Burton A. Johnson

Naked-Shorting Datapoint of the Day, Carl Icahn Edition

You can sell anything you want to sell, whether or not you own it.
The problem comes in the latter case when you can't deliver.
Unless your a big Wall Street Bank.
In that case, you get a U.S. Treasury bailout.

Burton Johnson

Why Exxon Should Significantly Increase its Dividend

You neglected to include the payout ratio, i.e., dividend/earnings, which is very important when analyzing dividend yield.

You also didn't mention that the governments where major foreign oil companies are located withhold 20% in taxes on dividends. If you yearn for a meloncholy and futile experience, try to get back that 20% that is withheld.

Finally, I can remember, and I'm not over 100 years old, when the U.S. Government tax on "unearned income," such as corporate
dividends, was 70%! Do you think the Obamistas haven't thought of that, which, after the Death Tax is the perfect envy tax.

Why not just make ALL dividends and interest tax exempt?

Burton A. Johnson, MD,JD
President
Burton A. Johnson Portfolio Management, Inc.

Expecting Acorn International to Grow into a Mighty Oak

Interesting, but what is the downside?

Burton A. Johnson, MD,JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

Bad News for the News Industry

Thank God for the Internet.

It's so nice to have a choice and to be able to find out what really is happening. It's particularly satisfying to read news now on the Internet that previously would have been sequestered and suppressed or distorted beyond recognition if reported at all by the liberal propogandists who have controlled our press, media, and academia for decades. What a sanctimonious, self righteous, pompous bunch they are!

Let's pray they do not receive any governmental bailouts. They deserve to go broke.

Burton A. Johnson, MD,JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

10 Notes on Risk in the Markets

Tell the mathematicians to go home.

All the math you need in investing is basic arithmetic, a little algebra, and a computer than can figure compounded return.

Risk, as defined by Warren Buffett, is the possibility of a complete loss of capital. I've yet to see risk better defined. Risk is not price volatility.

Every dervitave that is added to an investment portfolio only serves to magnify and diffuse risk of loss.

Nobody needs a Nobel Prize to invest successfully.

Burton A. Johnson, MD, JD
President
Burton A. Johnson Portfolio Management, Inc.
bajvalueinvesting.com

Sure It’s Legal … But Is It Right?

How could this have happened if there were no FIDC, SIPC, Freddie, Fannie, Sally Mae, bailouts, etc.?

FDR's chickens have come home to roost.

Ashes to ashes, socialist to socialist.

Burton A. Johnson
valueinvesting.com

Recession Is Easing - Check Your Underwear

You neglected to discuss the serious problem of label placement on men's underwear.

As a boy, I always knew that the label on a pair of Jockey Shorts was on the inside, i.e., skin-side, of the upper elastic border of the back of the shorts. That is, one never had any doubt about which way the shorts went on one's body.

Nowadays, however, manufacturers have taken to putting the label on the outside of either/or the front and back, and in extreme cases on the inside of the front. A few diabolical manufactures actually place labels on both the inside and outside of the front and/or back.

I still can differentiate the front of my torso from the back, but I am uncertain as to which side of the shorts goes where because of the exceptionally confusing placement of the label. The seemingly random label placement certanly couldn't significantly cut manufacturing or distribution costs, and it's hard to imagine that it's in response to consumer demand.

In the interests of supporting mental health, I hope the pending Obamacare health legislation addresses this problem. It claims to have a cure for everything, except suckers, but it went unmentioned in the first 385 pages. I just couldn't read anymore.

Burton A. Johnson, JD,MD
bajvalueinvesting.com
Burton A. Johnson, MD, JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

FSB's List of Fast Growing Small Public Companies

Thank you for a well thought out and cogent presentation.
I do my own research, and this type of article is immensely helpful.

Burton A. Johnson, MD, JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

How Goldman Sachs Games the System

Maybe you should solicit a statement from Hillary Clinton, the Queen of Front Running.

Do you remember how she ran $1,000 into $100,00 in one year trading commodity futures when she was a young, struggling lawyer and her husband was governor? GS only made 97%.

Burton A. Johnson
valueinvesting.com

Blacklist Grows for Troubled Banks

Why should the FDIC not reveal the banks on the "Black List?"

Burton A. Johnson, MD,JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

Reviewing the FDIC's Role in This Crisis

A brilliant analysis by Edward Harrison!

The FDIC is essentially an illusion.
Our problems go back to the Depression when the FDIC was conceived by Marriner Eccles.

For once, John Kenneth Galbraith got it right when he described the Federal Reserve under Mr. Eccles -- and by extension the other agencies established by FDR uncle Eccles tutelage, as "the center of Keynesian evangelism in Washington."

Nothing has changed in the intervening 70 years.
The Keynesian True Believers are still in charge and must maintain their hegemony by frantically hanging more mirrors and adding more fuel to the smoke machine while passing the bill to the people who are actually productive.

Burton A. Johnson, MD.JD
bajvalue investing.com

Shrinking Banks

Could the elephant in the parlor be the near-confiscatory tax rates imposed by First World Nations? In the U.S., about the only break left for the high income earner is the deduction for a homestead mortgage?

Could another elephant in the parlor be the FDIC, another one of FDR's ideas that has turned into a racket, that essentially guarantees every crooked and/or stupid banker a blank check on the U.S. Treasury?

Could the third and fourth elephants be Fannie and Freddie, that, pressured by the likes of Barney Frank and Sen. Dodd, to buy up the those toxic mortgages, equitize them, and sell them off to gullible bankers around the world?

The parlor needs to be emptied and aired out. Don't count on it happening.

Burton A. Johnson, MD, JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

Warren Buffett and Brett Favre's Big Mistake

Where's Mr. Rein's evidence that WB is losing it?

Burton A. Johnson, MD,JD
bajvalueinvesting.com

The Tyranny of the CPM

Very, very interesting.

The question arises, if I diminish the number of my clicks, will my IQ and income rise correspondingly?

Burton A. Johnson
BAJvalueinvesting.com

Real Estate Has Hit Bottom? Not Even Close

I can understand why you've come to question the integrity of CNBC commentators.
I can't undertand why you ever respected them.

Burton A. Johnson, MD, JD
BAJvalueinvesting.com