NLY is picking up. Now yielding 15.7%. Worth a nibble. Still searching for other nibbles. Interest rates are skyrocketing. Important to be careful. Don’t touch bonds or treasuries unless you fluke a miracle.
Steve Ballmer’s miserable legacy. He became MSFT CEO in January, 2000. Since then MSFT’s stock has fallen 35%. Ballmer bought 149 companies including a $6 billion one — aQuantive — that was a complete failure. Ballmer also missed some minor trends — like mobile, social networking, tablets (like the iPad), ebooks, music, search and the cloud. In the next few months names for possible CEO replacements will float around. Maybe that will add some bounce to MSFT’s desultory shares? Maybe. Personally I’d like to see Bill Gates take over. The New York Times had a couple of pieces on Saturday that tell all:
+ Anything-but-ordinary succession for company at a crossroad. Click here.
+ A tenure of constant acquisition and one deal that didn’t close. Click here.
+ Old article at Vanity Fair. Microsoft’s lost decade. Click here.
+ From the New Yorker, “Why Steve Ballmer failed.”
Steve Ballmer, the C.E.O. of Microsoft, finally figured out a way to make some money for himself: he quit. This morning, Ballmer announced that he will retire within the next twelve months. The company’s stock surged; Ballmer is now worth about a billion dollars more than he was on Thursday.
Click here.
Got grown-up children? Please encourage them to watch this piece on planning for retirement. It’s Cramer, but it’s actually very good. Michael, my son, has watched it twice. In it, Cramer explains how you should approach 401(k)s and IRAs. And what young people should invest in for their retirement — mostly equities. Basic message:
+ Max out your 401(k) contributions based on the “free” money you get from your company.
+ Put most of your savings in an IRA.
+ Invest in equities — or even an S&P index fund or ETF, if you’re too busy.
+ Don’t invest much in the stock of the company you work for. You already have that gamble by working there.
The video is here.
35 innovators under 35 — from MIT. Neat list. Click here.
Check. Check. Check. The most powerful motto ever invented.
+ Check the the zinc roof you specified is actually zinc, not aluminum. (Just discovered by a local architect on his roof.)
+ Check the green material on your tennis court is really Har-Tru, not some fake stuff from a cheap quarry in Vermont. (Happened to me.)
+ Check that limit on your credit card advances is set to $0. If not, you’ll be hacked and will enjoy several hours of fun while you have to alert all your vendors that your credit card was changed. Some may have already cut you off and then you’ll be scrambling for a new vendor. (It happened to me.)
The U.S. Open Tennis begins today. It will be on The Tennis Channel, ESPN2 and CBS.
Harry Newton who had a lovely weekend with family and friends, but no tennis. The eye is almost perfect. The constant drops are a pain. A big joy: Cranking up the size of the type on my laptop’s screen by 25%. Much easier to read. Control Panel/Display. Probably designed for people between 71 and death. Heh, that’s me. Who’s complaining? The alternative doesn’t appeal.
Harry,
Regarding the MIT “35 innovators under 35,” did you read their “7 over 70” article?
http://www.technologyreview.com/fromtheeditor/518386/seven-over-70/
Harry, you do realize that mortgage backed security REITs like NLY, MTGE, AGNC, TWO, etc., are just levered bond funds, right? If you are avoiding bonds because you fear what rates are going to do then you should also avoid these types of REITs. There is no free lunch out there. These types of REITs have such high dividend yields becasue they buy longer dated bonds (at a higher yield) and lever them up using shorter dated financing (at a lower yield/rate). The leverage on these guys is typically around 6-1 which is why they have gone down over 30% since the begining of May while the 10yr Treasury has gone down about 5%.