Ira Pfeifer

Is the Malaysian Stock Market Due to Fall?

Did you look at EWM's holdings before posting this? According to Yahoo Finance, it's only 9.12% Consumer Goods. The Malaysian economy as a whole may be reliant on export goods for its GDP, but this ETF has much heavier weightings in Financial Services (28.02%) and Industrial Materials (14.86%). Between those two, there may still be reasons to sell, with banks facing the credit crunch and industrial materials eating the spiking commodity costs, but I think your logic on exports is flawed.

Apple Dropping Akamai in Favor of Google? I Don't Buy It

This rumor floated around my office today as well, and I'm betting this all stemmed from a misattributed and misinterpreted quote of tech pundit Robert Cringely's 2008 predictions column from last week.

Tax vs. Interest Rate Cuts

What is the rate of home ownership among the bottom 50% of the population? I'll bet you my tax refund it's lower than that of the top 50%. In fact, with ARM resets pushing the subprime buyers (who are mostly among that bottom 50%) out of their homes, it's probably lower every day. So how does a property tax cut help those lower income brackets for whom you're advocating assistance? Or rather, does it help them more than it helps the rich? I doubt it.