance, football and frolic.  By her own reporting in the Huffington Post ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/china-2012-the-year-of-th_b..., see footnote #2 )-- she was a "guest" of Jim Chanos.  Oddly, for someone that infers much in her writings, usually negative, in the same article she infers Mr. Chanos is somewhat of a professional skirt chaser, or should we say, chaser of professional skirt.  Hummmm, a "guest."  I bet she throws a great Super Bowl party!  Touchdown!  Score!

 

 

Sat, 02/04/2012 - 05:47 | 2124782 falak pema
falak pema's picture

 

Janet is what Janet does, not what she says. And that is a secret. Its janetsecreteonomics. Now to read that hidden message you need a code and the code is Joe Namathologicopoulos. Its a special hail mary password you find on one of Athen's papademonicos hills called Tavakolikos. Where they make moussaka from olives of Pallas malaxed in botox. THat is so modern that even Hollywood divas want it for their uber-alles facelifts of Parthenonian deification. Lokos is now deemed higher in toxically divine content than logos, If you be top lokos you end up in Lokos pantheon at Brussels as lokocrat of Eurogroup. Lokoscratie is the new breed to spread the deadly creed of euros phallocracy, the never ending hard on of ponzi colossus of rhodos. All bow to new God of lokos land. 

As the wise man said, see the light side; of the insufferable lightness of being...

 

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 16:43 | 2124614 skepticCarl
skepticCarl's picture

Now THIS is what American needs:  Football as an an allegory of life, from a decrepit self-promoting whore-chaser. As useless as Buffet's pearls of wisdom.

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 16:40 | 2124601 falak pema
falak pema's picture

the man on the spot wants ZH to stay steaming hot...I'll buy that.

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 16:02 | 2124429 bank guy in Brussels
bank guy in Brussels's picture

Things are getting a little too light sometimes on ZeroHedge ...

What we all feared ...

ZH so popular it starts getting starved for information, the big playas warned to stop supplying it

ZH so popular the Powers That Be start using it to plant false information

ZH so desperate it starts doing puff-light pieces like the ol' local newspaper ...

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 16:54 | 2124651 Canucklehead
Canucklehead's picture

You should go watch Fight Club.  Tell me how it works when somebody does your thinking for you.

The simple act of separating wheat from chaff can put money in your pocket... no kidding.

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