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A letter to my local State member
Consider this a diversion from the usual finance posts on this blog.Today my concern is State politics in New South Wales, Australia.--In New South Wales we have just had a moral-conservative Premier...
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Home Capital Group - it is time for the Canadian regulator to act
Home Capital Group is an aggressive Canadian home lender that has hit a very rough patch. If you want a history Twitter will do it well. They have been fighting with Marc Cohodes (a very well known...
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Trex's mysteriously high margin: a business analysis problem for you...
Apple is a definitively high margin manufacturer. Everything about that company screams high margin.The stuff feels expensive and (frankly) is expensive. But you are willing to pay for it because (a)...
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Selling our Telecom position
Several people on twitter and some in person have asked me for an update on my very bullish position on Verizon - especially since the results were not as good as expected last quarter.I promised I...
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Taking the bull case for Valeant seriously
Last night I had dinner with a friend who had a friend who was buying Valeant. Whatever - it led to a discussion of Valeant fundamentals - and that in turn led to this blog post.The stock has been on a...
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Bob Carr and the possible Chinese spies
Last week Four Corners - the premier news program of the Australian Broadcasting Commission ran a story about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Australia.Some of the story was obvious -...
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Canadian non-standard mortgages: a state of play
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that Home Capital Group - a Canadian non-standard mortgage lender - is in financial trouble.The gossip is that the regulators in Canada are also putting some...
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E*Trade advert...
In the old days an advert like this would have marked the top.Completely floored to see adverts this extreme again.Source: Twitter...Hat tips: Charlie Grant, Inner_Scorecard.
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The cyclicality of share buy-backs: Costco edition
Currently looking through Costco - one of the finest companies I know. (We do not own a stake...)Anyway this is hardly a Costco specific comment - but here is a run of their buy-backs (after...
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E&P decoding - Pioneer Natural Resources edition
I think I know what this means but as per usual the internet is full of people who know far more than me. You dear readers are my 20 thousand person expert network. This is from the Pioneer Natural...
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Some thoughts on the firing of James Damore from Google
As the world knows by now James Damore was fired from Google for writing a memo that questioned Google's diversity policies.As a holder of Google stock I have a few thoughts on this.Software...
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Apple pulls a Dell
The keyboard on my new (current model) MacBook Pro is sticking. So I take it to the Genius Bar.It was two hours for an appointment - and that was fine - so they texted me and I came back in two hours....
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An initial coin offering for augmented reality smart glasses: you only live...
This advert - offering another cyrptocoin - specifically for *really smart* augmented reality smart glasses marks the new crypto-high.
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Why settle for just one bubble?
Step 1. Be a marijuana thing.Step 2. Be a bitcoin thing.Step 3. ...Step 4. Profit!
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The Urban Dictionary is surprisingly up-to-date: nocoiner edition
nocoinerA Nocoiner is a person who has no Bitcoin. Nocoiners (usually Socialists, Lawyers or MBA Economists ) are people who missed their opportunity to buy Bitcoin at a low price because they thought...
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Herbalife and Bill Ackman in furious agreement
Today Bill Ackman announced that Pershing Square was settling an insider trading securities class action. To quote:Pershing Square and Valeant have agreed to split the $290 million total settlement...
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Further notes on visiting Herbalife clubs in Queens
Preface: I once wrote a blog post - a response to Mr Ackman's campaign on Herbalife - which gave notes on visiting a Herbalife club in Queens. This remains one of the top ten most visited posts ever...
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Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange (and possibly Herbalife) team up to...
Charlie Gasparino suggested in a tweet and a story that Herbalife, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have teamed up to produce an anti-short-seller Bill. The Bill forces disclosure standards...
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The importance of GE's credit rating
The cover story in Barrons this week is on GE's dim prospects. I confess to being a very minor source for that story. I don't own GE - but there is a price below the current price where I would buy...
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Just how bad is it for big tobacco? And a business idea for an ambitious...
Big tobacco stocks have had a bad month. Philip Morris had its worst day (for stock performance) in a decade. Electronic cigarettes and vapes etc are taking market share - and they are interrupting the...
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