“Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street”

The world runs on information.

And so much of that information is at your fingertips. In newspapers, online…you too can be an expert and compete with world-beaters, assuming you’ve got the interest, the desire and the smarts.

Stevie Cohen is very smart.

I wanted to read a book. So I began my research. Of recently released items, highly-rated items, that’s the world we live in, of course personal recommendations are important, but whenever I get a sincere one I immediately go online and check it out, and if the tome doesn’t get four stars, I’m out, my time is just too precious, too valuable, and there’s nothing worse than a second-rate experience, a boring one in a world that is so exciting and is moving so quickly.

You too can become an expert on hedge funds if you read “Black Edge.”

But you won’t know what went through Steve Cohen’s mind, because he was never interviewed by Sheelah Kolhatkar, and he was never personally convicted. That’s what Andrew Ross Sorkin said, that “Black Edge” is for amateurs, and he almost dissuaded me from reading it, but the other reviews were so positive and I am an amateur, so I dove in.

And I could not stop reading. “Black Edge” is UNPUTDOWNABLE!

Now the author separates the financial world into two groups. The rich and privileged, groomed for this life, and those educated and smart with a chip on their shoulder who have something to prove. You can separate today’s society into two groups also… Those who want to know the truth and those who do not care. In the latter category you’ve got the followers of celebrity, those who adore Kim Kardashian and the two-dimensional pop stars. But you’ve also got the team players, the ones who e-mail me the Twin Towers were blown-up, who believe Hillary is the devil and everything on Fox News is true. I hate to tell them, everybody’s on the same team. Hill and Bill went to Donald and Melania’s wedding. Everybody went to Harvard. Or Wharton. It’s a club. And you’re either a member or you’re not. Either you know how the game is played or you don’t. And if you want to know how the financial game is played, the game that runs America today, and has for decades…

Read “Black Edge.”

This is not news. If you read the financial page, “Bloomberg,” you know all the highlights. But it’s the nuances that are scintillating.

Yes, Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital paid a huge fine, more than half a billion, and Cohen can only trade for himself until 2018, but then…

And hedge funds have recently had lousy returns. But if you think Lloyd Blankfein is the enemy, you’ve got no idea his salary is a pittance compared to the men in t-shirts and flip-flops at hedge funds.

Now it’s a moving target. If you’ve been reading recently you’re noting the ascension of the quants. But that’s how you survive in this world to begin with, by adapting.

Steve Cohen did not grow up as disadvantaged as the author portrays, and he had an interest in Wall Street (and poker, oftentimes the same thing!) from his high school days. Proving you’ve got to follow your interests, you can’t be someone you’re not, although many people in this book are, because of the MONEY!

That’s right, you go work at the hedge fund for a couple of years and if all goes right you never have to work again! And chances are you can’t, not at this level of remuneration, people wash out faster than they do from MLB. You’re hot and then you’re not, and then you’re done and no one will hire you.

But, if you want to make money, you go where it is.

So Cohen is a natural trader. In a pre-computer world for a third-rate financial firm.

And then he goes solo. Note that, all the greats cannot be contained, they write their own rules, they take risks, huge risks, and do what they wanna do whenever they wanna do it.

When he first goes to work at Gruntal, it’s about beating the spread. Noticing price differences. But then computers eliminate this option and…

Cohen becomes a glorified day trader and he buys so much from Goldman Sachs that he insists they give him information first. Yup, you call this leverage. Information comes first, leverage comes second, usually with a bit of cash sprinkled in.

But everybody gets the memo and it’s harder to compete so what does SAC Capital focus on?

Black edge.

INSIDE INFORMATION!

It’s no different from working radio promotion. Your boss says he needs adds, he doesn’t care how you get ’em, you’ve just got to deliver ’em or you get canned. So you bend the rules, after all, you’ve got a family to feed.

And the truth is…THEY’RE ALL CROOKS! All those people buying triple-digit million paintings, sitting courtside for the Knicks, on multi-hundred foot yachts….when someone says they make this money legitimately, don’t believe it, after all, Microsoft charged for Windows even if you put Linux on the box.

But these are the people running this country. Whether it be Geithner working for Obama or a Cohen guy helping Trump pick his Justice Department. You can bitch all you want to, say it’s unfair, but that’s the way it is.

And they’re living in a dark world and skating free. They’re untouchable. The government is green and gun-shy, without resources, and the best and the brightest flip to the other side, the private sector, anyway.

And that’s mightily depressing.

But the first half of the book is mightily exciting. Because the players are so damn SMART!

These are not entertainers, nitwits afraid to take a stand. These are people like the dearly departed Jerry Perenchio, who refuse to talk to the press, who most people have no idea even exist, even if they consume their products. You want to come into contact with these geniuses, glean some of their wisdom, as opposed to the public rabble-rousers on Twitter who know no one but are convinced they’ve got the one true truth but are unaware how the game is played.

Do you know how the game is played?

Let’s start from the beginning. There’s no money in music, in most of entertainment, it’s dwarfed by finance and tech. And you might think that is irrelevant, but why is Vivendi testing the waters, thinking of selling Universal Music? FOR THE MONEY! Now is not the time if you’re a long term player, the labels are only gonna go up in value, but Vivendi does not care about music, the financial players aren’t interested in the asset, they’re interested in the CASH!

It’s a funny world we live in. A bifurcated one where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer but all the smart people are rich. Yup, I hate to say that. But the truth is so many poor people are uninformed or holier-than-thou, they think their lack of cash makes them better, but the truth is it only takes them out of the game.

I wish it weren’t so. It didn’t used to be so. Fifty years ago, forty years ago, a successful musician was as rich as anybody in America. But not today, today they’ve all got tech investments, they too want to make bank, whereas their power lies elsewhere, which is speaking truth to power, but they abdicate this ability, because they’re enthralled by power.

Wanna know what that power is?

READ THIS BOOK!

It costs too much to do something new.

It’s not only the development expenses, never mind coming up with a new idea, but the marketing money, how do you make people aware of what you’re doing in a sea of endless messages, one in which the vaunted “Breaking Bad” took years to gain traction.

I didn’t go to see U2. I like “The Joshua Tree,” but how many times can I go and relive the past? Have you looked at what’s playing in Live Nation’s amphitheatres this summer? It’s like a reboot of what once was, from the seventies and eighties, the same damn acts doing the same damn songs because it’s just too hard to have a hit today and to have another.

Blame the internet.

The internet opened the floodgates, decimated the barrier to entry and then no matter how fat the pipe got it was clogged. And what started out as a social network, remember AOL?, turned into a for-profit venture, and obliterated everything in its path.

Especially television ratings.

So we end up with “American Idol” and “Love Connection,” and if you think people are clamoring for these shows, you probably believe Bono can write another hit.

But they’re safe.

“Idol” was canceled because ratings sank, now those same ratings are investment-worthy, only a couple of years later.

If you think there’s a drag on our creativity, you’re right.

We rely on outsiders to break the paradigm, but no one wants to risk in a world where there are so many challenges, especially economic. Quit your job in Canada and you still have health insurance, there’s a good safety net, quit your job in America and you’re on the way to poverty, and if you get sick you will go bankrupt.

So those at the top, who don’t want to let their companies lay fallow, take some time off to develop new wares, keep rebooting in order to generate revenue. That’s why all the records sound the same, the days of Mo & Joe at Warner Brothers are long gone, where the hits allowed the company to invest in innovation, left field stuff, like the electronic Beaver & Krause, the picker Ry Cooder, in the hopes of generating income years down the line. Look at a label’s roster today, no one’s even gonna play out their contract, after their hit they’ll fade into obscurity and investment will falter. As for stuff that sounds different, the only person seemingly able to do this is Richard Russell at XL. It takes guts to say no, to go the other way, and if you’re working for the man, you don’t, corporations engender groupthink.

So we end up with superhero movies.

And superhero shows on TV.

All the while they keep telling us you can get rich being an influencer on Instagram, making videos on YouTube, but the truth is very few people are making coin there, and they’re working 24/7, and looking to sell out to the big boys. Everybody’s living in the present, what about tomorrow? Isn’t that what Fleetwood Mac implored us to do, think about tomorrow?

The public craves new and different. It latches on to trends when made aware of them. But we’ve got no infrastructure crusading for the new and different, we just have endless self-congratulatory awards shows that feature the same old stuff that makes you tune out.

We’re all tuning out.

Creators need self-respect. The techies are not going to save our industries, it’s not in their DNA, they’re too practical.

The reason that Netflix burgeoned is because of investment, in creators, allowing them to do what they choose. Remember when the streaming service was all about old stuff? Now that’s all gone and you jump in to capture the zeitgeist as you cut the cord ’cause you’re sick of overpaying for moribund sports talk on ESPN, sick of paying for all the detritus you don’t use.

Good for Katy Perry that she got $25 mil for “Idol.”

But that show ain’t gonna work, it hasn’t minted a star in years, and “The Voice” never has. But we’re subjected to the endless celebrity parade like we care.

And some nitwits do.

But most people are smarter than that and don’t.

So pay your dues, take chances, evaluate whether you’ve got it or not, we’ve got no room for journeymen.

But until the gatekeepers start living in the future, and the gatekeepers are as powerful as they ever were, even though they’ve sometimes got different names, we’re screwed.

The engineer got here early.

I’m a stickler for time, if it’s booked for 11, I’ll be there, maybe with only seconds to spare, but I don’t expect anybody early, certainly not in L.A.

But Anna was. She came at 10:40. I was dressed, but in the bathroom, preparing…

Now this was for a podcast, with a household name, so I said yes. And while we were waiting for the phone call, I got some info. Anna was freelance, a radio engineer/producer, she’d gone to college in Wisconsin, she lived in Koreatown with a roommate and then…

The call came in.

And when it was over, we talked music. Because everyone’s got an opinion, and I always want to hear what the younger generation has to say. She’s on Apple Music, she says when she lived in London she had trouble connecting to Spotify, and she liked Kendrick Lamar and Kid Cudi and…we talked equipment, headphones, recorders, and then she asked for the bathroom and when I got up to show her I noticed, there was no car parked out front.

Did she Uber here?

YES.

So, I told her it was best to call a car, because it can take the better part of ten minutes for one to arrive.

So I’m gonna forgo tackling the email, the triple digits that have accumulated over the hours, that have me antsy, and engage in further conversation until the car arrives.

And that’s when I ask her, DO YOU OWN A CAR?

SHE’S NEVER OWNED A CAR!

She’s got a driver’s license, but no, she sees no need for  car, she’s got an Uber package. She pays ten bucks for a month of rides, twenty to be exact, and then it’s $6 if she takes UberX and $3 if she takes Uber Pool.

Huh? HOW COME I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THIS?

I dove deeper. She’s not committed to twenty rides, she’s just got to pay the ten bucks. And then she has the option of twenty rides, which she pays for as she goes.

WHAT IF YOU WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH?

No problem, she can go to the beach, she said she could go anywhere for $6.

And then I wondered why it paid to have an automobile at all.

WHAT ABOUT GROCERIES?

There’s a market on the corner.

And she has a bicycle, and…

You’ve got to know, how does the song go, NOBODY WALKS IN L.A? Without wheels you were a non-factor, you couldn’t even exist, everything was too far away, but now…

There’s a whole generation living in spread-out Los Angeles without wheels. And Anna’s not the only one I know, Richard’s son has got no car, and Daniel’s son doesn’t either.

Talk about a change in generations.

I wouldn’t have to get my car smogged, never mind pay insurance. I wouldn’t have to worry about maintenance, depreciation…

I’m over the whole car thing anyway, if someone offered me a new machine I’d say no. Why, so I can be anxious about parking it, scratching it? As for impressing others, ever since Larry David drove a Prius on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” that paradigm was undercut. If you’re laying out tonnage for an automobile, other than a Tesla, you’re a joke, you don’t see the importance of the environment, your priorities are screwed up, that’s right, we’re judging you, especially if you’ve got one of those exotic sports cars.

Talk about a change in generations, there’s a gap as wide as the one between boomers and their parents back in the sixties. Boomers think they’re so hip, so knowledgeable and up-to-date, but they’re the first to e-mail me about CDs or files and acquisitions, whereas the youngsters know it’s all about on demand, you want to be footloose and fancy free, to travel on a whim, uninhibited, baggage is anathema.

Just like Snapchat, they get it and their parents don’t. But also, they don’t care about its valuation, its usership, it fulfills a function and then they’ll go somewhere else, they’re not locked into a format, they’re fluid.

Ford just fired their CEO, because the one they had wasn’t forward-looking enough, wasn’t into driverless cars and electrics. It’s a wonder no one at the record label was fired because of a lack of knowledge of technology.

You can fight the old wars or jump into the pool. You can complain about recording revenue, you can talk about piracy, bitch about Ticketmaster, or you can realize those issues are all in the rearview mirror, because today’s generations don’t care about them. They’ll pay for convenience, they’ll overpay if they desire something, they’re about building their lives as opposed to accumulating goods.

This is not only a sea change for generations…

This is a sea change for America.

First they came for our CDs.

Then they came for our retail stores.

Now they’re coming for all our assets, all the stuff we thought immutable and desirable, that we had to have. You might build a shrine to yourself online, but in the real world?

Forget about it.

I do not know what happened here.

But I do know it stopped me in my tracks.

That’s how modern life seems to go, you don’t sit down at 7 o’clock for the news, you’re just minding your own business and you get a tweet, a text, an e-mail, and your whole life is changed.

That’s how it was today, when that message came through. And at first you try to be optimistic, and then you see the word “fatalities” and you go into shock, because dead is dead, and for every person playing Russian roulette with their lives there are zillions just going on with their business peacefully, who end up innocent victims.

And not only are their lives ended, but the lives of those left behind are ruined, it’s positively awful.

And as of this writing there are a lot of facts but no definitive answers. The police are saying it’s terrorism. The alert was high and there were threats and you never know what’s gonna happen…

And then it does.

We believe we’re immune in the U.S. Somehow, by being an ocean away our citizens feel they’re invulnerable, until 9/11, and then San Bernardino…but most people have never been to San Bernardino, whereas Manchester is the cradle of the industrial revolution, where the first computer was built, where Tony Wilson and the ravers built a culture that still survives, albeit having morphed into what is now called EDM.

So if you’re living in the U.K…

It feels really close.

But everything is close today, there is no refuge, and you can’t bury your head, there are so many threats.

So what are we going to do?

We’re gonna march forward, we’re gonna play music, we’re gonna have concerts.

Of course we’re gonna honor the dead. Of course we’re never gonna forget. But this is what we’re fighting for, our way of life, the ability to go to a show for a couple of hours and exalt in the sound of music, to be taken away and have a reason to live. That’s right, we play these tracks on our phones, they’re part of our DNA, and then we need to bond with those that make them, an especially desirable desire in a phony world where everything’s evanescent and duplicity reigns.

So we track down the real killer, we hold those responsible accountable, we institute new safety systems, but we don’t blink, we go on.

We didn’t expect it to be this way. The future was so bright we had to wear shades. The wall fell, Communism ended, and then terrorism burgeoned and the rich got richer and the poor got poorer and we ended up divided with more questions than answers.

Trump is a sideshow.

We are the main show. The creators, the artists, and the infrastructure that supports them. We create the culture, we influence people, it’s our responsibility to take a stand.

And what stand is that?

Well, right now, we’re emotionally gutted, I get that.

But when the shock starts to fade…

You’ve got to stand for something. Besides money. Your music should say something. And that money you make, or the power to make it, should be harnessed for good, not only lifestyle.

Maybe this is the inspiration we need to reboot our musical culture. Maybe it is not what is going on in D.C. And I’m not sure how we can fight terrorism, but I do know we can bring people together, support each other, cast aside the infighting and look to bigger issues.

Yup, music reflects the culture at large, where it’s every person for him or herself, and this stuff sucks and that stuff doesn’t and the acts all have beefs and no wonder we live in a Tower of Babel society, no wonder we can’t get along.

Your job as an artist is to spread unity, to spread love, our army is much stronger than theirs, that’s the power of music, it’s the hottest medium in the world. We can raise funds, but even more we can spread a message.

It’s early, it’s a war.

But we have power.

We will have further losses, but never underestimate the power of a leader, the power of togetherness, the power of a SONG!

Songs got us into this and songs are gonna get us out.

We’ve got creators on every street corner, in every village, we just have to stop shrugging our shoulders and unite on one message.

This is our way of life. We live to hear the note played pure and easy. We love to come together with our brethren in our own religious experience at the club, arena and stadium.

And it’s incumbent upon our leaders, the artists, managers and promoters, to stand up and tell us where to go, what to do, how to cope.

That’s right, first you’ve got to cope.

Nothing heals like song.

I challenge a superstar to write a healing number.

But that’s only the beginning.

This is a wake-up call, in a seemingly too long history of wake-up calls, are we just gonna sit back and wait for the next tragedy or are we gonna rise up and fight back?

We can do this.