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Confessions of a Financial Regulator

To begin with, we should have a law that limits the number of political appointments; perhaps it should be limited to only the top regulator. Secondly, that regulator should not have the power to fire top level carrier personnel without cause and replace them with their own appointees. Furthermore, there should be limit to how many of their appointees can be brought in, and they should not be at the top most levels! This is the sort of thing that happened at the Justice Dept. under the previous admin.

American Express Hikes Credit Card Fees

The other item in the notice that was not mentioned: AMEX will charge a late fee unless the amount is actually credited on or before the due date. Used to be that if you mailed it in time and they received it say on the Monday while the due date was the previous Saturday, there will be no late fee. Now one has to be very careful to mail out your payment well in advance!

Microsoft Increases Quarterly Dividend 18%

It is about time - They are finally sharing a little more of their profits with the share holders; they should have increased it even more.

MSFT: Now's the Time to Buy

To make their stock more attractive to investors MSFT should first of all increase their dividend payout. They are a mature company that and not investing much in R&D, so why are holding out to all that cash? Let the shareholders benefit.

Running the Numbers: A Five-Minute Valuation of Microsoft

It is time Microsoft payed out dividends comparable to more mature companies and not sit on all that cash; the future valuation is just that!

The Coming Cloud Computing Dogfight: Google vs. Microsoft

Balmer does not get it. Otherwise he would concentrate of MSFT fixing their main cash cows first and not being the predatory entity that it has been.

Tracking Jim Cramer's Performance: January 2007 Stock Picks

While it is okay to analyze Jim Cramer's comments and picks, at least he has the guts to venture out. Most of the so-called financial experts do not have a much better record, as seen from the performance of most of the mutual funds during that same period. Let the man do his thing; he is at least educating a lot of people. It is not that everyone is rushing out to buy on Jim' calls.