JohnB

What Will the Next iPod Touch Offer?

Will be interesting to see how the imminent Zune HD matches up against the iPod Touch. Feature-wise, it looks pretty attractive.

Intel Becomes Lab for Flash Versus Drive Debate

Interesting trend.

I doubt the engineers keep a terabyte of data on their desktops. Probably networked storage with backup. If the business environment relies more on networked storage, then it would be easier to get by with the lesser capacity of flash drives on PCs.

What does "hard disks fail 5% of the time" mean? Sounds terribly high. Maybe 5% over five years or something like that?

How to Catch the Corporate Bond ETF Wave

your graphs look mixed up

Direct Democracy Could Be California's Undoing

We need "paygo" for the California initiative process. We're always willing to vote for new expenditures (jails, high speed rail, stem cell research, ...) but never willing to pay for it. Occasionally we will require someone else to pay for it, e.g., taxing millionaires for mental health!

5 Reasons to Fear Inflation

Good summary, but I don't see how Gold is a good long-term answer. As you say, it pays neither interest nor dividend. It might turn out to be an excellent wealth preservation asset (or not), but what about investing for real growth and income in the face of inflation? TIPS? Anything else?

California's Pension, Education Costs: Out of Control

Pensions (especially public safety) are out of control at city level, too:

Six-figure pensions for hundreds of retired San Jose cops, firefighters
www.mercurynews.com/to...

The taxpayers who have to pay for this have, for the most part, no pension plans or retirement health benefits at all. It's crazy.

About the Pay-As-You-Go Diet

Diane is so fiscally rational. I wish she would run for office.

Swedroe: 'Buy and Hold' Not Dead but Rebalancing Necessary

On Jun 15 06:12 PM whidbey wrote:

> A great man, but his methods are complex. Allocations at three levels
> sounds workable, but few have the data or insight to use his methods.
> I always wonder what would my wife do if faced with his methods:
> probably give up.
>

For Vanguard customers, I've found that using "Portfolio Watch" on their web site makes it easy to analyze these three levels of asset allocation.

Surviving Semi Downturn: Five Stocks That Will Thrive After 2009, Part II

great analysis. thanks for walking us through your thinking.

Sun to IBM: We're Willing to Talk Again

On Apr 16 11:15 PM holmesnmanny wrote:

> Google makes computers?

Google uncloaks once-secret server
news.cnet.com/8301-100...
(not for sale--for their own internal use)

PIMCO's Kiesel: Three Reasons to Buy High-Grade Corporate Bonds Now

On Apr 13 11:05 AM Steve in TN wrote:

> The ETF that most mirrors the author's recommendation for corporate
> bonds is LQD. Unfortunately, this bond ETF is long-term in duration.
> I wish there were a corp. bond ETF that was short or intermediate
> term in nature. If any reader knows of a good short or intermediate
> term low-expense bond mutual fund please comment on it.

Not an ETF, but a Mutual Fund exactly targeted at corporates:

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Fund Investor Shares (VFICX)

https://personal.vangu...
Expense ratio 0.21% !

Mutual Fund Industry Is in Critical Condition

Sounds like what John Bogle has been writing about for years. The differences between most ETFs and low-cost Index mutual funds (Vanguard, anyone?) isn't that great.

Reading for Less – New Books, Part I

I mostly surf the Bargain or Clearance tables. My family may buy regular books if we have a 30+% off coupon, or one of the other deals you mention.

It seems only fair to give the bricks and mortar store some of our business. If everyone just browsed, they'd disappear. (reminds me of not buying the newspaper and reading it all online -- such things aren't sustainable)

What 'Wipe Out the Stockholders' Really Means

Shareholders need to face the consequences of the boards of directors that they elected, and the executives and strategies that they put in place. It's called capitalism.

There could even be a bright side to this: it could start to fix corporate governance, with boards exercising proper fiduciary duty, and executives aligned with shareholders rather than high-risk get-rich-quick packages.

Nvidia: Ion on the Horizon

Great summary of the state of the CPU and GPU markets.