Author Archive

• Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

  Not terribly mature or safe for work.
  

• Contrary Indicator
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 12th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

  Harry Reid’s market call from yesterday: “I dread, Mr. President, I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”
  
  Perhaps he was short.

• Think You’re Having a Bad Day?
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 11th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

  It could be worse:

  Visa CEO loses his credit cards
  Imagine running the world’s largest credit card network, and not having your own plastic.
  That’s what happened to Visa Inc Chief Executive Joseph Saunders.
  He spoke Thursday morning at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference in New York, and had come from San Francisco, Visa’s headquarters.
  Unfortunately, his credit cards didn’t make the trip.
  “I’m supposed to start off, and say that I’m very happy to be here, and I guess I am. But it’s 4:15 in the morning as far as I’m concerned, and I lost my wallet on the way here,” Saunders said. “It’s rather embarrassing when somebody steals my credit cards.” The comment prompted laughter.

• Truth in Advertising
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am

  
  I’ve never understood the appeal of Starbucks. This McDonald’s ad sums it up pretty well.

• First Jobs of The Richest American Entrepreneurs
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am

  I like reading lists like this:

  John D. Rockefeller
  Greatest Wealth – $318 Billion at age 74
  First Job – Book keeper
  Andrew Carnegie
  Greatest Wealth – $298 Billion at age 68
  First Job – Textile laborer
  Henry Ford
  Greatest Wealth – $188 Billion at age 57
  First Job – Machinist
  Warren Buffet
  Greatest Wealth – $62 Billion at age 77
  First Job – Newspaper delivery boy
  Bill Gates
  Greatest Wealth – $57 Billion at age 53
  First Job – Congressional page
  Sergey Brin
  Greatest Wealth – $18.7 Billion at age 35
  First “Job” – Student
  Michael Dell
  Greatest Wealth – $17.3 Billion at age 43
  First Job – Dishwasher for a Chinese restaurant
  Steve Jobs
  Greatest Wealth – $5.4 Billion at age 53
  First Job – Gopher at Hewlett Packard
  Oprah Winfrey
  Greatest Wealth – $2.7 Billion at age 54
  First Job – Part time radio news broadcaster
  Mark Cuban
  Greatest Wealth – $2.8 Billion at age 50 (and probably half of that after his divorce)
  First Job – Bartender
  * All financial figures based on 2008 US Dollar Value

  Personally, I think being a gopher at Hewlett Packard could have been cool.

• T-Bill Yields Go Negative
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

  Here, take my money. I’ll pay you.

  Treasuries rose, pushing rates on the three-month bill negative for the first time, as investors gravitate toward the safety of U.S. government debt amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
  The Treasury sold $27 billion of three-month bills yesterday at a discount rate of 0.005 percent, the lowest since it starting auctioning the securities in 1929. The U.S. also sold $30 billion of four-week bills today at zero percent for the first time since it began selling the debt in 2001.
  “It’s the year-end factor,” said Chris Ahrens, an interest-rate strategist in Greenwich, Connecticut, at UBS Securities LLC, one of the 17 primary dealers that trade directly with the Federal Reserve. “Everyone wants to be in bills going into year-end. Buy now while the opportunity is still there.”

• Stat of the Day
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 10th, 2008 at 10:01 am

  In 2007, Toyota sold 9.37 million vehicles.
  In 2007, General Motors sold 9.37 million vehicles.
  In 2007, Toyota made $17.1 billion.
  In 2007, General Motors lost $38.7 billion.
  (Source: Mises Blog)

• Happy 400th Birthday John Milton
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 9th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  If at great things thou would’st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.
  

• Perfect
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 9th, 2008 at 1:29 am

  Here’s the December calendar for a Unitarian church near me. I’m not making this up. It’ll be closed for Christmas.

• Profits for Free
  Eddy Elfenbein, December 8th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

  Want to buy a dollar for 80 cents? Look at some stocks:

  Stocks have fallen so far that 2,267 companies around the globe are offering profits to investors for free. That’s eight times as many as at the end of the last bear market, when the shares rose 115 percent over the next year.
  Bank of New York Mellon Corp. in New York, Danieli SpA in Buttrio, Italy and Seoul-based Namyang Dairy Products Co. hold more cash than the value of their stock and debt as the slowing world economy wiped out $32 trillion in capitalization this year. Companies in the MSCI World Index trade for an average $1.17 per dollar of net assets, the lowest since at least 1995, and 39 percent sell at a discount to shareholder equity, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
  The cash-rich companies allow investors to pay nothing for future earnings streams, providing opportunities to buyers concerned about deflation, according to Jean-Marie Eveillard, whose $16 billion First Eagle Global Fund has beaten 98 percent of competitors this year. Microsoft Corp. and Novo Nordisk A/S, which generate the most money compared with debt, can expand even if lower consumer demand erodes profits.
  “Cash is king, not necessarily for the investor but for corporations,” Eveillard said in an interview from New York last week. His fund holds both Microsoft and Namyang Dairy. “It’s useful to sit on a ton of cash, No. 1 to survive, as opposed to going bankrupt, and No. 2 to seize opportunities either to make acquisitions cheaply or to squeeze competitors.”

  Please, cash isn’t king…it’s a dictator.