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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Hedge fund’s co-founder is all business about his religious beliefs

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Hedge fund’s co-founder is all business about his religious beliefs

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Jesse Westbrook and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen,

On a drizzly morning, Michael Farmer stepped to the pulpit to deliver a stern message to fellow parishioners at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, an 800-year-old church in the shadow of the London Metal Exchange and in the heart of the City, London’s financial district.

“We live in a cursed world — cursed by God,” Farmer told the men and women who fill the church, most of them workers in the financial industry. “We live in a broken society; we have broken nations. Look at the euro zone. Life is a struggle and, in the end, is death.”

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(Daniel Stier/VIA BLOOMBERG) - Michael Farmer, Red Kite Capital co-founder and Conservative Evangelical, in his London office in December.

Yet, Farmer said, Jesus will provide salvation from the daily hardships of disease and poverty — and the firings that have left thousands of City workers unemployed, he preaches.

Farmer, 67, is a Conservative Evangelical. He also runs London-based RK Capital Management, a metals-trading hedge fund firm with $1.3 billion of assets under management. Its $400 million Red Kite Compass Fund tops Bloomberg Markets’s ranking of mid-size hedge funds for the first 10 months of 2011, with a return of 47 percent, investors said.

The $200 million Red Kite Metals Fund rose 34 percent, and the $100 million Red Kite Prospect Fund surged 50 percent, clients said.

RK Capital specializes in the buying and selling of copper and prospered by betting that the price of the red metal would fall in 2011 as the pace of construction in China slowed, investors said. The assessment proved correct, with copper retreating 26 percent from a record $10,190 per metric ton in February 2011.

Farmer said his faith makes him a better money manager by keeping him humble. The firm’s offices match his humility, featuring a simple orange sofa in the reception area, gray carpeting and walls free of art. There is no receptionist; visitors press a button on the coffee table to let Farmer and Red Kite’s other co-founder, David Lilley, know they are there.

“Jesus warns us that there are many dangers to money,” Farmer said. “I know that in my heart there is greed, there is wanting just a little bit more. It helps that the Bible tells me to be wary of this and that one day I will fall off my perch.”

Farmer is active in politics, too. He has given millions of pounds in donations to Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, saying it has done more than rivals to promote family values.

Farmer and Lilley, 45, aren’t just owners of futures and options contracts tied to copper; they also trade the physical metal, buying the commodity in North and South America, storing it in warehouses around the world and selling it when the price is right to companies that turn it into the wire and pipes used in the construction of homes and vehicles.

Farmer previously ran MG, which before its sale in 2000 was the world’s biggest copper trader. Lilley also worked at London-based MG. Farmer used that experience as a marketing point when he started RK Capital in 2005.

Physical trading also formed the backbone of what was once the firm’s biggest hedge fund, Red Kite Metals, which oversaw more than $1 billion at its peak, investors said. The fund — named after an endangered bird of prey that is native to Europe and North Africa — proved as volatile as the prices of the metals it buys.

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Newt Gingrich defies conventional wisdom about women voters

Newt Gingrich is a ladies’ man.

That is, he kicked butt, to use rival Rick Santorum’s phrase, among women voters in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary. That was one of the biggest surprises of the evening, because women voters were widely expected to turn away from Gingrich.

“Republican women don’t vote for cheaters, period,” one Republican strategist in Washington said in an interview a few days before the South Carolina primary. The strategist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, echoed long-held conventional wisdom and years of electoral results showing that women, in particular, are less likely to vote for political candidates with a history of marital infidelity.

Gingrich has faced a gender gap for much of the election cycle, and he attracted significantly weaker support among women than men as recently as early last week in South Carolina. Most analysts attributed this to his tumultuous personal life, which includes three marriages and multiple extra-marital affairs, including one, during his second marriage and while he was House speaker, with the woman, Callista Bisek, who
Republican U.S. presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich celebrates backstage with his wife. Callista, and his supporters after his speech at his South Carolina Primary election night rally in Columbia, S.C. (Eric Thayer - Reuters) became his third wife.

Voters were reminded of that personal history just a few days before the primary, when a sensational interview aired on ABC with Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, in which she accused Gingrich of asking her for an “open marriage” during the 1990s. The interview only heightened the expectation that Gingrich would not do well among women voters.

But something else entirely happened Saturday night in South Carolina: According to exit polls, Gingrich got nearly as much support from women as men. He won among married women, single women and evangelical women .He did beat other candidates by a somewhat larger margin among men, but he was tops among women as well, including 41 to 28 percent win over Romney among married women.

These results not only shed light on how Gingrich prevailed so widely in South Carolina; they also suggest that Gingrich may have dispensed with a topic long thought to be a huge weakness for him. That possibility may also force a rethinking by allies of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who have been attacking Gingrich on the issue of character for weeks.

Gingrich advisers interviewed Sunday said several factors likely played into Gingrich’s surge among women in South Carolina. First was the fact that Gingrich’s infidelity is old news for which Gingrich has repeatedly apologized. According to senior strategist Kevin Kellems, the very voters likely to hold infidelity against a candidate are the same voters more likely to consider forgiveness if they view the person as genuinely repentant.

“Everybody who’s watched us knows I am a 68-year-old grandfather,” Gingrich said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “ I have done things in my life that I regret, and I have had to go to God for forgiveness and reconciliation, but I have a great relationship with my wife, a great relationship with my children, a great relationship with my grandchildren, and at 68 I think I am the person best prepared to know how to get this country back on the right track.”

Lastly, Gingrich successfully changed the direction of the story by turning it into a referendum on the media, which he blamed for raising the topic of his marriages. He did so most notably in a feisty debate exchange Thursday in North Charleston, when Gingrich called CNN’s John King “despicable” for opening the debate with a question about Marianne Gingrich.

Republican women my colleague Melinda Henneberger interviewed in South Carolina on Friday morning were, she reported, even more supportive than men she interviewed of Gingrich’s handling of that debate question, saying it had only increased their admiration for him.

And Gingrich continued his attack on the media during his election-night speech in Columbia Saturday night and again Sunday on the national talk show circuit — a strong clue that he views it as a winning strategy and will keep talking about it in Florida in the coming days.

His team is also preparing — even looking forward to — the possibility that Romney’s allies will continue to hit him on character issues, a topic they believe will backfire.

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, for instance, a Romney supporter from Utah, went directly after Gingrich over character and family values on Sunday. “If we put up anything less than a Boy Scout, we’re gonna be in trouble,” he said. “You can’t cede strong family values to the Democrats. That’s supposed to be one of our hallmarks.”

“I don’t believe that voters in Florida will find that media bias trumps serial philandering,” he added. “I think when the reality of that question settles in for conservatives, they’re not going to stand for somebody who’s had trouble in these areas. I really don’t. I think voters in a rational moment will see how devastating and stupid that would be to hand that card to Barack Obama.”

Gingrich’s team said they welcome such attacks because they aren’t working.

“You had a 28-point turnaround in South Carolina,” said Rick Tyler, a spokesman for a pro-Gingrich super PAC. “It was just one attack ad after the next on TV. In politics, there’s reality, and there’s perception, and they missed both.”

Amy Gardner is a national political reporter for The Washington Post covering the 2012 Republican presidential field. Follow her on Twitter at @AmyEGardner.

View the original article here

Sunday, February 5, 2012

NFL playoffs 2012: For 49ers Vernon Davis, it’s about the team again

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An ex-Redskin finds a new life with 49ers

Giants’ passing game in Cruz control

Capitals endure another shutout

Wizards can’t keep up frenetic pace

NFL playoffs 2012: For 49ers Vernon Davis, it’s about the team again

Beck Diefenbach/Reuters - Vernon Davis catches the game-winning touchdown, evoking shades of Terrell Owens circa 1998, as the 49ers shock the Saints in last Sunday’s divisional playoff game at Candlestick Park.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Barry Svrluga,

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – What the moment meant was apparent on Vernon Davis’s face, because when he caught that pass last Saturday – a franchise-changing, career-altering, season-sustaining play – the tears came and came quickly, running down his face for all to see. He rushed into the arms of his coach, Jim Harbaugh, as if – at 27, with the musculature of a fine sculpture — Davis needed a nurturing hug, a shoulder to cry on. He found Harbaugh’s shoulder, buried his head, and wept some more.

“It’s something I’ve been dreaming about my whole life,” he said days later, and that’s true. But it was not all.

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Davis is not one of those athletes who has been through what amount to trials and tribulations for millionaires – benched, sent to the locker room, the subject of a coach’s tirade – and says, “I was misunderstood.” Rather, his self-assessment is this: I was who I appeared to be — petulant and self-centered and everything you thought.

“When I first got here, it was all about what Vernon wanted,” Davis said here Thursday, three days before his San Francisco 49ers were set to host the New York Giants for the right to go to Super Bowl XLVI, an opportunity Davis provided with his game-winning touchdown catch against New Orleans last weekend. “It was all about me, what I wanted, achieving my goals instead of worrying about what the team wanted. And today, as we sit here, to me it’s all about the team. It’s all about the team.”

So he cried for the 49ers, who return to the NFC title game for the first time since 1998 in no small part because Davis caught seven balls for 180 yards and two scores in that wild 36-32 NFC divisional playoff win over the Saints. He cried for Harbaugh, the first-year coach who helped get them there. He cried for his grandmother, Adaline, who raised him and his six siblings in a small house off Georgia Ave. NW in the District, one woman doing the work of many.

But he cried, too, for Mike Singletary, because the YouTube moment that has defined Davis’s career to this point actually was the one that turned it around. The public humiliation of that scene – when Singletary, then in his first game as San Francisco’s head coach, yanked Davis from the game after a penalty, sent him to the locker room, and publicly upbraided him afterward – went into those tears last week.

“He helped me,” Davis said. “It made me open my eyes. When it happened, I was like, ‘Maybe it’s not all about me. Maybe it’s not about what I want.’”

What Davis wanted, growing up in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest, was the moment he had against the Saints. With 14 seconds left, the 49ers trailed by three, but had the ball at New Orleans’s 14 yard line. Davis charged off the line of scrimmage.

“All the friends here, we talked about it,” Adaline Davis said last week, invoking Davis’s childhood nickname. “We said, ‘If “Duke” wins that game, he’s going to cry.’”

“It touched his heart,” said his brother Vontae, a cornerback for the Miami Dolphins. “It was meant to be.”

‘The Good Lord will always provide’

When Vernon Davis used to head out into the streets as a kid, up to Truesdale Elementary School for a game they called “throwback” – essentially hurling a football into the air, then trying to tackle the kid who came up with it – his situation was different, Petworth was different. He never really had a relationship with his mother; his relationship with his father to this day consists of occasional visits back in Washington, but not much more. Adaline Davis – left to raise Davis and his siblings as their mother battled a drug problem – provided what she could, cleaning houses.

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Assane Sene has ankle surgery, will miss about six weeks

Virginia senior center Assane Sene will miss approximately six weeks after undergoing surgery on his fractured right ankle Friday, according to a team-issue news release. Sene injured the ankle late in the first half of the Cavaliers’ 70-38 win at Georgia Tech on Thursday.

Sene, who had started every game at center this season for Virginia (15-2, 2-1 ACC), was averaging 4.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. He also leads the team with 15 blocks. Should Sene be able to return in six weeks, he could play in two more regular season games, as well as the ACC tournament and any other postseason play.

“Assane is a senior and an integral part of our team,” Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said in the release. “In all my years of coaching, he is one of the most team-first players I’ve been around. I know he’ll do whatever he can from a rehabilitation standpoint to try and return to action before the end of the season.”

With Sene out for the near future, expect sophomore forward Akil Mitchell and freshman forward Darion Atkins to assume larger roles. Mitchell, who is the likely candidate to start in Sene’s place, has played in all 17 games and is averaging 3.5 points and 4.1 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game.

Atkins has played in 12 games, averaging 3.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 9.3 minutes per game. While Atkins is not as familiar as Mitchell with Bennett’s defensive system, he does rank second on the team with nine blocks.

Sene’s absence may not necessarily be missed on the offensive end or in terms of rebounding. But it will be a challenge for the Cavaliers to replace his experience in Bennett’s system and his defensive instincts. Also, Sene’s injury creates an interior depth issue, as Virginia is down to three scholarship forwards (Mitchell, Atkins and fifth-year senior Mike Scott).

The Cavaliers host Virginia Tech (11-7, 0-4) on Sunday, providing Virginia its first opportunity to gauge exactly how much Sene will be missed.

View the original article here

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Maryland basketball vs. Temple: Talk about the game

Good morning.

The a.m. special between Maryland and Temple tips off at 11 a.m. (TV: ESPNU).

Maryland freshman center Alex Len is looking to shake off a slump after his strong start.

Maryland at a glance

Record: 12-5.

RPI rank: 91.

Strength of schedule rank: 108.

Ken Pomeroy rank:160.

What others are saying: Mark Turgeon: “we don't have the guts or the toughness” to overcome tough foes on the road (Baltimore Sun). .?.?. More on Alex Len’s struggles (Carroll County Times).

Temple at a glance

Record: 12-5.

RPI rank: 20.

Strength of schedule rank: 16.

Ken Pomeroy rank: 50.

What others are saying: Temple is 2-3 in Saturday games this season (Owls Inq). .?.?. Temple guard Juan Fernandez broke out of his shooting slump earlier this week against La Salle (Philadelphia Enqurier).

This is your open thread. Feel free to offer up predictions, reactions, celebrations, etc., in the comments.

View the original article here

Friday, February 3, 2012

Five things you may not know about organizing

Five things you may not know about organizing - The Washington Post Print SubscriptionConversationsToday's PaperGoing Out GuideJobsCarsReal EstateRentalsClassifiedsHomePoliticsCampaign 2012CongressCourts &LawThe Fed PageHealth CarePollingWhite HouseBlogs & ColumnsIssues: EnergyTop Blogs

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View Photo Gallery — ?Bethesda-based professional organizer Rachel Strisk spends her days helping folks around the region get their lives in order. Here, she offers a peek inside her own home and shares some of her favorite organizing products.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Terri Sapienza,

Professional organizer Rachel Strisik shares five organizing fundamentals that you may not know:

1. It’s better to take it slow.

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(Linda Davidson/THE WASHINGTON POST) - Rachel Strisik at home in Bethesda.

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“People will say, ‘I want to organize my entire bedroom,’ but that’s overwhelming, and it can derail you from the entire process,” says Strisik. Instead, write down the steps of your project first. “Looking at chunks is more manageable, less overwhelming and more likely to get done.”

2. There is a difference between being neat and being organized.

Organizing is not just about getting bins; that is a big misconception. Neat is stacking items and putting things away. Organizing is having homes for items so you can find them when you need them.

“Organizing is the next step that will allow you to spend time on the things you want to spend time on rather than wasting time looking for X,” Strisik says. “It’s unrealistic to think your house will look neat all the time, especially if you have children. But it can always be organized.”

3. Off-site storage should be a last resort.

“I think they are a waste of money,” says Strisik. “Not only is it a major splurge, but what you put in there will probably never be looked at again. Out of sight, out of mind.”

4. Looks matter.

If you like the color blue or flowers, spend the extra 50 cents to get blue files or the ones with flowers because you’re more likely to use them.

5. Remember that organizing is not a one-time event.

There’s maintenance, too. Organizing works only if you continue to sort, group, file and discard as new items come into your home. “The first time might be the hardest,” Strisik says about organizing, “but the next time is just maintaining what you’ve already accomplished.”

More about organizing:

How to get organized in 20 minutes

9 tips to clip: Advice from readers

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