stonebluff

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  • 3M CEO: Wisdom of the Ages
    Doesn't he mean "sowing" instead of "reaping"? Reaping and harvesting are the same thing.
    Dec 10 12:27 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Still Far from the Bottom
    I suspect that demand for loans IS there, but that lenders, as they should have done long ago, have raised their standards.
    Nov 26 12:41 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Ten High Yield, Below Book Stocks
    lincoln national has cut its dividend in half.
    Nov 10 10:51 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Timber REITs: Above Vicissitudes of Cycles
    You can make lequid fuel from wood chips and sawdust.
    Oct 31 18:07 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Stocks for the Long Run?
    I bought my first stock,GM, right after the Korean War started and the market tumbled. I made about $400 in a few months and I was hooked. I have always been a long term holder, but willing to sell if a stock looked hopeless or hopelessly overpriced. Taxes and commissions used to be so high that it was tough to make any money getting in and out. I kept at it through good times and bad, my goal being to get dividend income to the point that if I couldn't or didn't want to work, I could quit and still live decently. After raising 4 children and putting them through college (and private schools) I quit work and have lived off my dividend income for 24 years. My wife and I did not live extravagantly, but we lived well, and consistently saved. Watch income, with stocks as cheap as they now are, I expect that my income will actually rise for at least a while. The trick in this program is to keep income and capital rising at least at the rate of inflation. It can be done with common stocks (and an occasional convertible). As Scott Burns points out, mutual funds are a tough go because of costs, other peoples bad management, etc.

    If you want to get rich, buy income producing real estate. Real estate has the advantage of leverage to jack up the returns. But you've got to be willing to deal with tenants and even occasionally get your hands dirty, or have a spouse who'll do those unpleasant tasks. I have a friend who followed that route for 45 years and he now spends half his time cruising with his girl friend. (he's a widower) and his son looks after his properties, about l50 now. Right now is probably a better time to buy residential real estate than stocks.

    Oct 14 11:38 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Why Is Occidental Petroleum Undervalued?
    Why do you think the buybacks will support OXY stock? Is there any evidence of that? Most writers say just what you say, but they never say how or why. As for PBR, I've done quite well, but these big new finds look years away from any return and huge drainers of cash in the meantime.
    Jun 03 12:47 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • How to Invest in Norway
    I have found banks to be a pretty good country proxy. Doesn't Norway have any buyable bank shares? Oil being a commodity over whose prices no one seems to have control, it strikes me as a dubious proxy for any country that has anything other than oil.
    Jun 03 12:38 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Massey Energy: Continuing to Expand
    Shouldn't the huge judgment against them get a mention?
    May 25 20:17 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy
    l. It's a little naive to suppose that it's harmful to the US for foreigners to buy property from us. I represented foreigners investing here for years, and usually they seemed to me to be overpaying. We Americans do a pretty good job of pricing our stuff.

    2. How can anyone think that the interposition of an insurance company between the patient and doctor or hospital do anything but add to the costs of medical care? The first thing we should do is make medical expenses deductible for income tax calculations again. Then we should recognized that we're all going to die. Then we should recognized that medical people are humans dealing with
    mechanisms of which they have little understanding. Then one can begin to discuss healthcare rationally.
    May 13 11:30 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Petrobras: Poised for Growth
    The article is about PBR, not PZE.
    May 12 09:35 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Why You Should Short Companies Doing Share Buybacks
    There is an elemental flaw in the concept of buybacks. They reward exshareholders, not shareholders. Buybacks may make sense for closed end funds selling at a discount, and for other companies whose assets for whatever reason are discounted in the share price.

    Money is the capital of banks, brokers and insurance companies. When they buyback shares above tangible book they actually reduce their ability to do business. Otherwise they tend to be paying $2 for $1. I hope that the management of financial institutions that squandered their capital on buybacks and now are hustling capital on outrageous terms have learned their lesson. For banks and bank holding companies, at least, the regulators should enforce restraints on buybacks that may impair the business.

    Some S & P guys recently did a study(so I read) that purported to demonstrate that buybacks rarely helped the price of a company's stock. I wish someone would do a study demonstrating the effect of buybacks on financial institutions during the current mess.

    Buybacks are so generally treated as beneficial in the financial press that is seems almost heretical to call them into question. Sajaz' article is extremely timely because it makes one at least question the alleged benefits of buybacks.

    Does anyone compile a list of companies like LUK and BRK that as a matter of principle do not do buybacks? I'd like to see it.

    will remember that.Nobody except the management of the banks and insurance companies now trying to hustle new capital because they squandered their old capital on buybacks seems to believe that.
    May 09 22:24 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • NCC
    In my anger yesterday I said that NCC bought its shares in '07 at 5 times tangible book. It was over 2 times tangible book. But my point is the same. Its still dumb to pay $2 for $1.
    Apr 17 13:05 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View forum topic
  • National City Just a Victim of Its Industry
    It is idiotic for a banking institution EVER to buy its own shares at 5 times tangible book. I wrote NCC in protest at the time and got a "board in its infinite wisdom" reply. NCC was not alone, of course. Banks should by law be prohibited from buyingback their stock above tangible book without regulators permission and options of bank employees should never be exercisable at a price below book (I don't say tangible book here). This crisis would be minute by comparison had this rule been in place. They should take a bank like WFSL as their model.
    Apr 16 10:29 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • M&T Bank a Bargain at Current Levels: Low P/E, Attractive Dividend Yield
    This writer's blogs are interesting, though I doubt the wisdom of automatic investing of dividends. If you've owned a stock a while you'll have a feel for when it's cheap. Why does Pravchaw think M&T's (or any bank's) buybacks at multiples of book and high multiples of tangible book are good for M&T or shareholders? They weaken the bank. They be good for the exshareholders who bail ou into buyback programs, but I cannot see how I, a continuing shareholder am benefited.
    Apr 07 12:14 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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