The GDP numbers came out yesterday. For a breakdown, including the inflation component, go here. For the announcement from the BEA go here. The Fed also cut rates by 50bps. Here is the Journal’s story. Reactions: Barry Rithotlz- Q4 GDP: El Stinko! • Consumption slowed to 2% from 2.8% in Q3; I suspect that...
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youwalkaway.com I really have little to add to my declaration of extreme discomfort. H/T: Barry Ritholtz Much more on this here. Thanks for visiting Risk and Return. Please feel free to contact us with any questions and/or comments. Please note our disclaimer. Download article as PDF
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In line with the comments in the previous post about the reasons people invest the way they do, and repeatedly fall for the excesses of short-term speculation, Jeremy Grantham has long spoken of the career risk of unconventional success and failure. The great paradox of our business is that reducing or avoiding real risk...
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Finally it is the long-term investor, he who most promotes the public interest, who will in practice come in for most criticism, wherever investment funds are managed by committees or boards or banks. For it is in the essence of his behaviour that he should be eccentric, unconventional and rash in the eyes of...
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Really, I just wanted to post this line : Now celebrating 10 years of predicting the end of the world, George Soros takes a huge dive into the pool of confirmation bias Go read what he is referring to. Not only is that a compelling image and well written sentence, he is right. I...
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Some big losers we had profited from, small cap and REIT’s, had a big comeback last week. We still did fine, but not as well as we could have had they not. Thanks for visiting Risk and Return. Please feel free to contact us with any questions and/or comments. Please note our disclaimer. Download...
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So, we now have a new record for trader fraudulently losing billions on bad trades. Nick Leeson will soon join the 1972 Dolphins as great, but behind by the numbers. Just like then I have a niggling thought in the back of my mind, and so does Adam at Adams Options: So some trader...
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As I noted earlier, Dale Franks was curious about how Harley Davidson (HOG) would do on its latest earnings release: One earnings report to watch this week, though, is Harley-Davidson (HOG). It’s a solid company with a loyal customer base—I’m one of them actually—but, motorcycles are a luxury item. For every guy like me...
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Baton Rouge Towne Center is being listed for sale: A Dallas company is listing the Towne Center at Cedar Lodge retail center as an investment opportunity. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler is marketing the 358,000-square-foot shopping center as a trophy asset, noting that the retailers in Towne Center such as Whole Foods, American Eagle Outfitters and...
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Morningstar takes a look at the Long/Short category of mutual funds. They, like I, appreciate John Hussman. China turned in yet another double digit year: China’s economy grew by 11.4 per cent in 2007, the highest pace in 13 years, but the trend of decelerating exports to a slowing US recorded in the final...
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All About Alpha looks askance at misleading headlines. Download article as PDF
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In the annals of excruciating misery during wartime, few events can compare with what befell Napoleon’s troops during his campaign in Russia. From Strange Maps we see the suffering and tragedy in graphic statistical form. (click image to enlarge) “The best statistical graphic ever drawn“, is how statistician Edward Tufte described this chart in...
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Tyler Cowen wants to know: Eli Lehrer informs me that Tide has a high market share even though it is more expensive than most other brands. This source says the market share of Tide is about forty-four percent, with the sum total of all Proctor and Gamble products (Gain and Cheer are two others)...
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Of course prices have just started to decline. First you have to have sales volume decline and inventory build up: Sales of existing homes fell in December, closing out a horrible year for housing in which sales of single-family homes plunged by the largest amount in 25 years. The median home price dropped for...
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John Ellis thinks it might: The company that has the most to gain from buying the New York Times is Google. If it proffered a Murdoch-like, no-auction bid of $4 billion, wouldn’t the Sulzberger family have to accept it? Every single class B shareholder would accept the offer. It’s their only exit. It is...
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Contra David Merkel, Amity Schlaes says a choice can be made, and Bernanke’s worry should be inflation. Update: David left me a comment, so I am going to include it, and my response: I’m not saying regulators won’t be forced to make a choice, or what that choice might be. My opinion on what...
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Zero Beta’s opinion on what is the most overvalued asset. Download article as PDF
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This is a very cool look at the market carnage of the last few days geographically from the Wall Street Journal. You can go from one day to the next and watch how the markets in various places rose and fell*. Hat tip: James Hamilton (who has interesting observations on what happened.) Click here...
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