Disney and Nike. We’re picking well.
But Zoetis? That was great. And then. This one is weird.
I’m guessing management is not interested in a takeover, which is understandable, since they just got spun off. I continue to like the company.
Other picks on the right. Note: they range from ultra-speculative, small cap through S&P 500 index funds. Tread carefully. It’s all about allocation.
I don’t know where this market is going. But I do know that it’s insane to borrow money to buy stocks. I hear that excess borrowing by individuals is causing huge problems in China’s stockmarket.
Index funds look increasingly fine.
Favorite words on Greece. From this week’s BusinessWeek:
Greece has underperformed since 146 B.C.E., when Corinth—and eventually the rest of Hellas—fell to the Romans. It’s been in default on its sovereign debt for half the years since winning independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832. Its economy is stultified by statism and corruption. But it remains blessed with breathtaking scenery, treasures of antiquity, and a creative, industrious people who have enjoyed great success—albeit more often outside Greece. Its potential is vast. If Greece can get its act together even a bit, this drama doesn’t have to end in tragedy.
This weekend is “sh*t or get off the pot” time for Greece.
Here are rioters marching in Buenos Aires in December 2001, courtesy today’s New York Times.
Today’s story is called “In Argentina’s Footsteps, Greece stands to lose.” Click here.
My friends tell me that ordinary Greeks in general and pensioners in particular are fearful that if Greece returns to the Drachma, no one will take it and they won’t be able to travel to, or buy anything from the rest of Europe. They’ll be Europe’s pariahs.
Weekend reading:
+ Calpers’s Disclosure on Fees Brings Surprise, and Scrutiny. Click here.
Useful stuff.
+ The Apple Watch comes with an irritating passcode. You turn it off on your iPhone.
+ Remember to turn your cell phone on after you leave the theater.
+ Don’t ever turn your computer off without saving your work and closing every program.
+ Run Microsoft’s “Save my Office Settings.” Makes installing Office on your new machine so much easier.
+ Hit the Save button every two or three minutes — and every time you get up. New horror: My laptop would stop working and shut down, to a black screen. Go to woe in less than one second. Turned out it needed a replacement motherboard. It took a while to figure out. Hence the need to hit the Save button regularly.
+ When Gerry and I ran our publishing business, we had a rule to contact every potential customer (i.e. advertiser) four times a month — by email, by fax, by snail mail, by phone, by UPS (for a present). Whatever. The key was four times a month.
+ My Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner is the greatest tool I’ve ever owned. Thank you Brendan for recommending it.
I have an older model. This newer one costs $420 and is worth every penny. Works wonderfully with Evernote. Get it here.
Forbes’ annual is out.
They like lending to small businesses. Writes Forbes:
Karen Gordon Mills, a Harvard Business School Senior Fellow and former Small Business Administration head, concluded in a paper last year that bank lending to small business is in a secular decline that started well before the Great Recession. Loans below $1 million now account for just 25% of banks’ commercial lending, down from 40% in 2005 and 52% in 1995. Mills predicted online small business lenders, with their lower costs, speedier decisions and new algorithms for judging credit risk, would transform banking in the same way “Amazon.com AMZN -0.16% changed retail and Square has changed the small business payments business.”
For more, read Forbes here.
The most creative photos you’ll ever see. Check them out. Click Creatividad
The wet floor
Two police officers responding to a domestic disturbance with shots fired arrive on the scene.
After discovering the wife had shot her husband for walking across her freshly mopped floor, they called their sergeant on his cell phone.
“Hello Sarge.”
“Yes.”
“It looks like we have a homicide here”, the officer reported.
“What happened?”, asked the Sergeant.
“A woman shot her husband for stepping on the floor she had just mopped.
“The Sergeant asked, “Have you placed her under arrest?”
“No sir. The floor is still wet.”
Harry Newton. The Supreme Court has ruled. Same sex marriage is legal. The states can’t forbid it. Weddings are one business that’s hard to outsource overseas.
Look what they’re dong in France. The local taxidrivers are upset with new Uber competition.
Does Scan Snap do anything for me my regular 3 in 1 scanner printer does not do. It looks pricey
I have a three in one scanner printer also. But it’s slow and not “efficient.” This Fujitsu is a life organizer. A tax organizer. An investment organizer. Suddenly, you don’t think twice about scanning a 20-page document, and filing it on your hard drive. It’s hard to explain. It’s a different mindset. I find it enormously useful. I use it many times each day.
Harry, we just need a PE firm to buy Greece…problem solved.
let’s see what a private equity firm would do. first, they would fire all the government employees. second, promote the greek government as in a surplus. third, borrow against that surplus and give themselves a huge dividend. fourth, put the government in the charge of a group of inexperienced MBAs. and finally, when the greek government again goes into default, have the government pay the PE firm a big consulting fee to do the whole process all over again.
Harry,
Apple Watch comment: I got mine yesterday so still in “beta” mode, but the only time I have had to use my passcode is when I take it off. Even using apple pay it’s just a double click.
Good for you. Several of my fiends and I found it asking for its passcode every time we used it. Maybe yours was set up differently?