Michael Lewis: The End

This is a really long article, but it's an interesting study on the sub-prime collapse (there is some harsh language):

I called Whitney again and asked her, as I was asking others, whom she knew who had anticipated the cataclysm and set themselves up to make a fortune from it. There’s a long list of people who now say they saw it coming all along but a far shorter one of people who actually did. Of those, even fewer had the nerve to bet on their vision. It’s not easy to stand apart from mass hysteria—to believe that most of what’s in the financial news is wrong or distorted, to believe that most important financial people are either lying or deluded—without actually being insane. A handful of people had been inside the black box, understood how it worked, and bet on it blowing up. Whitney rattled off a list with a half-dozen names on it. At the top was Steve Eisman.

John T. Reed’s Real Estate B.S. Artist Detection Checklist

I thought this guide by John T. Reed was funny and informative.

1. Emphasis on luxurious lifestyle...
6. Emphasis on motivational material...
35. Citing professed religiousness as a selling point. “Trust me because I say I’m religious,” is an age-old con man’s ploy. Whether a real-estate guru adheres to the teachings of any religion is irrelevant, not to mention unverifiable. Use of professed religiousness as a selling point is improper. There is an old saying something to the effect that, “When a man starts telling me how religious he is, I check to see if I still have my wallet.”

More Jim Rogers

Here is an article from about a year ago (before the big crash) that includes some of Jim Roger's views at the time.

Rogers, who is short Fannie Mae shares, is also short Citigroup (C, news, msgs) and highly negative on its prospects, too.

"Technically, it's bankrupt, with gigantic off-balance-sheet derivatives positions whose value it cannot possibly know," he says. Though he believes some large banks can and will go under in the next year or two under the weight of billions of dollars worth of bad loans and blown-up derivatives positions, he doubts the government will allow Citi or Fannie to fail. "They'll nationalize them in some way. It's wrong, but they can't let the two largest lenders in the nation go down."

Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers has been a money manager for many years. He is known for founding the Quantum Fund with George Soros and writing The Adventure Capitalist.

He has been making the interview rounds as of late, and making some good sense. Here is an interview he conducted with Mike Schneider recently. He talks about the current economic crisis and the bailout, and doesn't have any trouble holding back his opinions.

S&P 500 List

This list of S&P 500 companies is really nice. It includes the current stock price. If it had the p/e ratio too I would love it.

Drudge Report is Beautiful

I thought this 37 signals blog post about Drudge Report was interesting.

“To clarify, my definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose. However, I still think that the Drudge Report is an aesthetic masterpiece even though I also consider it ugly. Can good design also be ugly? I think Drudge proves it can.”

Buy Tech Companies

I think it's a good time to buy solid technology companies. Their p/e ratios are very reasonable. Microsoft is close to $19 a share. Intel is near $13 a share.

One good way to do this is through ETFs. I like QQQQ, which tracks the performance of the nasdaq 100, and USD, which doubles the movement of the Dow Jones U.S. Semiconductor Index (if you are feeling a little more adventurous).

The Great Exchange

John Piper discusses the doctrine of imputation. It's about 24 minutes.

Five Myths About the Great Depression

I found the following article to be helpful.

"The current financial crisis has revived powerful misconceptions about the Great Depression. Those who misinterpret the past are all too likely to repeat the exact same mistakes that made the Great Depression so deep and devastating."

Taxing Times

I think this is a good article by Thomas Sowell:

“People who do not own a single share of corporate stock can still lose big time when capital gains taxes are raised — not only because jobs can follow capital out of the country, but also because millions of working people’s pension plans own corporate stock, and those people’s retirement incomes will depend on the value of those stocks, which is reduced by capital-gains taxes.

One of the biggest taxes is one that is not even called a tax: inflation. When the government spends money that it creates, it is transferring part of the value of your money to themselves. It is quiet taxation but often heavy taxation, falling on everyone, no matter how low their incomes might be.”

Damian Kyle Biography

This is a great story. Damian Kyle from Calvary Chapel Modesto describes his childhood and how he came to be a pastor.

Download the audio and listen. It's about an hour long.

Comparing McCain's and Obama's Tax Plans

Here is one of the easiest to understand side-by-side comparisons I've seen.

Warren Buffett says: Buy American

Warren Buffett says he is buying American equities and you should too. I concur. Here's a snippet:

A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.
Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

article o' the week - Ballmer says Yahoo deal still 'makes sense'

The article is here on MarketWatch.

Ballmer said that while Microsoft is not in discussions with Yahoo at this time, "I still think it [an acquisition] would make sense economically for their shareholders and ours." Ballmer said he didn't know at what price a deal could be done. Microsoft had offered Yahoo $33 a share earlier this year, but Yahoo turned down that amount as too low. Ballmer laughed when he said Yahoo's executives, "Probably still think it's worth at least as much today."

I'm interested in watching the battle between Microsoft and Google. It makes for a good story.

Crisis and Recovery - The Dow Jones Industrials

I thought this was really interesting. It's a graph that includes commentary on stock market panics through the last hundred years.

It puts the current economic issues in perspective.

Ireland's Low Corporate Tax Rate

I've wondered why Ireland has seen quite a bit of economic growth in recent years, especially in the information technology industry. I think I found out why. They're corporate tax rate is really low, 12.5%.

"The overall tax burden in Ireland is the lowest among all other EU member states. A focus of Ireland's strategy to attract investment is to create a favourable economic and fiscal environment which is supportive of industry. This is evidenced by various investment incentives which are in place, creating a unique business opportunity in Ireland."

This is Only a Test

I'm starting a new blog because the server changed for my previous blog, and I haven't been able to add new posts since the change.