Harry Rady Online – San Diego, CA

Ernest Rady, the father of Harry Rady of Rady Asset Management, continues a trend begun in the late 1990s of charitable giving, according to Bob Kelly, president of The San Diego Foundation.

The $60 million donation by Ernest Rady creates a new reality for San Diego County as far charitable support is concerned.  “We have jumped into the big leagues of charitable giving,” said Kelly.

According to Donald Fellows of Marts and Lundy, a New Jersey-headquartered fundraising consulting firm to nonprofits, San Diego is finally showing signs of growing up as far as the city’s philanthropic community is concerned.

“It was sort of like San Diego hadn’t grown up yet from a philanthropic standpoint,” said Fellows. “That has clearly changed.”

San Diego is hopeful that additional donations will be forthcoming on the heels of the generous gift of Ernest Rady to the Children’s Hospital and Health Center of San Diego.  The $60 million gift “…really does set a new benchmark, and it gives everybody in the (nonprofit) community more hope,” said Bob Kelly, president and chief executive of The San Diego Foundation, and organization which raises money for a variety of institutions in the San Diego area.

For many years San Diego County has lagged behind other regions as recipients of philanthropic generosity.  Since the late 1990s San Diego has experienced a large increase in the number of donations exceeding $10 million. At the end of the ‘90s San Diego began to benefit from the stock market boom plus many more wealthy people began moving into the area. In addition, the widow of the founder of McDonald’s, Joan Kroc, made an $80 million donation to the San Diego branch of the Salvation Army, which many believe helped turn the tide for philanthropic giving in San Diego.

The father of Harry Rady of Rady Asset Management is a well known businessman and philanthropist in San Diego County. Ernest Rady donated $60 million to San Diego’s Children’s Hospital and Health Center in June of 2006. This gift ranked among the ten largest donations in San Diego history.

San Diego is hopeful that this donation will be the spark to light a new wave of large donations into the San Diego region.

Rady has given generously in the past. The University of California in San Diego was the recipient of Rady’s largesse in 2004 in the amount of 30 million dollars, and created the Rady School of Management.

In an interview conducted by Maria Bartiromo on CNBC,  Harry Rady, of Rady Asset Management responded to questions concerning the new approach theObama administration is now taking to health care reform.

The news in mid-August seemed to signal that health care reform in the United States was going to be more of an “evolution” rather than the originally hoped for (by President Obama) “revolution.” In response to this apparent change the health care sector of the stock market experienced a broad rally.

Harry Rady commented that he, along with Rady Asset Management tries to asses an economic climate outside the influence of government forces, which are unpredictable and unreliable. Rady therefore looks to investments which are dependable no matter what the government decides to do.

In light of the Obama administration’s apparent backing down from the sweeping reforms it originally proposed to a more moderate health care reform package Maria Bartiromo of CNBC asked Harry Rady of Rady Asset Management and Barbara Ryan of Deutsche Bank Securities to respond. Listen to the video below for the full discussion.

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In mid June the stock market seems to be choosing a direction as the three month gain of 39.9 percent in the S&P index falters. After reaching a 12 year low on March 9, 2009, the stock market has been making an Olympian recovery which, according to many analysts, should have taken years to achieve instead of the gold medal-winning three months.

As the blitzkrieg rise began to slow investors and traders continued to (unsuccessfully) look for new signs of other economic strengthening.

After several comments made by the Russian finance minister, the dollar began to rise in comparison with other currencies. The stronger dollar forced prices for oil and other materials down, bringing to a halt the increase in prices recently of these energy and materials stocks.

Harry Rady is not surprised.

“The market just seems to keep driving the car into the wall and then wonders why it can’t keep driving,” Rady said.

As the dollar strengthens the prices of commodities, oil and other materials are heading downward. According to Harry Rady of Rady Asset Management, the recent surge in stocks has been too fast compared to the poor state of the economy.

“The market just seems to keep driving the car into the wall and then wonders why it can’t keep driving,” Rady said.

After deep drops in prices of stocks in Europe and Asia in response to the strengthening dollar, prices of commodities and other materials declined.

An additional blow came when the index of manufacturing in New York showed that demand was also faltered in the months of May and June.

Appearing on CNBC ‘s Tuesday’s Task Force with Brian Belski of Oppenheimer & Co., Harry Rady, CEO of Rady Asset Management on June 23, 2009, stated his belief that if the U.S. government continues issueing debt to the tune of trillions of dollars, even if it is at the same time buying back some debt, that the equity market will continue to be vulnerable.

Harry Rady continued to explain that as these second and third tier companies (junk companies) continue to rally he sees excellent chances to short and build cash, perhaps as never before.

Quoted on “CNBC Stock Blog”, this past June 9, Harry Rady of Rady Assets commented that, “If Fed rates continue up much further, it will have a significant effect on the equity market.”

Harry Rady believes that there is still trouble brewing in the equities markets and it is still vulnerable. He also believes that there are still many opportunities to build cash and to short.

According to the article on the CNBC Stock Blog, Harry Rady of Rady Asset Management continues to be bearish despite the recent stock market rally. “I am more bearish than ever,” admits Rady, and he says he is continuing to “take chips off the table.”

Admitting that “It’s been an extraordinary rally,” Rady continued to explain that “even if we’re a little early, we’ve decided to take some chips off the table, raise cash and build some short positions.”

Rady’s feeling is that the recent market rally is a “head-fake” and that we should not expect consumers to suddenly go back to the “buying-spree” that they were participating in in the past.

“We’re approximately 70 percent in cash,” Rady said, describing his portfolio. “The cash position has been built mainly over the last week. As the rally continued, we’ve sold into the rally and put on more shorts.”

Two industries Rady does feel bullish about are the drug and biotechnology sectors.