As one can well imagine throughout the Financial Fiasco, letting the Financial community handle your investments has become both financially risky and intellectually stressing. So I am now doing do-it-yourself investing. Thus I am responsible for tuning and diversifying the portfolio with returns and risks managed to longer term goals. And being a Web developer […]
Do It Yourself Investing: Google Finance Read More »
I have friends both very pro and con Obama who have expressed tinges of buyers regret. It goes something like this. PRO Obama : I am beginning to worry about Obama – look he is having a Gay-bashing Preacher give the blessing at the Inauguration. Or look he is wavering on removing the Bush tax
This tool, ValueCruncher, is a personal favorite because from business school days I have always liked to do simple what-if analysis based on my best assumptions for the growth in earnings and revenues for a company. I know – this is like NPV-Net Present Value analysis – subject to highly variable assumptions. But that is
Do It Yourself Investing: ValueCruncher Read More »
According to a Jerusalem Post Survey the mission of the Israelis in its Gaza air strikes and coming ground operations is no less than toppling Hamas and routing them out of the Gaza strip. Now Hamas as the Israelis and others will quickly point out can be just as thuggish as their opposition in achieving their
Israeli BlunderPlus Read More »
Blunderbus – n, from Dutch Donderbus or Thunder gun means a muzzle loading shotgun intended to cause maximum harm in crowded spaces; the modern meaning is to masturbate. In either case, the meaning may well apply to the Israeli bombing and possible ground attacks on Gaza. Before the Israeli strike the count, yes-the death count(we
Who Green-lighted This Blunderbus? Read More »
This is the second tutorial on free financial investment tools which have proved to be very useful in doing financial analysis and portfolio tuning or rebalancings. One of the most important tasks these days is to constantly assess your portfolio for what may be better replacement investments. In order to do this investors must screen
Do It Yourself Investing: Morningstar Stock Screener Read More »
Public Trust, like the air we breathe, is a social commons. No one party can buy or control it. But it can be tainted, polluted, and otherwise damaged by individual and collective actions. Rod Blagojevich sits at the public service tip of the “Pay to Play” disease that is infecting all levels of US Politics
Blagojevich and Madoff: Boxing Day Gifts Read More »
Thank you sweet Louise, Story that is … at the NYTimes who has written a story which describes how lavish compensation and bonuses were at the heart of the current Financial Meltdown – aka Sub Prime Mortgage Induced Financial Disaster. Time to own up and the Times has done it first among the major Financial
CBC News likes to cultivate the image of “telling it like it is”. “Just the facts mam, just the facts” is what you will purportedly get from the CBC. And then you get the interview today on CBC NewsWorld on why Prime Minister Stephen Harper, having opposed Senate appointments, is making 18 of his own.
Media’s Achilles Heel: CBC Example Read More »
“WE SAY IT LIKE IT IS” No smal motto for a 2008 Pulitzer prize-winning business newspaper – this appears to be the last bastion for newspapers in the US as the Web Ubeerall phenomenon picks up steam in the Economic meltdown. So I thought it would be good to do some Jay Leno-like Street walking
IBD-Investors Busines Daily Read More »
The new anchor, David Gregory at Meet the Press, is interviewing Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice. Apparently the mission is to get “a frank assessment of President Bush” from Condi. And as is typical of recent US Military tactics -a full frontal assault with a barrage of embarrassing questions is being attempted. And of course
Here is a story ostensibly about something else but really that indicates there will be a changing of the guard in the Financial World. One of many.
Changing of the Guard Read More »
In mathematics QED Quod Est Demonstrandum is used at the end of a proof. It means that which was required to be proved has now been provided for all to see. I have been arguing for the last two years that the US Financial System has gone off the rails because of unmitigated greed (I
This is a tongue in cheek “PRAISE” for the Economist story on the Failure of the US bailout of its auto companies. The Economist gets two very important points dead wrong; The Economist says – “A number of Republican senators were prepared to do just that, essentially because they believed that pouring more money into
The Economist Errs Grievously Read More »
The US is beginning to see the consequences of having a Failed State or 5 on its border with Mexico as the drug trade problems spiral out of control. Interestingly, the idea that anything can be bought is the driving force behind the drug terror in Mexico. The same attitude has come lurching on the
Political Corruption Read More »
Governor Rod Blagojevich provided all the US political humorists a recharging since the end of the US Presidential campaign – the Jon Stewart Show, Steven Colbert Report, and even the Sunday Funnies on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos were crammed with “wise cracks”. But as David Letterman shows, the political humor virtually wrote itself.However,
Blagojevich Humor Has Bite Read More »
The NYTimes has a story on the Bernard Madoff $50Billion Ponzi scheme that has wreaked havoc among the wealthy in New York this Christmas. Fittingly the story title is : For Investors, Trust Lost, and Money Too Maddof’s doing to his posh investors is but a reflection of what US Finance and Wall Street has
What is a Failed State? Wikipedia has a good starting definition which is worth repeating here: “Common characteristics of a failing state include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory; non-provision of public services; widespread corruption and criminality; refugees and involuntary movement of populations;
Having a Failed State on Your Border Read More »
I have been waiting for Barrons, Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune to clarify the issue – what do the Big 3 carmakers pay their workers and what effect does this have on the overall cost of the car. The New York Times business section claims to have done it. The average is around $56/hour +
Finally, Whats in $73/hour? Read More »
Given our previous post it is instructive to consider that even dogs can sense fair play.
Even Dogs Can Sense Fair Play Read More »
LaPopessa along with Buckarooskidoo have a blog Make it Stop! Make it Stop! that is purportedly “the ramblings of [some] dangerous minds”. I beg to differ. I find it fascinating for four reasons: First, it takes on topics that from time to time the popular press needs to be coaxed into looking at in detail;
The Blog of LaPopessa and Buckarooskidoo Read More »
In making the Cabinet Appointment of Retired General Eric Shinseki as Secretary for Veterans Affairs, President-Elect Obama emphatically did the right thing. First, it sent a clear signal to all of the complicitous Bush Administration officials, particularly ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who forced the general into retirement, that General Shinseki was right about a
The NYTimes has an excellent story on the change that is coming to Wall Street, Private Equity and the Masters of the Universe dwelling there. What makes this story cogent is that these guys (primarily) are busy trying to remake themselves as smart bond/debt holders – now that easy credit for stocks and buyouts has
Private Equity Reincarnations Read More »
Welcome to Pix of Toronto on WordPress 2.7. Our Toronto blog was down out for the count for the past few days. But thanks to some help from the WordPress people we have been able to restore Pixof Toronto.com to its full resplendent state! In addition we have added some new postings long overdue. Please
Welcome Back – Pix of Toronto! Read More »
One of the fundamental problems confronting the new Obama administration is that the flat world is working against American manufacturing jobs. For example, the Obama team is picking up the crescendo of calls for a US lead Green Revolution in technology and manufacturing not just in Energy and Cars but throughout all industries. But the
China’s Manufacturing Luster Diminishes Read More »
There is a “gaming” culture in the US Banking system that is has survived the Financial Meltdown – call it “the never give the suckers an even break” or “fiduciary trust? Why me worry?”. Unfortunately it appears to have spread across the border. And as witness I have the following unsolicited offer from Citibank from
The Bank “Gaming” Culture Read More »
The following story in the NYTimes illustrates in detail how stubbornly infectious and poisoning the Wahabi Sunni Terrorist War against the West really is and how perilously taut are relations between nuclear-armed Pakistan and nuclear-armed India. This Religious War of Terror is being lead by Osama Bin-laden and Al Man El Zawahari and other religious
Mumbai Attacks: Religious World Warfare Read More »
Business Week is describing how the people who brought you the Financial Meltdown are now busy siphoning off Meltdown Bailout money. See here the old/new SubPrime Wolves. And this is not the only occurrence. The NYTimes cites how badly depleted the FBI has been to fight white collar crime – and despite warnings and requests
At the Root of the Financial Crisis: White Collar Crime Goes Scot-free Again Read More »
If the article at the New York Times about GM’s shaky future is right, the company faces almost the same fate whether it takes the bailout or bankruptcy root – massive restructuring as GM dwindles in size and employment to a diminished image of itself. Many of GM’s VPs and middle managers are already without
GM’s Middle Managers Plight: Ruined Brands Read More »
There is a New York Times article – no, post mortem, on Citibank that is symptomatic for what has been going on on Wall Street for the past 5 -10 years and underlies the deepness of the malaise that afflicts the US Financial System. Here is an excerpt: “Today, Citigroup, once the nation€™s largest and
Greedy Guts Bring Down Citibank …. Read More »
Frank Partnoy at the Daily Beast has written an encomium( meaning lavish praise of a person or thing) to the Five Hedge Funders that each a)had to appear before Congress this past week and b)had to bear the burden of earning at least $1billion this past year for which they paid capital gains taxes at
Hedge Fund StuporHeroes Read More »
The question that gets asked everyday and of every Tom, Dick, and Henry Blodget Financial commentator is “when will the bottom be reached “in the current rollercoastering yet consistently swooning stock markets. And without fail, the Financial commentators fill the airwaves with incredible financial mumbo jumbo that even a voodo witch doctor would not lay
Hedge Fund Redemptions Read More »
