dilettantedude

Waiting for McDermott International to Correct

McDermott earned $700 m in free cash flow in 2007. If one assumes 0% growth in all their businesses for 2008 & 2009, then 14.5% for 2010, declining by 0.5% annually for the next 3 years, then growth at 9% for the following 5 years, an estimate of fair value based on free cash flow (NOT earnings!) is approximately $57/share. These are very pessimistic estimates for 2008 - '09. One can arrive at a fairly wide range of fair value estimates depending upon one's assumptions about growth in the energy markets, but estimates would seem to be heavily biased toward fair value or below at the current price.

Comparing Income Taxes: Clinton vs. Bush

you also completely ignore, because you cannot explain, the big increase in the Gini index (a global metric for how evenly income is distributed) for the US, which is now approaching that of Mexico and China and is no longer at the level one expects of more civilized societies.

Comparing Income Taxes: Clinton vs. Bush

this is an ignorant approach to taxes. it ignores the other side of the equation, which is whether taxes (income) offset the depretiation in the national stock of resources, physical infrastructure, local, state & federal institutions of government such as local schools to the NIH, and so forth. Clearly it doesn't, so Bush's low taxes (and Clinton's as well), create a hidden tax, expressed by the deterioration of the indices of a civilized, free society. This hidden tax falls far more heavily on the poor, because they depend on these institutions and this infrastructure to a greater degree, and have less flexibility to adapt to deterioration.