Is there anything that an urban, cultural diverse person interested in art and architecture could see in Biloxi, Mississippi? Do the words Frank Gehry or George Ohr mean anything?

A collection of art work by George Ohr (1857-1918), the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi," with an ecclectic museum designed by Frank Gehry, opened to the public on November 6, 2010, in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Art critics and historians regard Mr. Ohr as a forerunner of the American modern art movement.

For many, they may recall the title Biloxi Blues, the semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, which was later made into a movie directed by Mike Nichols in 1988.

The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum opened in 1994 with a purpose of promoting and preserving the legacy of artist George Ohr as well as the rich, cultural legacy of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The musuem's original home as well as Frank Gehry's newly designed museum under construction were both destroyed by Hurrican Katrina in August 2005. The museum decided to rebuild and to keep the museum along the coast along U.S. Highway 90, home to the casino.

Board member James Crowell said that you just can't live thinking that a hurricane like Katrina is going to happen every year as the city's been here since 1699.

Each piece of pottery at the museum is fitted with a custom-cut foam packing mold and boxes and crates stand ready for storage a few miles away.

The museum, now a Frank Gehry designed museum, is expected to draw 100,000 visitors yearly.

Jerry O'Keefe's family (no relation to Georgia O'Keeffe) has donated about $2 million to the project in honor of his late wife, which is the museum's other namesake. Mr. O'Keefe is a former Biloxi mayor.

Mr. O'Keefe had been instrumental in raising the $15 million in public and private funds it took to get the project built before Katrina. After the storm, O'Keefe and others managed to raise the $35 million it took to rebuild. Gambling companies have invested millions into the rebuilding effort.

The museum could ultimately cost as much as $45 million. In addition to help from the gambling industry, the bill will be paid with a mix of insurance and government money, grants that include $3 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and private benefactors like Mr. O’Keefe.

A New York Times article asked the question, Can gambling and art mix in the Redneck Riviera?

Denny Mecham, the museum’s executive director said, "We have no template for this kind of museum." She believes that the museum will revive appreciation for the cultural heritage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mr. Gehry was persuaded to do this project after the mayor, Mr. O’Keefe, and other museum supporters traveled to Los Angeles to convince him after the Guggenheim opened in Spain. Mr. Gehry understands that not everyone will immediately understand his vision.

“Nobody’s going to get it until they come here,” Mr. Gehry said in an interview. Mr. Gehry said he had long been inspired by Mr. Ohr’s pottery, and he even has a little gambling in his family.

The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, 386 Beach Boulevard, Biloxi, Mississippi, (228) 374-5547. Open Monday-Sunday, 9:00am-5:00pm.

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Hedge-fund manager Paolo Pellegrini is returning money to clients of his own hedge fund after suffering losses in 2010.

The move by Mr. Pellegrini comes two days after hedge-fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller told clients he is ending his 30-year run managing money for clients.

Mr. Pellegrini is the investor who helped hedge-fund manager John Paulson score more than $15 billion of profits betting against risky mortgages

Mr. Pellegrini's PSQR Capital has lost about 11% so far in 2010. The fund gained more than 61% in 2009.

Mr. Pellegrini has been buying industrial commodities during the past year.

After joining Paulson & Co. in 2004, Mr. Pellegrini, provided Mr. Paulson with data that served as evidence that the housing market would likely collapse.

Mr. Pellegrini helped Paulson & Co. find the riskiest subprime-mortgage securities to bet against, steps that led to the largest trading gain in history.

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Stanley Druckenmiller, a hedge fund manager, announced his retirement on August 18, 2010, stating he was disappointed in his performance during 2010’s market volatility.

Mr. Druckenmiller is ranked among the world’s most successful macro hedge fund managers who profits from long-term economic trends.

Mr. Druckenmiller’s famous move came in 1992, when he was working for Mr Soros as he correctly bet that the pound would fall against the Deutschmark.

Recenty, Mr Druckenmiller confessed that like many others, he had been confused by conflicting signals in the markets.

Mr. Druckenmiller's letter to his investors:

As many of you may be aware, this is Duquesne Capital Management’s 30th year of doing business. During that time, I have often marveled that there can hardly have been a luckier person in the world: I have gotten to do what I love, I have had the pleasure of delivering favorable results to clients (who have become dear friends) which has helped them to achieve their goals, and both Duquesne and its clients have been well rewarded in the process.

While I knew from the outset how much I enjoyed what I was doing, I had no idea that the biggest reward for me would come from the experience of meeting and getting to know so many wonderful people who became clients and friends. The biggest surprise was that I would be well compensated for doing something that has been so rewarding in other respects.

I need to express to you my gratitude for the trust you placed in me, and for the joy and satisfaction I have had from helping so many clients achieve their aspirations – this has simply yielded a pleasure for me that I am not sure any person deserves, and which easily transcends monetary compensation.

After much self reflection, I have decided to retire from managing client funds and I wanted to give you prompt notice of my intentions and explain the reasons for this. I have had to recognize that competing in the markets over such a long timeframe imposes heavy personal costs.

While the joy of winning for clients is immense, for me the disappointment of each interim drawdown over the years has taken a cumulative toll that I cannot continue to sustain. This is true even though to date we have delivered an unbroken record of positive annual performance which I hope will continue for 2010 as well.

And while our clients were certainly pleased that we achieved positive results for 2008 and 2009 in a challenging environment, as you may have surmised I was dissatisfied with those results because they did not match my own, internal long-term standard.

You may remember that I chose to leave Soros Fund Management ten years ago because the challenge of managing an enormous amount of capital was having a clear impact on my ability to perform, as well as my state of being. Unfortunately, as Duquesne has grown, these factors have again emerged.

I continue to care deeply about performing for our clients, and the stress of performing in a way that I consider to be disappointing – even if you do not share that view – persists in exacting a high emotional toll, with the result that I have concluded that this change is necessary.

We will be providing you with further information as to the timing and other details of this process. I will also be hosting meetings in Pittsburgh and New York in the upcoming weeks to express my gratitude to you face to face, and to answer any questions you may have, and I will be forwarding to you shortly the schedule for those meetings.

It has been a wonderful experience and I am deeply grateful for your trust over the years. I look forward to this change in my activities with excitement and anticipation and to continuing our relationship in a more personal way.

With very warm regards,

Stanley F. Druckenmiller

When being interviewed in Jack D. Schwager's book, The New Market Wizards, and asked why he had a superior track record, he responded by saying

George Soros has a philosophy that I have also adopted: The way to build long-term returns is through preservation of capital and home runs. You can be far more aggressive when you're making good profits.

Many managers, once they're up 30 or 40 percent, will book their year [i.e., trade very cautiously for the remainder of the year so as no to jeopardize the very good return that has already been realized.]

The way to attain truly superior long-term returns is to grind out until you're up 30 or 40 percent, and then if you have the convictions, go for a 100% a year. If you can put together a few near-100 percent years and avoid down years, then you can achieve really outstanding long-term returns.

Mr. Druckenmiller said, "It takes a toll on you. It's a 24-7 job, 365 days a year. And when your name's on the door, you're responsible."

The New York Post said that other hedge fund managers may also retire. A prime broker says that there's a lot of fatigue in the industry.

Review the Druckenmiller Decades from the New York Times.

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Karl Rove, the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, noted that when President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron met and spoke, both leaders failed to utter the word victory or win or any other similar phrase.

The strategic goal sounded like it was to stand up the Afghan security forces, leave as soon as that was done, and hope the locals were up to keeping things together.

Neither of the men called for the defeat of the Taliban or declared its return to power unacceptable or emphasized the importance of liberty and human rights in Afghanistan.

Mr. Rove believes that that the goal should be to defeat al Qaeda and the irreconcilable elements of the Taliban, and to keep them from seizing power again.

Victory in Afghanistan requires two things, according to Mr. Rove: the right strategy and the resolve to see it through.

Mr. Obama wisely recruited Gen. David Petraeus to head the Afghan campaign. There is no one better equipped to execute a successful counterinsurgency campaign.

Is Mr. Obama's heart in this fight? Winston Churchill demonstrated that in war, words matter. They signal resolve or weakness, fortitude or doubt.

Mr. Obama's words are emboldening adversaries, alarming allies, undermining confidence in the U.S., and dispiriting those who fight in dark and dangerous places for our security and liberty.

The president can and must correct those impressions and can begin with an unambiguous statement that America will stay and get the job done.

Mr. Rove notes that Mr. Obama has acted impressively so far on Afghanistan. He changed strategy based on facts on the ground, increased our troops by tens of thousands, and picked exactly the right man to lead our military into battle.

Mr. Obama now needs to signal to the world that he believes in the cause with all his heart.

Karl Rove is the author of Courage and Consequence, Threshold Editions, 2010.

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Betable has raised $3 million first-round venture funding led by VC firm Atomico, started by former Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

Betable is a place where you can bet with friends, family, colleagues and others on anything that interests you. There are thousands of bets to choose from in the betting marketplace and the ability to create your own bets. Betable lets you invite your friends and the greater betting community to bet with you so you can share the excitement and have some friendly competition.

Christopher Griffin founded Betable in early 2008. Betable is only taking bets in the UK at the moment.

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Few people have heard of banker Sir Siegmund Warburg, but many will learn about him after reading Niall Ferguson's new biography of the man in High Financier.

Mr. Ferguson is the author of such books as The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire.

Siegmund Warburg fled Nazi Germany to London where he became a leading banker and an informal economic adviser to prime ministers.

Mr. Ferguson profiles Mr. Warburg as a financial innovator who engineered Britain's first hostile takeover, an early pioneer of European economic integration, a prophet of globalization, a paragon of fiscal rectitude, and a deep thinker about international affairs.

Mr. Ferguson uses Warburg's life as a window onto European unification and Britain's postwar economic malaise.

Mr. Ferguson makes it clear that Warburg's success as an investment banker was rooted in his contradictory nature.

Warburg's lack of ostentation and his emphasis on making money for his clients rather than for himself earned him broad respect.

Mr. Warburg was a man of the word: the spoken word, the handwritten word and above all, the printed word. He should be judged and understood as much by what he read as by what he did.

Mr. Warburg's fascination with language extended to an obsession with copyediting. He could treat a grammatical error in a memo or important letter as comparable to the bankruptcy of a major corporation.

Mr. Warburg thought that graphology, handwriting analysis, had much to tell us.

High Finance is a tribute to financial ingenuity as well as a cautionary tale about the dangers of ostentation, of bankers favoring transaction bankin over client-centered relationship banking.

Mr. Warburg, as Mr. Ferguson shows, was an artful, innovative investor who managed to keep his integrity intact. He combined daring with caution and believed in keeping with his realistic outlook.

High Financier is more than a portrait of a career than a full biography but it is a pleasure to read simply as a work of literary skill. It is well researched and written.

High Financier by Niall Ferguson
Penguin Press, 548 pages, $35

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