Bank Of America After Earnings: What Happened? [View article]
One may well scrutinize BAC with care, but I saw nothing in the the Mayo article that justified this sudden downgrade. The balance sheet item has been there for a long time. Every bank carries a similar line item. Every bank is carrying assets that can't be easily valued. So what? Why now? In the big picture, looking out 2-3 years, BAC will almost certainly double in value or more.
Weak results and/or guidance (I, II, III, IV) from SanDisk (SNDK -13.4%), Freescale (FSL -7.9%), Lattice Semi (LSCC -9.4%), and Altera (ALTR -6.5%) is producing a selloff in chip stocks (SOXX -1.2%), which had been rallying on evidence of rebounding demand. Among the hardest hit (aside from the guilty parties): OVTI -3.9%. SWKS -3.9%. MU -3.7%. CRUS -3.1%. [View news story]
thank you for massively overselling tech stocks. You are creating a perfect investment entry point that we haven't seen since October.
Will The Real Employment Situation Please Stand Up [View article]
There will be no correlation between job growth and the election except in the mind of political partisans of either stripe.
Job growth is driven by demand, and right now demand is fickle. We cannot ignore the HUGE hole left by the real estate collapse. The construction industry is in a depression, and it normally accounts for about as many jobs as are now missing, when added to those out-sourced over the past two decades.
Unfortunately, I do not see any effective levers for the Obama administration, and so far at least the Republican candidates appear content to focus on the deficit and debt, as if somehow reducing those will somehow create near-term jobs, which is probably the opposite of the truth. There is a reason why past administrations of both parties participated in deficit spending - It helps to create jobs and kicks the can down the road for how to pay.
Tibet Pharmaceuticals: The Next China Stock That Is Going Private [View article]
I own a few shares of this company. I know that Chinese people think highly about medicinal products from Tibet and they are very popular. The reputation of "Tibet" as a source of medicinal products is good. As a business traveler to China from USA, I see showrooms in several hotels in western China where they are sold to guests in attractive fashion. This is in general a legitimate business, although I don't know specifically about TBET.
Tibet Pharmaceuticals: The Next China Stock That Is Going Private [View article]
I own a few shares of this company but don't know any of the details being discussed here.
However, I know for a fact from my business travel in China that Tibetan pharmaceuticals are very popular with Chinese people. For example, several upscale hotels I stayed at in western China had showrooms where guests could purchase them. "Tibet" has a big allure to Chinese people that helps in the sale of their products like this. Can't say how this translates to this particular company, though.
The Darker Side Of Private Equity Deals [View article]
Investors who lived through the 1980's know full well the ups and downs of private equity. The best companies actually help valuable start-ups get financing. The worst of them were and still are the 'LBO' players who find asset-rich companies, load them up with debt while doing nothing to improve the company except fire workers, then bail out taking most of the cash with them as a 'fee for service.' It is hard to name a single private company taken through the LBO process in the 1980's that didn't soon go into bankruptcy or get bought out, while putting thousands of workers in the streets. People used to say how 'good' this was for the company, but said nothing about the fired workers.
Papering Over The Gold Standard's Flaws [View article]
The author is correct. The world is now even more complex and interconnected than it was in 1930. Unfortunately, there are no simple, mechanistic approaches to managing the economy. There are too many outside forces that can't be predicted: earthquakes, wars, tsunamis, epidemics, financial panics, etc. Managers need a basket of tools ready to use depending on the situation.
Bernanke To Savers: We Don't Owe You A Living [View article]
Retirees (of whom I am nominally one) should not depend on interest-bearing 'investments' in an environment when interest is near zero. There are any number of other investment vehicles that actually pay a return. Yes, they bear some risk, but not always very much. Many retirees sold homes at 10x to 20x the price they paid and have used this money in different ways. Their children may not have this cushion. Retirees should stop whining and recognize that everyone is in a similar boat.
Why Silver Is As Good As Gold In A Monetary Collapse [View article]
this article will attract gold and silver bugs but it is not for serious investors who actually want to make some money on their investments. Silver is basically a commodity. If it wasn't for margin buying it would probably be selling at 10% of current prices. COMEX can and has raised the margin requirements at will. Silver is an industrial metal in large quantities in the earth.
There will never again be a gold standard. This idea is a relic of medieval thinking - the "Philosopher's Stone" and alchemy.
Gold standards are unusable in a modern world. Real value rests not in a stone, but in the minds and aspirations of human beings. This is what the medieval age prelates never understood, but what we do now.
Shares of Rockwell Collins (COL +4.1%) perk up after the firm records a mild earnings beat and reaffirms its guidance for 2012. Just holding serve may be good enough for investors with all the worries about decreased military spending swirling around. [View news story]
Collins is finally taking revenue for all of the 787 shipments that sat at Boeing while the Dreamliner was being fixed. Under 787 contracts, major OEMs like Collins can't get paid until the aircraft actually deliver to a customer, so this means that they still carry the inventory on their books. Expect to see Collins inventories and DSO drop a lot in coming months. This is like found cash$$
Amazon Is Fairly Valued With Only Modest Upside Potential [View article]
sort of nonsense reply. Amazon is nothing like the multitude of dotcom stocks that failed in the 1980s because, unlike most of them, it actually has a business model that makes money. Whether the stock is correctly valued is up to individual investors to determine, not some magic technical chart.
Amazon Is Fairly Valued With Only Modest Upside Potential [View article]
All this analysis based on past performance says nothing about future performance resulting from innovation not shown on the balance sheet. That is what real companies do to stay in business. This is why you never want to invest in a company run by finance people. Their training always drives them to low-ball companies because they do not respect the capabilities of talented, visionary engineers.
Dealing With Debt: What Investors Should Expect [View article]
"low spending and low taxes work best in tandem and are not mutually exclusive. No, in fact they create directional synergy.
Government spending is a tax on consumption, eventually and always, since it robs from future private investment which directly diminishes employment which robs consumption."
Yours are political, not economic arguments that imply a harmonious, linear universe, neither of which are true. It is not at all certain that low taxes and low spending create directional synergy. Besides anything else, taxes and spending are tools that society uses to combat exogenous threats. They need to be used judiciously, not just slashed. Exogenous events occur: wars, religious terrorism, tsunamis, global pandemics, massive panics, demographic shifts.... All would agree that low taxes is a desirable goal.
The author of the article paints a pretty clear picture of the consequences of what would happen if we just 'let the people figure it out.' While some people might move quickly to save their skins, perhaps those best armed with guns, many others would be trampled under foot. WWII was one result of your recommendations, and most people may not think the result was worth it.
CRM - this whole company and its product amazes me why anyone would buy the stock. the product Salesforce.com is complex to the point that our sales force has to be forced to use it. It is not a good product, and definitely not worth this kind of valuation. CRM is very good at selling vaporware.
What Is The Real Unemployment Rate? [View article]
All metrics of this type are only indicators. No one can measure everyone's situation. Also they depend on data from state employment agencies, and don't factor in the gray market of unregistered workers.
Also, it is important to note that the 'baby boom' is starting to crest and many of those people were going to leave the job market anyway, and have been nor driven to do so a couple of years earlier than planned. The demographics of the USA indicate that in a few short years there will be a significant shortage of labor, especially in the very skilled areas of technology.
In a number of states for which I have seen data, tax receipts are up over forecasts, in some cases significantly, which is a good indicator that employment is picking up.
As far as sitting in less favorable jobs, etc., haven't we all gone through some period in our life when we did things like drive buses and taxis to pay the bills? I know that I have.
We need to stop looking for quick fixes and easy targets to blame. The current situation is a cumulative effect of many causes coming to fruition at the same time.
Bank Of America After Earnings: What Happened? [View article]
Weak results and/or guidance (I, II, III, IV) from SanDisk (SNDK -13.4%), Freescale (FSL -7.9%), Lattice Semi (LSCC -9.4%), and Altera (ALTR -6.5%) is producing a selloff in chip stocks (SOXX -1.2%), which had been rallying on evidence of rebounding demand. Among the hardest hit (aside from the guilty parties): OVTI -3.9%. SWKS -3.9%. MU -3.7%. CRUS -3.1%. [View news story]
Will The Real Employment Situation Please Stand Up [View article]
Job growth is driven by demand, and right now demand is fickle. We cannot ignore the HUGE hole left by the real estate collapse. The construction industry is in a depression, and it normally accounts for about as many jobs as are now missing, when added to those out-sourced over the past two decades.
Unfortunately, I do not see any effective levers for the Obama administration, and so far at least the Republican candidates appear content to focus on the deficit and debt, as if somehow reducing those will somehow create near-term jobs, which is probably the opposite of the truth. There is a reason why past administrations of both parties participated in deficit spending - It helps to create jobs and kicks the can down the road for how to pay.
Tibet Pharmaceuticals: The Next China Stock That Is Going Private [View article]
Tibet Pharmaceuticals: The Next China Stock That Is Going Private [View article]
However, I know for a fact from my business travel in China that Tibetan pharmaceuticals are very popular with Chinese people. For example, several upscale hotels I stayed at in western China had showrooms where guests could purchase them. "Tibet" has a big allure to Chinese people that helps in the sale of their products like this. Can't say how this translates to this particular company, though.
The Darker Side Of Private Equity Deals [View article]
Papering Over The Gold Standard's Flaws [View article]
Bernanke To Savers: We Don't Owe You A Living [View article]
Why Silver Is As Good As Gold In A Monetary Collapse [View article]
There will never again be a gold standard. This idea is a relic of medieval thinking - the "Philosopher's Stone" and alchemy.
Gold standards are unusable in a modern world. Real value rests not in a stone, but in the minds and aspirations of human beings. This is what the medieval age prelates never understood, but what we do now.
Shares of Rockwell Collins (COL +4.1%) perk up after the firm records a mild earnings beat and reaffirms its guidance for 2012. Just holding serve may be good enough for investors with all the worries about decreased military spending swirling around. [View news story]
Amazon Is Fairly Valued With Only Modest Upside Potential [View article]
Amazon Is Fairly Valued With Only Modest Upside Potential [View article]
Dealing With Debt: What Investors Should Expect [View article]
Government spending is a tax on consumption, eventually and always, since it robs from future private investment which directly diminishes employment which robs consumption."
Yours are political, not economic arguments that imply a harmonious, linear universe, neither of which are true. It is not at all certain that low taxes and low spending create directional synergy. Besides anything else, taxes and spending are tools that society uses to combat exogenous threats. They need to be used judiciously, not just slashed. Exogenous events occur: wars, religious terrorism, tsunamis, global pandemics, massive panics, demographic shifts.... All would agree that low taxes is a desirable goal.
The author of the article paints a pretty clear picture of the consequences of what would happen if we just 'let the people figure it out.' While some people might move quickly to save their skins, perhaps those best armed with guns, many others would be trampled under foot. WWII was one result of your recommendations, and most people may not think the result was worth it.
10 Stocks To Short In 2012 [View article]
What Is The Real Unemployment Rate? [View article]
Also, it is important to note that the 'baby boom' is starting to crest and many of those people were going to leave the job market anyway, and have been nor driven to do so a couple of years earlier than planned. The demographics of the USA indicate that in a few short years there will be a significant shortage of labor, especially in the very skilled areas of technology.
In a number of states for which I have seen data, tax receipts are up over forecasts, in some cases significantly, which is a good indicator that employment is picking up.
As far as sitting in less favorable jobs, etc., haven't we all gone through some period in our life when we did things like drive buses and taxis to pay the bills? I know that I have.
We need to stop looking for quick fixes and easy targets to blame. The current situation is a cumulative effect of many causes coming to fruition at the same time.