Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

General Screwup

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ARGH! Aie-eeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I present to you my Royal Screwup Of The Day: General Motors. As some of you know, there’s nothing quite so painful about being correct on a trade and yet losing money on it. This is one of those times for me.

I have been bearish on General Motors for a variety of reasons. They came out with their earnings this morning. The Street loved what they heard. They bid the stock up massively (relatively speaking; we’re talking about General Motors, after all). (more…)

Five Interminable Years

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Every now and then, some company will produce a commercial that’s designed to stir up nostalgia and humor among the masses: typically, the commercial will be pushing cars, or soft drinks, or some other consumer item, and it will show cliched scenes from decades past. For each crowd shot of each decade, everyone – and I mean everyone – will confirm rigidly to whatever stereotype exists for that decade. So the 60s crowd will all be hippies and flower-power, the 70s will have everyone disco dancing, the 80s will have everyone playing Rubiks Cubes and Pac Man, the 90s will have everyone dressed for a grunge concert…….. (more…)