braddunc

The Merrill Lynch Diet: Starving Shareholders

As a successful investor for over 25 years, I have been constantly been assaulted by so-called "financial planners" and other stock salesmen from brokerages and banks to turn over the management of my money and holdings to the bozos who, we now know, are responsible for these egregious and outrageous acts of corporate thievery and incompetence.

My Mama, who lived through the Great Depression, always told me that "a fool and his money are soon parted" so I was at least wise enough to resist them but the thing that angered me the most of all was the arrogance and sullenness of their assertions!

The Failure of John Thain

.....and we are constantly told that these obscenely overpaid CEOs and their ilk with their grotesque salaries, bonuses and perks are "worth every penny."

In China such bungling incompetence would be rewarded by being shot!

Comfort Level with Procter & Gamble on the Rise

You assert that: "PG is a well-managed company that produces consumer staples." You offer no supporting information, and I would argue that any company that sells off its most profitable cash-generation brands, i.e. Crisco, Jif, and Folgers instead of utilizing capital to improve and build upon them is just another example of all too common "corporate adventurism.", NOT managerial expertise. The abandonment of these high-profile and successful franchises leaves only three recognizable cash cows upon which to base dependable dividend growth, Crest, Charmin and Tide. After the presumable divestiture of these superb and popular products, it will inevitablly lead P & G to the same level of destitution as, for example, Bristol Myers after it divested itself of its well-known moneymakers, Excedrin, Ipana etc. that has plagued that company for the past 10 to 15 years.
The Smucker family might not have the "benefit" of grossly overpaid management but by scooping up P &G's discarded name brand building blocks, it sure gives them a leg up in constructing a solid and expanding enterprise.