Archive for October, 2009

  • I Liked Czar Better
    , October 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am

    Ken Feinberg’s official title is “The Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation.”

  • Disturbing Stat of the Day
    , October 30th, 2009 at 10:42 am

    I wasn’t aware of this: “Reinhart cited Robert Shiller to the effect that house prices rose more from 2000 to 2006 than in the previous [...]

  • NICK Earned 22 Cents a Share
    , October 29th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    Nicholas Financial (NICK) just came out with earnings and it was another good quarter. The company earned 22 cents a share compared with just eight [...]

  • Aflac Keeps Its Real
    , October 29th, 2009 at 10:44 am

    I like this stock. I really do: Aflac Inc., the world’s largest seller of supplemental health insurance, said third-quarter profit more than tripled as investment [...]

  • Defending EMH
    , October 28th, 2009 at 9:39 am

    In today’s Wall Street Journal, Jeremy J. Siegel comes to the defense of the Efficient Market Hypothesis. I agree that blaming EMH for the credit [...]

  • CNBC Debuts!
    , October 28th, 2009 at 8:15 am

    This is a little painful to watch. It almost looks like a high school AV club.

  • Fiserv Narrows Guidance
    , October 27th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    Simply put: Fiserv (FISV) is a great company. Every quarter, this company delivers. Fiserv just reported Q3 EPS of 92 cents which was in line [...]

  • Eight-Year Trailing GDP Growth
    , October 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm

    The third-quarter GDP report comes out on Thursday and it might not be completely horrible. In fact, it could be quite good. Here’s a look [...]

  • No, Earnings Estimates Haven’t Been Lowered
    , October 25th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    This is an interesting earnings season because so many companies have been topping expectations. Doug Kass writes that the companies are beating expectations because expectations [...]

  • More Problems with Efficient Markets
    , October 25th, 2009 at 8:51 pm

    A sharp-eyed reader picked this up from the San Francisco Chronicle: If you haven’t heard of her by now, Roomy Khan, a former local employee [...]

  • 10 highest-paying blue-collar jobs
    , October 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 pm

    MSNBC lists the 10 highest-paying blue-collar jobs. I had no idea that the average elevator installer gets $42.08 an hour. I’m curious if “idle blogger” [...]

  • Replace the Dollar? Not so Fast.
    , October 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 am

    Vincent Fernando writes that any plan to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency is way too premature. Despite worldwide consternation, there simply isn’t [...]

  • The Case for Buy-and-Hold
    , October 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 am

    Abnormal Returns has a good roundup of links on buy-and-hold. I often hear the argument that buy-and-hold doesn’t work because the market does in fact [...]

  • I Was Dead Wrong on Amazon
    , October 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 am

    OK, it’s time for me to admit that I’ve been dead wrong on Amazon.com (AMZN). I said the stock was vastly overpriced around $85. It’s [...]

  • Norway's Tax List Reveals Everyone's Wealth
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    Norway has a really, really bad idea—they publish the income and wealth of every taxpayer in the country. Everyone. I not only find this troubling [...]

  • Norway’s Tax List Reveals Everyone’s Wealth
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    Norway has a really, really bad idea—they publish the income and wealth of every taxpayer in the country. Everyone. I not only find this troubling [...]

  • The Eddie Murphy Rule
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    Excerpt from remarks by Chairman Gary Gensler, OTC Derivatives Regulation, Futures Industry Association Annual Expo: Further, we have recommended that we extend insider trader prohibitions [...]

  • Lawsuit: Madoff's Workplace was Rife with Cocaine, Sex
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    All that’s missing is rock and roll: A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a “culture of [...]

  • Lawsuit: Madoff’s Workplace was Rife with Cocaine, Sex
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    All that’s missing is rock and roll: A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a “culture of [...]

  • Where has the money gone?
    , October 22nd, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    Here’s a conversation to contemplate (2:48 mark): Maria Bartiromo: Where has the money gone? Elizabeth Warren: We not only don’t know, Maria, we’re not ever [...]