Clippings

[Shakespeare]

The J. Lo marriage market

Whoever coded that popover ad should be banished to Hell to spend the rest of eternity untangling Fortran spaghetti loops.

[Bylo Selhi]

The J. Lo marriage market

Whoever coded that popover ad should be banished to Hell to spend the rest of eternity untangling Fortran spaghetti loops.

Whoever coded the Firefox popup blocker should get to spend the night with 72 virgins because I haven't a clue what you're talking about

[Taggart]

Shakes said:

>>>Whoever coded that popover ad should be banished to Hell to spend the rest of eternity untangling Fortran spaghetti loops.<<<

Don't look at me. The last thing I ever coded was in RPG III, but that was like over 30 years ago, and I wasn't much good at it.

[Taggart]

Forbes

Carl Delfeld, 05.22.06, 12:00 AM ET

Carl Delfeld represented the U.S. on the Asian Development Bank board and heads the global investment advisory firm Chartwell Partners

Challenge the Indexes

MGH Asset Management Ltd

[Taggart]

Marc Faber

09-May-06

[url=http://www.gloomboomdoom.com/marketcoms/mcdownloads/060509.pdf]Poor Mr. Bernanke
[/url]

[Bylo Selhi]

Don't put much stock in the TV experts

Stocks go up and down, but eventually, most go up. So if you invest and hold on, odds are you'll do quite well. As my former Princeton economics professor, Burton Malkiel, told me, "The stock market is like a gambling casino with the odds in your favor. Over the long pull, it beats inflation, and beats it by a great deal."

If you want to beat other investors, too, it's logical to think that you should turn to the most visible specialists for advice. These men and women make their living studying stocks, and they sound so confident on CNBC. You'd think they could beat the market.

Don't bet on it...

[Taggart]

Diminishing returns

Experts sound alarm that market might be stingy for years to come.
By Gail MarksJarvis
Posted May 14, 2006

[Taggart]

Sat, May. 20, 2006

Jeremy Siegel

Boomers could bust stocks

Instead, he believes that as wealth grows in the developing nations, so will those nations' portion of the world's stock market capitalization. Siegel predicts that the developed countries' share will fall from 92 percent of the world's capital in 2000 to 33 percent in 2050, while the developing nations' share will rise from 8 percent to 67 percent. He sees the U.S. share falling from 41 percent to 17 percent.

[Taggart]

20 Reasons to Love the Sell-Off

by Pat Dorsey, CFA

05-19-06 | 02:50 PM

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

I tend to get a lot of calls from reporters when the market tanks, and they always ask the same question, "So why do you think the market is down?" Since "I have no idea" (I don't, and neither does anyone else) isn't very quotable, I like to reframe the question.

Instead of obsessing about why the market has sold off over the past couple of weeks--you'll never know, and besides, it's already down--why not ask instead what stocks have become cheap enough to buy? After all, when the local department store has a big sale, you don't ask why those crazy people are slashing prices. You say, "Put the kids in the car, and let's go shopping!" That's exactly the attitude to have right now about high-quality blue chips.

[Taggart]

Wall Street Journal

May 21, 2006

By JONATHAN CLEMENTS

Make Sure Your Money Lasts as Long as You

Retirement is a time to kick back, relax and wonder whether you will outlive your savings.

This, I regret, is a real danger. Spending down a portfolio in retirement is a wildly tricky exercise.

The problem: In all likelihood, you will want to spend more than your portfolio's after-cost, after-tax, after-inflation rate of return. And, in the long run, that can spell trouble.

[WishingWealth]

Taggart: Clements is a good read albeit too often a bit depressing.
But he is probably not read by the very people who would need to follow his advise.

On the other hand, I like the more balanced approach of Scott Burns which could be summed up by the anon. quote:

'To live poor and die poor is a tradedy but to live poor and die rich is an insanity.'

WW

[Shakespeare]

"There's no point in being the richest man in the graveyard."

[Taggart]

Taggart: Clements is a good read albeit too often a bit depressing.
But he is probably not read by the very people who would need to follow his advise.

On the other hand, I like the more balanced approach of Scott Burns which could be summed up by the anon. quote:

'To live poor and die poor is a tradedy but to live poor and die rich is an insanity.'

WW

I don't get depressed about any of the commentary on withdrawal rates, from wherever the source. As we all know life is not a straight line, but one of twists and turns, and full of question marks. It's always good to know that when the time comes, there'll be options, and to know that you have the knowledge to select the best of these choices. As for living or dieing rich, I won't have to worry about that, but as for poverty, I try my utmost to avoid.

[Taggart]

Bank of China set to launch $9.9B IPO

State-owned, it was long China's capitalist tool

History of corruption isn't dimming the public's interest

May 22, 2006. 01:00 AM

WILLIAM FOREMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Here's one of the many photos of the building you can get at "google images".

[Taggart]

Morningstar (U.S.)

The Lessons of Market History for Novice Investors

[Taggart]

Cramer

ETF Hit to Emerging Markets May Swell

"The ETF theory keeps coming back to haunt me. Brazil, Switzerland, South Korea and India all got hammered more than most emerging markets."

Question. As of December 30, 2005, Switzerland had a weight of 6.9% in EAFE. Since when did it become an emerging market?

[Taggart]

Is Price Stability Enough

[Taggart]

Bloomberg

April 26, 2006

Wall Street, Don't Let Customers Read This Book

Gary Weiss makes a serious mistake in his new book that pillories the brokerage industry: He should have started at page 75.

That's where Weiss, a former Business Week reporter and object of anonymous e-mail threats since the book's publication, bluntly lays out a central theme of ``Wall Street Versus America: The Rampant Greed and Dishonesty That Imperil Your Investments.''

Examine the statistics, and you learn that ``entire segments of Wall Street have no basis for existing,'' he writes -- except to make money for brokers, mutual-fund managers and others who share in the spoils of the retail customer. And therein lies a sorry tale for investors.

[Bylo Selhi]

From Wall Street, Don't Let Customers Read This Book

"Brokerage firms want the freedom to disguise their brokers as financial advisors," he writes. Hedge funds "want the freedom to charge you ridiculous sums of money in return for mediocre performance and no accountability, and the freedom to turn the markets upside down whenever they goof up." And mutual funds "want the freedom to skim off billions of dollars in fees for doing a consistently lousy job of managing your money." Weiss lays it all out, citing studies by respected academics that show the miserable job the pros do for their high-ticket fees. Everybody wants a free market when it helps their cause. So it goes for Wall Street. Investors aren't so lucky.

[Taggart]

This article may be of interest to postage stamp collectors or investors.

The Sunday Times

May 21, 2006

Spanish fraud rocks UK stamp investors

Investors in British stamp funds were left reeling earlier this month when 350,000 Spanish philatelists lost up to €5 billion (£3.4 billion) after buying stamp schemes through dealers Afinsa and Forum Filatelico.

[patriot1]

Question. As of December 30, 2005, Switzerland had a weight of 6.9% in EAFE. Since when did it become an emerging market?

EAFE means Europe, Asia, Far East and as the name implies it includes the UK, Germany, Japan, etc. It is not an emerging market index.

[Shakespeare]

I think Taggart's point is that it should not be included in Cramer's list:

"The ETF theory keeps coming back to haunt me. Brazil, Switzerland, South Korea and India all got hammered more than most emerging markets."

[Taggart]

I think Taggart's point is that it should not be included in Cramer's list:

"The ETF theory keeps coming back to haunt me. Brazil, Switzerland, South Korea and India all got hammered more than most emerging markets."

Shakes:

Correct. That's exactly what I mean't. When I posted it, I thought I would be the one going out on a limb. I'm not a follower of Cramer, but he's a very intelligent individual, and I was surprised he let that one slip out. Then again, I could have been the one that was wrong in the way I read the article, but I think not.

[Taggart]

Financial Times

America’s best don’t need Wall Street

There’s a lot to learn from America’s greatest investors. The great investors that I am referring to are not mutual fund managers or hedge fund managers. They are not gurus from Wall Street who opine regularly on the next hot investment strategy.

It is rare that you will see any of America’s greatest investors on CNBC. And if you do, you will never hear them tell investors which stock to buy. They don’t predict the direction of the economy. They don’t tell you which way interest rates will go.

Don’t listen to Wall Street: the purpose of Wall Street is not to make money for you. The purpose of Wall Street is to make money for Wall Street. There’s one sure-fire way for Wall Street to boost profits and that is to get you to “do something”. It doesn’t really matter what you do, just do something. Higher activity begets higher profit for Wall Street. Lower activity begets lower profit for Wall Street. If any of the greatest investors had asked the advisors on Wall Street years ago if they should adjust their portfolio, they would have heard a cacophony of “yes, yes, yes!”.

[Taggart]

Toronto Star

We're just a bunch of softies

WHITE COLLAR CRIME

That's Canada's reputation when it comes to cracking down on corporate wrongdoing. But that's about to change, officials vow.

By Tara Perkins

May 28, 2006. 01:00 AM