Tuesday, January 22, 2008

(Orig Post: April 2007)Continuing: Overture Fund: WSJ: Going the Wrong Way

(Ed. note: Click on the post for the story in the Wisconsin State Journal this morn. If you search on the Observer search box under "Overture" you can find the earlier articles.)


The Observer has had a series of stories on the saga of The Overture Center in downtown Madison. The City of Madison did not listen to the advice of Mayor Dave and chose a risky refinancing plan, as I see it anyway, and now has "repositioned" their assets hoping to get a 8.25% return going forward, while their assets have dropped below the desired target. Whenever you get a phone call from an investment advisor telling you of a wonderful oppurtunity to "reposition your assets" it always means---bad news. You are "bleeding".....financially. I suppose death itself would be the ultimate repositioning of assets.

I did ask Mayor Dave at a meeting in Madison whether anyone had ever said " You were right!" He just smiled. "No", I don't want to make them feel bad."

The mayoral campaign is over. Now is the time for the city of Madison to review the structure of their earlier decision. The cycle of fear and greed inherent in investing suggests that as they "reposition" their assets they will attempt to find riskier and riskier investments so as to deny what is happening. This denial is bad for the city, the Overture Center and .....all of us. That is how I see it.

Yes. Mayor Dave was right. You heard it here.

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