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The Stingy News Weekly (06/19/2011)
New @ StingyInvestor Summer Book Draw "A nice editor recently gave me a couple of copies of MoneySense's new 'Guide to Buying and Selling Your Home'. As a result, it's time for a book draw!" Stingy Links Partner casts doubt on Sino-Forest "Embattled Sino-Forest Corp. , once Canada's biggest publicly-traded timber company, appears to have substantially overstated the size and value of its forestry holdings in China's Yunnan province, according to figures provided by senior forestry officials and a key business partner there." A new way to slice the pie "In theory, fee-based accounts give advisers a transparent, above-board way to answer the question of how much they charge for their services. Instead of paying commissions buried in the cost of investment products, clients pay annual fees equal to a percentage of the value of their account plus any costs associated with the investments they hold." Momentum and credit rating "This paper establishes a robust link between momentum and credit rating. Momentum profitability is large and significant among low-grade firms, but it is nonexistent among high-grade firms. The momentum payoffs documented in the literature are generated by low-grade firms that account for less than 4% of the overall market capitalization of rated firms. The momentum payoff differential across credit rating groups is unexplained by firm size, firm age, analyst forecast dispersion, leverage, return volatility, and cash flow volatility." Beware China’s political bubble "Although China has been churning out its share of unpleasant news, many onlookers don't consider its problems as serious as those of other big economies. They should think again. China’s biggest economic challenges are political in nature and daunting, and will almost certainly get worse. That is because its autocratic system, for all the stability it has provided, will struggle to handle the sustained economic slowdown the country is likely to confront during this decade." The War on Drugs Turns 40 "Almost every year the DEA budget and staff are expanded, never mind if the organization is succeeding or failing at its mission. This isn't the DEA's fault. The illicit trade in narcotics is a black market that cannot be eliminated in a free society. But why do legislators continue to increase its size?" When two-thirds isn't enough "It's one of the great anomalies of our ownership society: shareholders own companies, but executives can easily slap them down. The hired help, in other words, holds the cards. The owners of Cedar Fair L.P., a leisure and entertainment company in Sandusky, Ohio, have learned this the hard way." Reason as a weapon "For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment. Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments." Have Canadians reached their limits? "If household debt was to be evenly spread across all Canadians, each individual would hold some $44,115 in outstanding debt in March 2011 while a family with two children would, relying on similar logic, be burdened with $176,461 in total outstanding household debt." U.S. taxman reaches north "Janet Selby never imagined she was anything other than a Canadian. After all, she has lived in Canada for all of her 47 years. She went to school here, voted in elections, travelled on a Canadian passport and built a successful career as an accountant and corporate recruiter. But a recent call from her online broker forced her to confront a long-forgotten past. Ms. Selby spent the first four days of her life in the United States, born in 1963 to two Canadians pursuing graduate work at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill. That makes Ms. Selby an accidental American - a reality that comes with sweeping tax and reporting obligations that could now cost her thousands of dollars and a monster headache." Who killed the internet auction? "Then there was A. T. Stewart’s most important innovation: His products came with price tags. At that time, in most stores, prices were set by haggling. The result was a frustrating dance between customer and salesperson, who parried back and forth until they managed to arrive at (in the words of one retail historian) “a price which neither party to the transaction considered robbery.” Stewart saw that this experience left buyers feeling taken advantage of, and it encouraged salespeople to squeeze the most from every transaction rather than build long-term relationships with customers. So he marked each product with a fixed price. Customers embraced the new “no haggling” policy, and the Marble Palace became an enormous success." Is Sino-Forest a Sino-Fraud? "It is exceedingly difficult to build a private business in the state-dominated Chinese economy without committing high crimes and misdemeanors. Entrepreneurs, as a practical matter, have to lie, cheat, and steal every day just to keep their businesses going. In these circumstances, do you really think they tell the truth to auditors, underwriters, and regulators?" Why Groupon not as rosy as it appears "It would seem Mr. Lefkofsky has an extensive history of taking investors' money for himself, then bankrupting the businesses invested in." You want fries with that degree? "What's more, governments might be doing some students a big favour by not encouraging them to get into debt to secure degrees and diplomas that qualify students to be little more than baristas and wait staff. You want fries with that English BA?" DOW 30 Value Screens
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