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.
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LewisBraham
Hi Hank,
Your satire came across very well. Don't worry about the user name.
Best,
Lewis
@vkt By its nature, profits in a capitalist system involve some form of exploitation of labor if you consider making money for work you did not do exploitation. Others call that a return on risk capital as I said. But consider an outside investor in…
Powerball's $1.3 Billion Swindle of Americans: thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/01/11/3737974/powerball-lotteries/
This is worth a read. Here's an excerpt:
"In October, the consortium of states that runs Powerball approved a series of rule changed tha…
I have a feeling they might be doing this to avoid front running by hedge funds shorting their bonds or looking to buy them on the cheap. An interesting part of the Third Avenue story as opposed to this one was that hedge funds were profiting off th…
I'd be surprised if this suit gets very far. While the prospectus might state 25% as an upper limit for a position, that usually means an upper limit for an initial investment. If that initial investment grows above the 25% level through appreciatio…
@Anna and Old Joe, I think the hardest thing to plan for emergency-wise is any sort of long-term disability. My impression is even the insurance options aren't all that great and extremely expensive for good coverage.
Think of it this way: You've worked your entire life at a job or a career if you hopped around. Then you're expected to trust your retirement--your golden years--to the stock market--something the best experts on the subject admit is a random walk. …
Some facts to consider:
1. On an inflation adjusted basis wages for those receiving minimum wage have actually declined in the last 30 years.
2. Wages in general for Americans have not budged at all on an inflation adjusted basis during the same pe…
I think bear funds can be used in conjunction with long only funds as a far cheaper synthetic substitute for long-short mutual funds. While I respect investors who object to any sort of shorting on principle, it seems hypocritical to me for any inve…
@dicksonL From an economic perspective your strategy for dealing with exorbitant U.S. drug prices makes complete sense. Such medical tourism is becoming increasingly common. But there are other factors to consider. One is what recourse would you hav…
@David, Stephen Yacktman has been listed as a manager of the Yacktman Focused Fund since 2002 so part of its record must be attributed to him, for better or for worse. He seems competent and intelligent whenever I speak to him, although my reading a…
@Ted It's not volatility that is my concern with concentrated funds, but individual business risk, i.e., the risk of the permanent impairment of capital with a position in Sequoia's case that grew to 29% of the fund. That's not about volatility. The…
@MSF, States do, and they should in my view given the obesity epidemic and health care costs from that, but I think Little5Bee was asking if the federal government would tax. Since the federal government gives subsidies to corn farmers, to tax junk …
@little5bee, I'm not sure the government would get involved with taxing junk food and sodas, but if you consider that right now the government is subsidizing junk food/soda as its primary ingredient is corn--corn syrup, corn chips, etc.--it would be…
Quite frankly if we eliminated private insurance altogether and put everyone on Medicare, medical costs per capita would most likely go down. Medicare has long had much greater bargaining power than private insurers with pharmaceutical companies and…
A better headline might be: Whitebox Getting Out of Mutual Fund Business.
I don't think they run more than three funds. I guess some strategies are more suited for a hedge fund format and vice versa. My impression was they had a great record as hedg…
Good luck with passing that with this Congress. If they won't increase the gas tax to fix roads and bridges collapsing before their eyescnn.com/2011/11/18/opinion/tsay-gordon-gas-tax-myths/ there's no way they'll do it to curb carbon emissions.
The other factor not incorporated in these kinds of graphs is how the measurement of CPI has changed over time. I doubt it was the same in 1775 as today. The same`goes for stock market returns, which sometimes don't include the returns for companies…
A rather dumb story as the cost of electrical generation--the primary use for solar and wind power--has almost nothing to do with the price of oil. Natural gas and coal are the primary competitors in this sphere as they are used extensively to gener…
@Edmond, I suggest if you're going to code your racism, ethnocentricity and Islamo-phobia you come up with a better term for our president than 'Hussein Obama." It's a bit dated and transparent at this point--a little too 2008. Maybe you should call…
@little5bee,
We could control gun violence by regulating the bullets instead of the guns. Click here: huffingtonpost.com/sarah-oleary/bullet-regulation_b_2332996.html
Or as Chris Rock put it in a more comical vein:
“You don’t need no gun control, yo…
@Dan, Depending on which side of the political spectrum you're on, I would choose this:
morningstar.com/funds/XNAS/PRBLX/quote.html
or this:
morningstar.com/etfs/ARCX/ITA/quote.html
@MSF: "Just remember, Jesus saves, but George [Baby Face] Nelson withdraws! :https://youtube.com/watch?v=akvj7IraD3s
If only everyone had a tommy gun like George Baby Face Nelson, the world would be a much safer happier place. In fact, given the red…
@Dex, It's funny how when the Supreme court rules in favor of an issue people support they see the issue as settled and in accordance with the visions of the Founding Fathers. But when the Supreme Court rules in favor of an issue people don't suppor…
@heezsafe, Last I heard James Madison was the author of the Second Amendment and he is considered a founding father. Nor did he intend for the amendment to apply to assault rifles and hand guns for every lone gunman: nydailynews.com/opinion/amendmen…
I don't think the founding fathers had assault weapons or concealed handguns in mind when they penned the second amendment. The idea was to have an organized trained militia of citizens in case of another war, not to support the rights of lone gunme…
@Old Joe, It's funny you ask because this book that recently came out on the history of the 19th century is being heralded as a masterpiece:
amazon.com/Transformation-World-History-Nineteenth-Century/dp/0691147450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448424…
@little5bee, You're right. A completely socialized government-run healthcare system like Sweden, France and Germany would be far cheaper and more efficient than overpriced Obamacare is. The compromises the Obama administration had to make with the p…
Regarding "expensive health care regulations" and entrepreneurial activity:
articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/05/business/la-fi-mh-job-lock-20140205
aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2015-03/JobLock-Report.pdf
usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/06/obamac…
@little5bee, I never said you were a Tea Party member. I am specifically talking about members of Congress who would rather shut the government down than compromise on anything.
@Old Joe Extremes of any ideology tend not to work well. This is why many Democrats miss those old school Republicans who were willing to negotiate on the issues instead of these new Tea Party ones who seem to want to burn anything with the word "go…
As I said above, capitalism and socialism exist on a spectrum and are not really binary either/or systems. So the idea that socialism "kills motivation" is quite frankly bunk. In fact, you could just as easily say capitalism kills certain kinds of …
@MJG: "As a writer you must have a special, ironclad commitment to the area." The implication being that no one would willingly move to a "dreary" place like Pittsburgh if they had the choice. Blurp, blurp, blurp--help! I'm drowning in your verbose …
@Little5bee, Use a real news source on Soros, not a conservative advocacy group like the Western Journalism Center. I don't like him meddling in politics anymore than the Koch brothers. But 1) the stats on campaign contributions are hard to actually…
@Anna, The difference is Soros is donating to causes and politicians that hurt his own financial interests--such as increasing his own tax rate as a wealthy person--while the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson, Foster Friess and Paul Singer are specifically loo…
@MJG, You insulted my home while boasting of your own. Leave it at that. Aside from the blatant snobbery or perhaps a complete lack of class consciousness if your version of things is to be believed, how does the fact that a comedian told one senten…
@Passive Aggressive: "In the early 1950s I spent a month there one long dreary weekend. I was preparing for a job interview the next morning. This was at a time when the Blue Laws severely restricted doing much of anything on a Sunday. Even finding …
