Clifford

Hunting Season in Blue Chip Territory

DPO yield is mostly just giving money right back (Return of Capital). The only reason it shows a high total return is that it is trading at an unsustainable +25% premium to NAV.

From CEF Connect:
"[DPO] Estimated Components of Distributions
These percentages are as of the last calendar year. Early in the year, until the prior year's audited breakdowns are available, these will be estimated values.
Ordinary Income: 18.10%
Long term Capital Gain:
Short term Capital Gain:
Return of Capital: 81.90%"

Finally, Some Holiday Cheer

"it's almost impssible to find a Bear anywhere"

Why so serious?

Seriously you would be hard pressed to throw a stone and not nail a bear in the head. I was a bear from 2006 - 2008, but now I see values and am buying.

Ultra Short Treasury ETF: Have Patience, Money Will Eventually Flow Again

Shorting Treasuries?!?! You can't find something better to short, really? OK, let me take a stab at this one, here are some better shorts:

SBUX: Cause consumers are not buying $5 lattes in this environment
BBBY: Because they still do not sell basic unscented soap that guys would want and the ladies are cutting back on this stuff
BBY: Because you are only as smart as your dumbest competitor (CC) and because they still do not sell the basics that you can get at Micro Center
CAKE: Sorry, but you are not going out to the Cheesecake factory tonight, Chicken Fried Steak factory perhaps

Boulder Growth & Income Reckoning with Questionable Shareholders

BIF "Yields" 32% which is of course not yield, it is a return of capital. When will these closed end funds get real on yield. with the discount, a real yield would be closer to 5-10% which would be enough to attract real investors. With the current yield, why not put my money in a money market and ask my brokerage to "Pay" me 32% out of interest and principal annually. It is insane, but because many do not understand the difference between yield and return of capital we are doomed to watch a sad and steady decline in NAVs and an ever increasing "dividend" in these funds. I would not invest in BIF with the current payout strategy even though the discount is attractive.

Cramer's Stop Trading! Dimon in the Rough (12/11/08)

If you follow Cramer you not be happy. If he picks a stock that you own: SELL, SELL, SELL. If you manage to pick stocks that are not on his radar you may be OK. If you don't get CNBC at all then BooYah!

Are ProShares' New Leveraged Precious Metal ETFs Late to the Party?

Do you mean late to the helicopter drop of inflationary money from the sky party to fight the shadowy demon that is "deflation!". No, they are either early, or right on time.

Why AIG Gets Billions While GM Gets Scorn

Please give me an example of a company that any reader of this website would work for that does not give excellent benefits. I have worked for several large companies and the benefits are excellent for average employees. I work in technology by the way and have a pension, full benefits, 401k, decent pay. You are basically saying that an auto worker makes something more than an average professional, that is simply not being honest. At least the auto workers provide a useful service which cannot be said for the vast majority of major financial institutions. The financial sector's business model has been predicated upon a consumer savings rate that over 30 years went from over 10% to -1. That is being reversed as we speak which means that these large financial companies are dead in the water for the current cycle, decades to come.


On Dec 13 01:43 AM AlexS wrote:

> Part of the GM contracts was that GM would provide health care benefits
> for life. Even as the rest of us get pushed into Medicare at 65,
> GM continues with gold plated coverage (free, I believe). So bear
> that in mind. Part of the GM bailout would go to paying for retirees
> to get health care benefits that you can only dream of.

Why AIG Gets Billions While GM Gets Scorn

This is pretty clear class warfare. There is a 9-to-1 bias toward misrepresenting the amount of money an auto worker makes. The average citizen and by proxy the average congressman and senator believes those numbers. They think that an auto worker makes $70-$80 per hour which is insanely stupid. They make between $30-$40 per hour, which is good money, but not anywhere near the reported numbers and also not anywhere near the average AIG employee salary.

The other idiotic assumption is that the financial sector is basically thriving except for a couple of bad apples. This is based upon the idea that once this crisis is over we can return to the financial business model of the past 20 years. Of course we cannot because massive fraud at all levels was occurring in real estate, credit cards, derivatives, etc. that added to the bloated profit margins of these companies. This fraud has been aided and abetted by the Fed (Greenie encouraged adj. rate mortgages while the fed funds rate was 1.0) Most of these financial firms would have trouble in any other environment.