We learned a lot of things from Woody about life on the road....Like how to slap some soap on your cloths and hang them out in the rain and let the storm and the wind clean them for you....you don't really need a washing machine and hanging up some soapy cloths in the rain sure beats the heck out of using a washboard!....and he taught me how to  iron a shirt with a frying pan.....there ain't no reason to have BOTH a flat iron AND a frying pan because they both can accomplish the same thing.   It amazing what you can learn about yourself and what you are capable of when all you have to rely upon is your own wit and wisdom and inventiveness.


One thing this sub-prime fallout has taught me is that if you hit bottom financially, it might not be that bad....In my life I've been a rich man, a poor man, a beggar man, but never a thief ! 

Unless you call skitchin' a bus ride in my old age an act of theft....but since I never took up any space by using a bus seat, its hard to say I stole anything....besides, most police officers have said it was disorderly conduct, but no jury ever has had the guts to send a poor old man like me to jail for doing it.  Yes I have stood accused in my time, but never convicted!  I have been many things from the poor huddled masses to the man who would be king, but one thing I never was nor ever will be is a thief  !  (Except a thief of the heart...for that, I stand guilty as charged, but I never stole a ladies heart who did not steal mine first...I never drew first blood in matters of the heart).

Like everyone else, I am really hurting from the subprime fallout, but at least I got me some bacon, and I got me some corn left from the Commodity contracts I had that went bust.....and I find myself still thinking about that conversation I had with ole Woody.  I guess we both got something from that conversation after all.  Woody Guthrie got my road guitar and became a legend because of me, and I slapped those magnets to a rail car just like he told me and hobed around the country and was able to turn my grubstake into strategic speculations.....and now that I lost everything in the financial crisis I am still a Hobo today and I don't need no federal bailout or AIG bonus check THANK YOU VERY MUCH!....so in many ways, I am better off than those hedge fund fella's who never learned how to skitch a day in their lives!....funny how sometimes in life everything just seems to works out !

But the one thing I have learned in my life on the road is that you must always have an exit plan....

That's why I only invest in commodities like corn futures instead of stocks and bonds and stuff.  That way if the future contract don't work out, you can take delivery and eat your investment yourself, and recoup your losses by what you save on groceries.  In business there is always risk, and when a bad deal goes down, you have to eat your losses....there ain't no escaping that....so I figure if you invest in corn, soy, wheat, cheese, pork bellys, etc.  if you have to eat your losses, at least that is a loss you can eat.

And now I have enough corn to raise plenty of chickens for meat and eggs, and enough wheat and barley to malt for brewing libations.   I may have lost my cash in the crash, but I have more than need to fulfill my own wants without asking anybody for nothing....and that's a wealthier place to be than any AIG executive or hedge fund manager will ever know. 

And sometimes, you just get lucky.  I had no idea that people pay so much for what they call "Cage Free Chickens" and their eggs.  As it turns out, not only do I have enough corn to get all the eggs and chickens I want, but I can make a little money each week selling them to the local grocery store.....The way things stand now, I will have free groceries for life, and better income than any dividend from a stock or bond, and over the lifetime of the corn, wheat, soy, and other commodities....I will recoup my payment of the contract AND have more in profits than I would have had if I sold the future for the price I originally wanted.  Of course I don't get the money all at once, but its free and high living in the meantime with a cash residual for as long as the cage free egg market lasts.

(AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THERE IS A FELLA WHO PAYS ME TO HAUL AWAY ALL THE CHICKEN DROPPINGS....HE CALL IT COMPOST AND SAYS HE SELLS IT TO GARDENERS FOR A GOOD DEAL OF MONEY!  ITS A CRAZY WORLD.....HE PAYS ME FOR THE CHICKEN DROPPINGS AND BEING AN OLD MAN, IT SAVES ME THE WORK OF A JOB I WOULD RATHER NOT DO MYSELF) 

There is something to be said about having the means of production under your personal control and not have to depend on market driven speculation for your profits. 

I may be hobo, but damn it, I am not a bum....and that's not something anyone who ever received a bailout bonus can ever claim....so I figure I am a richer man than them because of the financial crisis. 

I would recommend that when you purchase a commodity future, that you should always be prepared to take delivery of the commodity in case you can't sell the contract for a profit.  Even if you are left without cash, the commodity could still be used as Capital to rebuild....but you have to have some notion that you can do it yourself.....that's something the speculators on Wall Street don't have.  (can you imagine what a hedge fund manager would do with Random Sized Lumber or 40 pounds of Cheddar Cheese?  But there is nothing in this world that was of any value that did not have that value come from a man or woman making it into something useful with their own labor. Labor is the source of all profits because without labor, all you have is a pile of commodities.  (after all, GM and Ford can purchase all the steel, and glass and leather and springs they want, but without their workers, the car won't build itself....If only the executives who give them performance bonuses realized that truth, that profits come from labor and only labor....maybe I would have profited from the economic crisis and would not be doing as well as I am today).


Now Mr. Harris did very well even in the wake of the sub-prime fall out.  He uses Point and Figure charts exclusively.  Point and Figure Charting is an "Old School" strategy invented by Mr. Dow himself.  Sadly, Its often forgotten about these days.  Like I said, I never invest in a commodity future I can't use myself in case the deal goes south....But Mr. Harris manages his risk with point and figure charting to manage his risk....and is doing just fine even in these hard times.