{"id":12931,"date":"2012-05-03T09:12:15","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T13:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=12931"},"modified":"2012-05-03T11:06:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T15:06:51","slug":"agnc-does-well-and-so-does-radioshack-you-have-to-play-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=12931","title":{"rendered":"AGNC does well. And so does RadioShack. You HAVE to play both sides."},"content":{"rendered":"

Mortgage REIT AGNC did really well. It reported strong, much higher\u00a0 earnings.\u00a0 Worth reading management’s report. Click here.<\/strong><\/a> Dividend yield is 17.5%. Seeking Alpha’s latest plug for mortgage REITs. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why do I hate Sears? <\/span><\/strong>The last time I visited a Sears store, I applied my usual “Billionaire Test:\u00a0 I’m a billionaire I can afford anything. Now find something to buy.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I couldn’t find anything. Niente. Narda. Nothing. It was depressing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday our Dyson vacuum broke. I call Dyson. We identify that it needs a new clutch motor. Sadly, it turns out, Sears online sells the $66 replacement.It’s Dyson’s parts distributor. I find the part on Sears miserable web site. I try to buy it online. It tells me I’m making mistakes, but doesn’t explain where… I try online “chat.” Ten minutes, someone answers. Fifteen minutes later she calls me and we do the transaction on the phone. From scratch all over again. Turns out the price on the phone is different to the price online. Delivery is long and expensive. And you can’t speak to a supervisor to speed up delivery “because that won’t do you any good, Mr. Newton.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Good news. I dropped by Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought a new Dyson on 20% sale. Now, this is a retailer:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cockroach stocks?I need to make a big list. <\/span><\/strong>There are obvious cockroach stocks that are going down. And there are high fliers who seem to be breaking down. This requires a comprehensive list. Here’s the beginnings.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

+ Radioshack (RSH) — downgraded by Morgan Stanley to an underweight. They have a $4.50 target. RSH closed last night at $5.02. RSH has been my best recent short. I wish I had bed the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

+ BestBuy.Why it’s slowly going out of business. Forbes piece, click here.<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

+ Research in Motion (RIMM). Continuing dumb decisions. Like giving to developers phones that can’t make calls.<\/p>\n

+ Chesapeake Energy. I was right about that stock. It crashed yesterday after lousing earnings. But I lacked faith in my own case and panicked. Dumb me. Good lesson.<\/p>\n

Losing iPads. Don’t leave the plane without it.<\/strong><\/span> That’s the heading on a recent Economist story. Apparently passengers put their iPads in the seat pocket and then leave them there. My rule: Never put anything in the seat pcoket Two reasons:<\/p>\n

+ You’ll leave it there.<\/p>\n

+ It will be covered with the germs of years of dumped Kleenex tissues.<\/p>\n

Read the Economist piece here.<\/strong><\/a> the Wall Street Journal also a piece. <\/a><\/p>\n

Home prices may never boom again. <\/strong><\/span> From Smart Money:<\/em><\/p>\n

When will U.S. house prices recover? Likely never. But that’s no reason not to buy.<\/p>\n

The latest S&P \/ Case-Shiller numbers, reported last week, show that prices in 20 major markets declined 3.5% over the year through February. They’re now back to 2002 levels. If we subtract for inflation, they’re back to 1998 levels.<\/p>\n

But consider: After subtracting for inflation, prices are also back to 1986 levels. And 1955 levels. And 1895 levels (see chart).<\/p>\n

That’s because the natural rate of price appreciation for houses is zero after inflation. Prices will eventually stop falling. They’ll resume rising. But over the long term, they’re unlikely to resume rising faster than inflation.<\/p>\n

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The full article is here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What a horrible chart. <\/span><\/strong>You wouldn’t want to be young and living in Europe. They’re about to lose an entire generation.<\/span> <\/span><\/strong>We ought to be over there aggressively hiring their best and brightest. <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today’s favorite blonde “joke”:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

After becoming very frustrated with the attitude of one\u00a0 of the shopkeepers, the young blonde declared, ‘Well, then, maybe I’ll just go\u00a0 out and catch my own alligator and get a pair of alligator shoes for free!’<\/p>\n

The shopkeeper replied with a sly smile, ‘Well, little\u00a0 lady, why don’t you go give it a try?’<\/p>\n

The blonde headed off to the\u00a0 swamp, determined to catch an alligator. Later in the day, the shopkeeper was\u00a0 driving home, and spotted the young woman standing waist deep in the murky\u00a0 water, shotgun in hand.<\/p>\n

He saw a huge 9-foot gator swimming rapidly\u00a0 toward her. With lightning reflexes, the blond took aim, shot the creature and\u00a0 hauled it up onto the slippery bank.<\/p>\n

Nearby were 7 more dead gators all\u00a0 lying belly up. The shopkeeper watched in amazement as the blond struggled with\u00a0 the gator.<\/p>\n

Then, rolling her eyes, she screamed in\u00a0 frustration……<\/p>\n

Sonofabitch!! … THIS ONE’S BAREFOOT,\u00a0 TOO!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Harry Newton who, as an America Jew, is always conflicted in his views towards Israel. It is, with great interest that I recently read an obituary of the present Israeli prime minister’s father, Benzion Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\"\"ht<\/a><\/p>\n

Bibi (right) and his father. Benzion was very hawhish (as is his son). From the article:<\/p>\n

The elder Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s views were relentlessly hawkish. He argued that Jews inevitably faced discrimination that was racial, not religious, and that compromising with Arabs was futile.<\/p>\n

For the full obit, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mortgage REIT AGNC did really well. It reported strong, much higher\u00a0 earnings.\u00a0 Worth reading management’s report. Click here. Dividend yield is 17.5%. Seeking Alpha’s latest plug for mortgage REITs. Click here. Why do I hate Sears? The last time I visited a Sears store, I applied my usual “Billionaire Test:\u00a0 I’m a billionaire I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}