We are in the worst part of the Sandy vortex. We have fist fights over gas pumps, rotten food everywhere, small businesses running low on cash and an overall sense of total loss of control.
Plus, we don't have any bold thinking now in New Jersey where we are attempting to ration the gasoline or figure out a way to get pumps moving without power simply by giving it away, which is what is needed right now. The government needs to set up depots where they can sell gasoline. Things aren't being done boldly enough because everyone figures it is just a matter of time before the power comes back.
All of this right before a critical election.
So, my take is we are holding up rather well given that we have no good news to speak of about the reconstruction and only bad news about business.
We had a huge run yesterday ahead of the election. We had had good earnings last night from Starbucks (SBUX), TripAdviser (TRIP) and Priceline (PCLN) -- three heavily-shorted stocks. We had a number people hating on AIG (AIG). I understand because there were some not-great numbers, but it is very cheap on tangible book value (see our note) and we have a fantastic IPO in Restoration Hardware. All of these stories, except AIG, tell me that things are fine and we just need to get through this election to where we can get power in a key corner of the country.
Business as usual. Nothing big, not much to do.
