The Vice Fund invests in companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in the aerospace and defense industries, owners and operators of casinos and gaming facilities, manufacturers of gaming equipment such as slot machines, manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and brewers, distillers, vintners and producers of other alcoholic beverages.
For good measure be sure to also pick up McDonalds, Yum (they own Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC), and some pharmaceuticals that specialize in blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity drugs, and you might just get rich in this new “we’re fucked” economy.
Clay
on 16 Sep 08What – no porn? They’re really limiting their profit opportunities, here.
Royal8
on 16 Sep 08I got in in early 2001 and put about five friends in also. If I can find the original prospectus I will send it along. It was this slick black minimal cover with guns, liquor and smokes in yellow road sign-esque design.
Besides shorting some airline options this has been a tremendous investment and always a topic of conversation.
Ed Knittel
on 16 Sep 08Short. Short. Short. Sell the Puts. Sell the Puts.
Man, if you had the money and the 20-20 you’d be making a KILLING now. But isn’t that what Halliburton has been doing? And isn’t the entire market about taking risks and possibly losing? Yet, here we are bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers and Merill Lynch are S.O.L.
Jason, I seriously hope you’re being sarcastic because the people that read SvN are just normal people like myself who have a 401k and maybe some money in some Mutual Funds. This market is the worst thing we could imagine. Our homes are worth less than when we bought them and our retirement funds are dwindling. Seriously, under some circumstances you’d be better off putting the money under your mattress.
Yes, a savvy investor can make A LOT of money off of the misfortunes of others. But it takes a true leader to better serve those that serve him.
Ed Knittel
on 16 Sep 08Listen, I work in the financial industry and all I can say is that a day like Monday, 4 days before Expiration Friday is no walk in the park. This whole week is going to be hell. And bankruptcy filings at midnight on Sundays doesn’t help anyone.
This shit is fucked up. Straight up.
Mimo
on 16 Sep 08This is a big: WTF. So, what can we do about it?
Vamsee
on 16 Sep 08I thought SvN was above this. I’m with Ed. I hope you’re being sarcastic, Jason.
Dan Grossman
on 16 Sep 08The best place to invest money right now is bars of gold under loose boards in your floor.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Sep 08If you can’t discern whether Jason was being sarcastic or not, then you have next to no hope of discerning where good deals lie (and they’re there, make no mistake) in this market.
In which case go for money markets or other highly secure/guaranteed assets.
Eric Anderson
on 16 Sep 08People need to learn to stop trying to beat the market by picking and choosing stock/funds/sectors/etc. You can’t beat the market because you are the market. In the short term you have about a 50/50 chance of beating the market (and a 50/50 chance of doing worse than the market). Over the long run (20 years or so) you have only about a 10% chance of beating the market.
While on the other hand if you just buy the market (i.e. an index fund with a low fee company) you will match the market which will be better than what 90% of people trying to beat the market will get in the long run.
Oh yea. And assuming you are relatively young, the current bear market is a good thing. It means you have the opportunity to buy low so you can later sell high. So now (and as the market continues to worsen) is the best time to invest. Putting money under your mattress is not what you want to do in a bear market (assuming you still have a job and have money to invest).
GeeIWonder
on 16 Sep 08What’s that old joke about economists not picking up $20 on the street again?
Markets aren’t perfect.
felix
on 16 Sep 08Check out the ACE Bank hoax in Brussels:
http://www.ace-bank.eu/ the film is http://www.ace-bank.eu/photo_nl.php with english subtitles
They opened a bank in downtown and claimed that they were simply being honest : whereas every investment and retail bank invests in defense and industries that profit off of poor workers, at least ACE were being upfront and honest about it.
oh and if you do know how stocks and mutual funds work, then you would keep the hell out of them. buy and hold or even the index investing of old is not going to work for many years if ever. the markets are run by dumbasses and the evil.
ajlb
on 16 Sep 08Back when I was investing in actual companies instead of just an index fund, I often invested in companies I didn’t like (Microsoft, for example). That way if the shares go up, you make money, but if they go down, the company hurts – so you win both ways.
Eric J. Gruber
on 16 Sep 08Wasn’t Google started in the middle of the dot com bust?
Granted, what is happening now is worse, but good can come of bad.
Darcy McGee
on 16 Sep 08The sarcasm is pretty clear here.
I have no doubt that it’s a good investment, and I wrestle with the ethics of my investments all the time. Part of me just says to hell with it.
Then there’s the part of me that likes to sleep at night.
ZorkFox
on 16 Sep 08@Eric J. Gruber: No, Google got its start on 7 September 1998, just over ten years ago. They came in before the big bust, and were able to not only weather it (obviously), but grow substantially as all their competition tanked.
J
on 16 Sep 08Sarcasm isn’t any fun if someone has to announce it.
ML
on 16 Sep 08The opposite route: Socially Responsible Investing...
Charles
on 16 Sep 08Insert obvious arguments against greed/humanity and capitalism here.
Capitalism is successful when the world burns. Go ahead and maximize those shareholder earnings though, you’re lookin good this quarter!
Eric J. Gruber
on 16 Sep 08@ ZorkFox: Maybe I should have said Dot-com bubble, which would have been correct.
David Andersen
on 17 Sep 08@Charles – Capitalism isn’t just mega-corporations with cozy government relationships, Wall St., and greed as far as the eye can see. It’s also every small business owner focused on providing a good value and service and making payroll. It’s even a few large corporations that earn their money and position honestly. Don’t taint everyone with your careless, thoughtless rhetoric. Not everyone who runs a business is greedy.
Fabio Papa
on 22 Sep 08What stocks and investments were good in the Great Depression? None. Be careful, cuz that’s where we are headed. No later than 2010 we will be in the worst depression history has ever seen.
And no “package” the government puts together is going to stop it; in fact, it can (and will) only worsen it.
The TRUTH is that the depression IS the solution. The markets are artificially high, mostly because, in few words, the government prints too much money. The market WILL adjust; the longer the government avoids the adjustment and the more money it throws at it, the longer the depression will be and the more it will hurt. Much like a cold is the cure to germs or the flu virus attacking your body, the depression is the cure to an artificially inflated market.
To those who would blame capitalism and say that it is dead, I offer you an alternative theory. We don’t have enough capitalism. You see, the problem, like I mentioned, is the govt printing too much money, causing inflation and malinvestment. As run-through-the-streets-naked-yelling-the-sky-is-falling crazy as it sounds, the solution is to take the power of printing money away from the govt, and give it to free-enterprise institutions (like banks). Each would have their own competing currency with its own interest rate. It would be in these institutions’ best interests to keep their currency as stable and inflation-free as possible. Free enterprise allways does a better job than govt. You would end up with a handfull of ultra-stable currencies that will never artificially inflate (or deflate) the market. This is all set out in F. A. Hayek’s book The Denationalisation of Money, available for free at the link above. Spread it!
This discussion is closed.