As seen in a research note from Bill Gross yesterday.
The Observer was befuddled if ultimately amused when Carson Block, the noted short-seller of Chinese companies, invoked Mannie Fresh in his take down of for-profit education company. ("I got everything in my momma name/But I'm hood rich," Mr. Block quoted, reflecting that New Oriental Education and Technology Group chairman Michael Yu had signed assets over to his mother.")
We were tickled when Third Point's Dan Loeb quoted Tupac to describe his hedge fund's thinking on Greek sovereign debt. " I'm tryin to make a dollar out of fifteen cents," Mr. Loeb wrote, seemingly unaware of the Rap Genius exegesis on the lyric: "A popular phrase in rap music for get-rich schemes (even used as the title of a Master P song), usually illegal, and almost always referring to selling crack cocaine."
So I pulled out my magic lamp that for some reason works only every October 22nd, and rubbed until the Genie appeared in his red and white checkered cloak with a 10-inch diameter Flavor Flav clock hanging ceremoniously around his neck. Being a rather forward, although not disrespectful Genie, he immediately said, “Mr. G, instead of the yield on the 10-year Treasury, perhaps this year you should wish to know who is going to win the Presidential election?” After some thought I replied, “Nah, I need some breaking news, Mr. Genie, something that will make a difference, something that will shock the world, like when does the iPhone 6 come out?” Obama/Romney, Romney/Obama—the most important election of our lifetime? Fact is they’re all the same—bought and paid for with the same money. Ours is a country of the SuperPAC, by the SuperPAC, and for the SuperPAC.
Well, research notes are often discursive affairs, and the billionaire investor Gross basks fully in the tradition, bouncing from a rewritten Pledge of Allegiance ("I pledge allegiance to the flag of/the fragmented state of America/and to the plutocracy for which now it stands..."), money-market accounts, monetary policy and corporate spending, and ends up here:
then portfolio strategies should acknowledge bite-sized future returns and the growing risk that the negative consequences of misguided monetary and fiscal policy might lead to disruptive financial markets at some future point.
And there:
Flavor Flav just made an extraordinary appearance on October 31st. He told me to write that no matter who is elected, you can’t keep the U.S. down for long, and that while Sandy was a monster storm, America is a gigantic positive force whether Red or Blue.
Which, we'd humbly submit, may long stand among proud as the most bizarre hip-hop reference uttered to the investing community.
(H/t Dealbreaker via Daily Intel)