Today, I’m serving my column buffet style with lots of things to choose from — some hot, some cold. Some may even leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Just don’t take more than you can read:
■ Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison should have called me before he recently agreed to pay $5.3 billion for Micros Systems. I could have probably zapped 10 percent off the purchase price.
What Ellison doesn’t know is that a top Micros salesman was caught in a sting operation in New York a few years back suggesting that his company would help its customers evade sales tax. Micros sells point-of-sales terminals, or cash registers, that can be used by dishonest shop owners and restaurateurs to zap transactions and avoid sales tax.
And — this is the good part — the salesman agreed to cooperate in a sting against others until New York decided not to pursue the matter. I have a transcript of one of the stings. The Micros employee explains that if the restaurant owner gets caught and wants to avoid detection, he can just use a Micros service and the “hard drive goes bye-bye.” I’m sure Micros doesn’t condone such things. But Ellison could have a problem on his hands should some aggressive prosecutor look too closely at this stuff.
■ As expected, the nation’s gross domestic product for the first quarter was revised downward. What wasn’t expected is the extent of the revision. The economy now officially contracted at a 2.9 percent annual rate in the first three months of 2014.
And it was very close to being rounded up to 3 percent. Wall Street would like you to think the weather played a big part. And now that the weather is nice, things will get better. And if they don’t improve, the Federal Reserve will have to continue to be cooperative in keeping the stock market up. Of course, we know that Wall Street is usually wrong. So maybe you should worry just a little.
■ The Financial Times reported recently that “central banks around the world, including China’s, have shifted decisively into investing in equities as low interest rates have hit their revenues.”
Jeez, not even China will be able to retire if things continue like this. The paper quoted a study published by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a central bank research and advisory group. So this is another one of those “I told you so” moments for my readers.
As I’ve been explaining for years, the stock markets are rigged and it’s being done by central banks. Is the Fed involved? Probably. That was the plan proposed by a Fed member in 1989, when Washington was worried about a crash. There is going to be hell to pay when this next central bank-made bubble pops.
■ I have some good news that is especially appropriate for a buffet. Americans ate 1.1 billion servings of bacon in the year ended this past April, an increase of 6 percent, according to the NPD Group. NPD referred to bacon as the “candy of meats,” although I like to keep my sweets and fats separate.
■ Why doesn’t Washington just call its football team the “Skins?” I’ve suggested this before. But since the government stepped in last week and removed the trademark from the “Redskins” name, my idea is looking better and better. You could just call the team “The Losers,” except that’s what politicians are called in Washington.
■ But the bad news is: The furniture business is down. It’s the first time since 2012 that people are spending less on furniture. If people can’t afford to furnish rooms, that usually means they don’t buy the house those rooms are in.
■ I haven’t heard a single reference to the “peak driving season” this year. That’s when Wall Street does its best to get gas prices higher and blame the rise on OPEC, the oil industry, refinery shutdowns, Middle East unrest (as if the region ever rests) and the habit of American drivers to actually move their cars in the summertime.
The only thing you’ll never hear is that prices are rising because of Wall Street speculation. There, I’ve said it. Hope Wall Street is offended.
■ Here are two guys who’ve been harassed for years by law enforcement: Sergey Aleynikov and Jack Bovery. Aleynikov worked for Goldman Sachs, which accused him of stealing computer code that could be used to rig the stock market. What Goldman was doing with computers that could rig the market is an interesting question that has never been answered.
Goldman sicced the FBI on Aleynikov, and prosectors have been losing court rulings ever since.
Bovery made the mistake of running a sports betting pool that got out of hand when it became a favorite of Wall Street. In other words, he made a lot of money.
Prosecutors in New Jersey bagged him four years ago, but the case is still going on.
Bovery tells me that a civil judge in Monmouth County recently issued a summary judgment at the request of prosecutors that takes away most of Bovery’s money and canceled a trial that was to have decided the matter.
I bet prosecutors in a state that’s trying to legalize sports gambling could find something better to do. Am I allowed to use the word “bet” in Jersey?