“It’s our job, though, to over time deliver significant growth, bumpy or not. After all, as stewards of your capital, Berkshire directors have opted to retain all earnings,” writes Warren Buffett in his 2016 Annual Report Chairman’s letter. In other words, Berkshire doesn’t pay a dividend. It retains all earnings to invest in its companies or to acquire new ones. If you’re a Berkshire shareholder and need retirement income you need to rely on Berkshire’s capital gains to sell shares. I don’t like that and it's not how Mr. Buffett operates. He loves cash and invests it wisely (most of the … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2017
Apple’s Services Bigger than Starbucks
Only a 13% slice of Apple's sales are generated from services, but the company has become so large that at $7 billion in revenue per quarter, that's more than the entire Starbucks business. … [Read more...]
Here Is a Risk FANG Investors May Be Underestimating
Some investors in FANG stocks have a belief that the businesses they are investing in are so dominant that they can’t be caught by the competition. This may or may not be true. If it is though, are FANG investors ignoring regulatory risk? Here The Economist makes the case that regulators need to new approach to anti-trust to level the playing field in today’s data driven economy. These titans—Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft—look unstoppable. They are the five most valuable listed firms in the world. … The nature of data makes the antitrust remedies … [Read more...]
Could You Be A Millionaire By Thursday?
A new wave of online speculation is erupting around crypto-currencies. If you're keeping up with financial news, you've undoubtedly run across a mention or two of Bitcoin. But have you heard of Muse or Ether? Digital currencies are proliferating, and investors are making ever riskier bets on their success. Despite low volume and high volatility, so called "alt-coin" traders are attempting to get rich quickly. The Financial Times writes that at current rates of return, investors could be dollar millionaires by Thursday. Most organisations have their share of IT workers who slip under the … [Read more...]
WannaCry: A Cyber-Attack With Unprecedented Global Reach
A new cyber-attack named WannaCry has been hitting computer users around the world. Europol Director, Rob Winwright said of the attack "The global reach is unprecedented." The attack uses ransom-ware to extort money from victims. First, their computers are locked. Then they are given a ransom demand. If they don't pay, the files will be deleted. At The Wall Street Journal, Nick Kostov, Jenny Gross and Stu Woo report that progress is being made in fighting the attack, but that it's not over yet. The virus was slowed down over the weekend by the identification and activation of a “kill … [Read more...]
Apple’s Headquarters Reminds Me of this Stock
Do you remember Polaroid? It was a "Nifty-Fifty" stock back in the 70s. It constructed a huge headquarters building to signify its greatness. Below are some pictures of just how run down Polaroid's Waltham, MA location was before demolition in 2008. Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google are also putting up structures of their own. How will this movie end? I’ll point out that these four companies, plus Microsoft, are responsible for a huge chunk of this year’s advance in the markets, especially NASDAQ. … [Read more...]
The Best Investment You Can Make Ever
The best investment you can ever make is your work. Steve Jobs said “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.” I like that quote. But come on Steve, work can be a pain. No one loves getting up at 4:30am. But after years and years of doing your work you wake up one day and realize, “hey, I might not have to work.” And … [Read more...]
Today’s Energy Mix is More Diverse Than Ever
In the relatively short span of about 180 years, the world has moved from using almost exclusively biomass (i.e. wood, whale blubber, dung and other plants) to produce energy, to a wide diversity in the energy mix. Take a look at the chart below to see the shift in the world's energy mix since 1850. ExxonMobil's Energy Factor explains that the shift is worth careful study. Aside from manual labor, through most of the 19th century (indeed, for all of human history up until that point), humankind primarily relied on biomass for its energy needs, largely for cooking and heating. That soon … [Read more...]
How Can I Be a Great Investor Like Richard C. Young?
How can you be a great investor like Richard C. Young? Study. Keep it simple. Tell it the way it is. All of that comes to mind. But here’s what I want to share with you that I think you’ll find helpful. It’s a constant battle. It’s a ton of work. It’s a daily grind. It’s not easy. This week I’ve been studying some old Richard Russell reports from the late 70s. I feel like I’m actually living through the day to day markets with out of control government spending, fear about interest rates rising, inflation, and a lame economy. Sound familiar? What I’ve enjoyed most is reading … [Read more...]
Monsanto Adding New Methods to its GMO Creation
The Wall Street Journal's Jacob Bunge reports that Monsanto is attempting to stay ahead of its competitors by adding new technologies to its genetic modification tool kit. New gene editing methods like the much publicized Crispr-Cas9 and the lesser known Exzact are changing the way scientists modify organisms. Bunge writes: ...seed giants and Farm Belt upstarts view gene editing as the new front in genetic technology, potentially offering a cheaper and easier method of tweaking plants’ DNA. Emerging technologies such as Crispr-Cas9 and Exzact allow scientists to change a plant’s … [Read more...]