WSJ Investment Lexicon

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

NEW YORK CITY

    I'm back in New York City.  My Chicago boycott is now lifted!  No city is
worse than New York!!
    I just opened up the New York Observer.  My letter-to-the-editor
correcting a factual error was not printed.
    I just checked my mail.  Before I left, I had asked the Arts Commission
(Audrey Munson is on the cover of their book on Manhattan Outdoor Sculpture),
the Manhattan Borough Historian, and the Public Advocate (an Audrey
Munson-posed statue is atop their building) to support my proposal of a
postage stamp to honor our Civic Fame.  A simple letter would involve THREE
LINES.  No one could even respond.
    Chicago can libel New York City all it wants--I give up defending this
city.
    In a few weeks (June or July), I'll finally check out the Barry Buchanon
ENTERTAINMENT WORLD papers at CMU in Pittsburgh, and then I'll hop over to
Chicago to do some more work on the "Bloody Mary," "gyro," and "Windy City."
(Inter-library loan was futile.)

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WSJ INVESTMENT LEXICON

   "A Lexicon for Hedging Your Investment Bets" in the WALL STREET JOURNAL
EUROPE, May 19-20, 2000, pg. 35, has these terms:

   Convertible Arbitrage; Dedicated Short Bias; Emerging Markets; Equity
Market Neutral; Event-Driven Strategies; Fixed-Income Arbitrage; Global
Macro; Long/Short Equity; Managed Futures.

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MUTUAL FUND SOCIALISM

   The same WSJ, editorial, pg. 10, col. 1:

   Institutional investors should not only provide money, but also their
expertise in managing it.  Instead they and others engaged in that common
online failing--call it "mutual fund socialism."  They just threw money at a
web venture, called it "strategic," and never expected to worry about costs
or profits. (...)  Mutual fund socialism may, finally, be on its way out.

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SELL IN MAY AND GO AWAY

   The same WSJ, pg. 8, col. 5:  "The saying is that you sell in May and go
away."
   I may have covered this here in 1998.

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LOGISTICS PARK

   Tesco stores (giant stores, like Costco) are all over the Czech & Slovak
Republics.  My bus passed by numerous huge warehouses.
   From the PRAGUE POST, Real State, May 17-23, 2000, pg. C11, col. 1:

_"Big boxes" dotting the landscape_
   Some call them big boxes, but others say they are smart buildings.  Those
so-called big boxes are logistics parks.  Today they are the new face of
warehousing, with buildings designed to make storage, loading and unloading
of goods easy and efficient.  "Logistics," or freight forwarding, is simply
the distribution of products in the marketplace. (...)
   Unlike their older counterparts, the logistics warehouses have multiple
loading doors, space for parking large trucks and access to major highways.
Buildings are well maintained and secure, usually with a single gate,
fencing, security guards, modern fire alarms and sprinklers.  Many feature
digital phone lines and computer networks.  Clients can either rent space and
handle their own storage and transportation, or outsource to a logistics
company, which, with its multiple clients, can offer lower transportation
costs.
   There are four major logistics parks in Prague and the vicinity...

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ROMA/ROMANY

   The PRAGUE POST, May 17-23, 2000, pg. A7, col. 6, uses "Romany" (not
"Roma" or "gypsy").  Unemployment is severe; I saw begging in Bratislava and
was careful to avoid crime:

_Crippling unemployment_
   This is vital, for nine out of every 10 Romanies of working age in the
district are unemployed.  The Romanies were the first to be fired when
communism fell, and they are now the last to be hired. (...)
   "Under communism, we all worked because we had to," he told me.  "Now that
businesses are privately owned, they can hire who they want.  And if you're
black, like us, they just won't take you."