Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Wilson noted the gap between reported earnings and cash flow is the widest in 25 years, driven by excess inventory and capitalized costs that have yet to be reflected.
Be careful is right.
Remember what happened to poor Jerry Kosinski
His suicide note read: "I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity."[
I think that the drive for no till farming, the start up mentioned that claims to eliminate nitrogen fertilizer, and "precision planting " are driven by drought conditions, falling water tables and the need to reduce nitrogen runoff and be more ecol…
@ Crash
Sorry to hear about your sciatica. It sound permanent? PT is relatively ineffective for bad disc disease if the pressure on the nerve root cannot be relived. Typical ordinary sciatic gets better as the extruded disc material dries out and…
Bloomberg's John Authers had a very good discussion of SI yesterday. It is behind a paywall, but the bottom line as I sorta understand it is that in addition to this FHLB loan, the bank had large portfolio of Bonds a lot of which were on the books a…
I used to take everything there as useful and worth using, but as I have gotten more experienced, I now use it mainly for confirmation and only occasionally for new ideas.
Other than our good buddy here, Lewis, I find a lot of the columnists much …
I don't think we were listed as beneficiaries, just as her heirs. We could have each taken one bond but the bank might have insisted the proceeds go to each of us in thirds. My sisters tend to not like anything financial and there were other issues…
Interesting he thinks energy is expensive although most oil stocks are trading at PE etc well below the SP500 and energy still makes up a tiny % of SP500
I am on Mark's side. I am still a paper addict, but think it is wise not to have to through out 14 full newspapers (NYT and WaPo) a week in addition to three or four slick magazines.
Reading online is not the same to me as on paper.
A large part …
@Old_Joe
Good thing you get it at all. I can't get Barron's delivered and it has to be mailed, so it arrives Tuesday or Wednesday
I get the Economist online, but it is not the same as paper ( nor is any newspaper)
On the other hand it takes me h…
The hypocrisy of "freedom loving, little government" conservatives using state governments to force companies to do their bidding is jaw dropping. DeSantis and Disney is the worst example, but the "ban-ESG" movement has bigger financial implicati…
@msf
The bonds were still in my Mom's name. We thought about changing that while she was still alive, but it would have required us all to go to bank and do the same thing and she didn't have the stamina for it at 99.
I don't remember if we could …
My sisters and I cashed three matured paper bonds my recently deceased Mom bought years ago.
It required the three of us to sit in a bank officer's office for over a two hours signing, notarizing etc. We eventually got the money ( took several mon…
@LewisBraham
I agree, at least in theory that commoditized product producers are probably more easily rewarded for such abuses if they improve the bottom line. But for companies with brand vale and pricing power to be different requires that their…
@Observant1
Thanks for link to Professor Snowball's article on China. There he says small cap funds, are less likely to be in China
One small cap value fund, not strictly EM, that has done well over the years ( That David profiled in 2015) is QUS…
Among other "perpetual bulls" ( it seems) on EM is GMO
For a very long time they have believed Emerging markets will outperform almost everything else, but I think this is almost all based on valuation.
There are a lot of moving parts to try to un…
Seafarer's take on the Chinese Property Bond market.
Not good
https://www.seafarerfunds.com/commentary/the-transparency-problem-in-chinas-credit-markets/
It seems difficult to even screen for emerging market funds that don't have Chinese exposur…
Does becoming a billionaire require you to support actions that if not criminal, are morally repugnant?
Sure seems like that in many cases. Slave labor, child labor, locking employees into the factory, union busting, fighting minimal train safety …
Seeking Alpha has several explanations of the options strategies they use. It is pretty complicated compared to funds that use simpler covered call option strategies, like JHQAX or GATEX for example. I just started digging into JEPI and do not yet …
BTW Blackstone's CEO and 20% Owner, Steven Schwarzman, took home $1.27 BILLION last year, although the stock dropped 40%.
"Behind every great fortune there lies a great crime"
He also was the third largest individual donor to GOP "election denie…
RE China
I try to avoid funds that have an unknown exposure to China, so I use "Ex-China" funds if possible.
If I want to invest in China, I use KBA, Krane Shares China A shares as a pure speculation.
I have serious qualms about China's human…
The 1950s were not good times to have cancer, or be exposed to polio, measles or mumps as there were only just beginning to have vaccines, or to get heart disease. Bacterial disease was on the run as Penicillin was widely available along with other …
I admit I am cynical about the goals of the CEOs of corporate America, but there are lots of small efforts that make a huge difference if focused. Look at "Judd at Popular Information"
Impressive results from Green Century.
Also interesting and i…
Even well regarded ESG friendly BWIAX has 2% in Blackstone. It is unclear what the relative impact of an egregious practice such as allowing unsafe child labor practices has on these ESG ratings.
The ratings are generally vague and rather opaque, u…
@LewisBraham
Thanks for tip on Green Century. Quick look shows they have about matched SP500 while avoiding fossil fuel etc. As 2% is ABBV and MRK 1.5% they are not too focused on inflated drug costs as a social issue.
Their fees are rather hi…
The US does not have capitalism. What we live under is a "corporate socialistic welfare" where huge corporations get federal and state benefits of all kinds ( tax breaks, regulatory pass throughs, sweetheart laws etc) as long as they pay off the pol…
At least on Schwab, Treasuries pay more than a CD up to 18 mos and they are easily liquidated without a penalty and are state tax exempt.
Two and three years CDs are 0.25 and 0.4 % ahead, but who knows what interest rates will be then.
I had a CD …
Looks like the train crew should have had plenty of warning derailment was coming. One axle was on fire for 20 miles, visible on track side cameras. There were probably so few crew on the train no one noticed. The heat sensing alarm didn't functio…
I have never had much success with Vanguard funds, other than the standard plain vanilla stock and bond funds. With a few exceptions they do not seem to know what role they want them to play
@ss24
No I received no explanation from the fund company, just the statement that they changed the NAV ( 2 months later) because it was "incorrect". In an email they did not admit anything other than say they would refund e the money as a courtesy.…
