hardware

Moody's: Tarnished Reputation or Tarnished Stock?

I think the franchise is tarnished - let's face it - the staff at MCO isn't working at GS for a reason (they weren't hired....). Everyone's books are "cooked" to some degree - call it managing earnings or whatever you want - you have a better than expected quarter....you park some of it in a reserve - you have a bad quarter....you borrow from it. If investors knew how much money is made or lost via the last one or two accounting entries in a month they'd invest in real estate.CPA firms just look the other way. Ever see an accounting firm advertise that they're the toughest audit??? You won't - ever. MCO earned fees the same way - by having clients. Buffet's right - we're all left to our own best guesses.

Bartz Would Sell Yahoo for 'Big Boatloads of Money'

As a shareholder, I don't want Microsoft to pay a "boatload" of money for any technology company - it changes too fast and what's valuable today could be worthless tomorrow. Often, there's not much room for #2's in this day and age. Look at Google and Ask.com or Facebook and Myspace.

NYT: What's with Berkshire's Moody's Stake?

Hey, everyone needs a few goomahs or goombahs in the business - if you pay cash its illegal but a double-eye wink when you're an owner does the trick for nothing.

Wal-Mart: What PR Won't Fix

Health care costs are totally out of line - and it's certainly not the fault of employers. How come the author didn't complain about the portion the greedy lawyers received - that's the real story here. Funny, everyone wants to take a punch at Wal Mart but...more people shop there than at anyplace in the world - by a longshot. It's easy to be nice if you're Google or Apple with hideously high profit margins - it's a little tougher being the nice guy when you're the #1 retailer in the world that must control costs in order to stay on top.