Joe Public

Despite Massive Layoffs Nationwide, These 28 Companies Are Hiring

The author states: "Disclosure: The author owns none of the securities in his portfolio". I wonder who owns them, if not him? ;^)

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

One point in your plan seems oddly out of place IF the objective is to drastically reduce dependence on oil in general and gasoline in particular, and that is the recommendation to cease building coal-fired power plants. Your social engineering suggestions also smack more of ideology than of offering a practical solution to a given problem. But then, when people go to your personal website/blog they can see that you are kind of "out there" in some of your political views. You are entitled to your views, of course, but sometimes I think your analysis loses objectivity and utility because of them. If our predicament is as dire as you suggest -- and I tend to agree with you that it is -- then we can't afford the luxury of ruling out the use of coal with pollution-mitigation technologies that exist today.

Paper Companies Gaming the Tax Credit System?

More evidence, if any was needed, that government should quit trying to pick winners and losers in the economy. Or at the very least, craft laws better.

Disclosure: long IP (< 0.2% of portfolio).

Restaurants: Is a Correction Coming?

Good article, Chris. But I suspect you are "wary" of BWLD, not "weary" of them.

Schumer Takes on Ticketmaster

Somewhat off-topic, but reselling of tickets ("scalping") should not be illegal. I buy something (e.g., a ticket) for "x". It's mine. I can do with it what I want: use it, not use it, or sell it to someone else either at a loss or a gain. What's the problem?

Behind the AP's Plan to Become the Web's News Corp

AP is hastening its own extinction.

Best Buy's Online Shopping Freefall

Maybe people accellerated purchases they would have made this spring into January & February due to Circuit City AND due to the February DTV transition? Now that CC is closed, and DTV is put off until June, maybe there's a lull? I don't know, I'm just speculating.

Microsoft to Shut Down Encarta, Can't Compete with Wikipedia

I use Wikipedia a lot myself, but it has its shortcomings. Wikipedia's content is community-edited, and not all of those who create content are experts. Hence, the content can be unreliable, and it is not always apparent where it is unreliable.

Why Isn't McDonald's Targeting the Fish Crowd During Lent?

For what it's worth, MCD also currently has outdoor advertising for the filet-o-fish. There's one such billboard near my house on the interstate. There is no overt Lent theme, however. Maybe they feel that it is better (i.e., safer) not to include religious references in their marketing?

April's Little-Known Bullish Trend

I would have said that the market reached its nadir on March 9, instead of the "market plummet reaching its zenith", but that's just me. Nitpicky, I know.

How Will Lionsgate Shareholders React to Icahn's Latest Offer?

I was doing the math to see how 45 jobs could equate to a $20 million annual savings. That would come out to an annual savings of $444,444 per person, which seems kind of high even for the movie industry.

I went back and checked the AP story on this and found that LGF is eliminating 45 positions by letting 27 people go and not filling 18 vacancies, which gives the 8% reduction figure. According to the AP, "combined with a move last year to trim 41 staff positions, the cuts will save $15 million to $20 million a year off corporate overhead of about $135 million." According to the Daily Variety from November 10, the 41 positions consisted of 17 people let go and 24 open positions being deallocated.

So LGF's actual savings is probably around half of the reported range, which would be $9 million (rounded), using the $15-20 million range of savings compared to budget. That's worthwhile, but not as dramatic as the figure initially reported.

Also, I wonder if LGF will rehire any of these people as contractors? That would simply mean that LGF is moving expenses from one bucket to another. I have no knowledge of this, I'm just conjecturing.

Interpreters of Data Should Exercise Care to Get Facts Right

Jeff, you might have missed one when he said "There is no conspiracy here." (from the 4th excerpt you provided) It's an opinion. Many observers have wondered if the government chooses methodology that reports more favorably than is warranted (e.g., CPI).

On your YOY Change in Home Sales chart, it's true in retrospect that the July 2006 and March 2008 data points might have been viewed as indications of stability or the start of a rebound, but in order to see that, one would have needed at least one or two more months of data. Without such perspective, those points simply indicate further decline.

Yahoo Closing Travel Site FareChase, What's Next?

Yahoo also sold off Yahoo Music Unlimited music-on-demand service to Rhapsody (RealNetworks) last year (October) and outsourced its Yahoo Music site, including the Launchcast "radio" streaming music service, to CBS this past February.

Is Music Moving to the Cloud?

Heyweed and Peter02I make excellent points. All music subscription services so far recognize only the individual person (or sometimes the individual device), but not the couple or the family, as the subscribing unit, making the service pretty expensive for some. This is unlike cable TV, a successful subscription model, which recognizes the household as the unit customer.

Nicholas, the technical problems that you would like to assume have been solved are a significant impediment to more widespread adoption of of cloud music. I understand you want to examine other aspects of the problem, but if the technical issues were magically gone, a lot more people, young and old alike, would be content to get their music from the cloud. The technical issues are are more numerous and are a lot less solved in the real world than you think they are, I believe.

But putting technical issues aside, there are still matters of trust and dependability. It would be stupid to assume that the company you buy your music service from will always be there. We have already seen several music services disappear, Yahoo Music Unlimited for one. If you put a lot of work into your music profile and organization, I guarantee you will be very unhappy when you have to start over from scratch when your old provider goes belly up.

Another factor, which you give some mention to, is the content owner. Going back again to Yahoo Music Unlimited as an example which which I am familiar, users found that record labels would UN-license their content from time to time. Your favorite artist might all of a sudden become unavailable simply because of a contract issue with the label, or simply on the whim of the label.

I think cloud music will continue to grow, but there remain many populations for whom the current business models have little appeal. I also think subscription (rental) music and music ownership will co-exist for quite some time, unless one or the other is made very unattractive by regulation, taxation, etc.

GeoEye: Back on Track?

I wouldn't call downward revisions of 13 and 15 cents, respectively, to diluted EPS "minor". That said, I agree that the future is what matters.