Here are our end of week morning train reads:
• Walmart CEO Doug McMillon letter to associates regarding minimum salaries (Walmart) see also A stimulus plan for the heretofore unstimulated (TRB)
• Revealed: The experts Apple hired to build an electric car (9to5 mac)
• Why Nasdaq in 2015 is not the same as 2000 (Irrelevant Investor)
• Your Alpha is My Beta (Gestaltu)
• 2015 Breakthrough Technologies (MIT Technology Review)
• These are Not the (Modeling Assumptions About) Droids You are Looking For (Growth Econ)
• Our Amazingly Plastic Brains: Mental and physical exercise can keep the brain fit and help it recover capacities lost to disease and trauma (WSJ)
• Greenlandic fjords and viking ruins await your discovery in Google Maps (Google Lat Long) see also You owe it to yourself to check out Google’s amazing Street View images of Greenland (BGR)
• Has Ayn Rand’s day as a business guru finally passed? (LA Times)
• Our Taste for Alcohol Goes Back Millions of Years (Scientific American)
What are you reading?
2014 vs. 2015
Source: Bespoke Investment Group
Mathews, Dean, Steele on Guiliana on claiming Obama Doesn’t Love America.
Dean: Republicans aren’t mad at Obama, only a few on the fringe.
Mathews: I know Guiliani. He’s America’s Mayor.
Dean: I know Guiliani too.
Steele: Me too. Obama goes and plays golf after every time ISIS kills someone.
http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/chris–giulianis-obama-remarks-were-wrong-401675843739
And you wonder why Republicans get away with their Obama is a Muslim, Obama hates America, Obama is Kenyan nonsense? Obama hates whites. Because Democrats are to afraid to humiliate Republicans to their faces. Hey Democrats, start humiliating Republicans to their faces.
Rudy Guiliani ain’t “America’s Mayor” He is a sad old clown. You hate American principles Guiliani.
Cable networks are speeding up your favorite TV shows to squeeze in more ads
http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-networks-speeding-up-your-favorite-shows-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-2015-2
The anti-Net Neutrality guys have some really great, consumer-focused ideas here.
I watched CaddeShack on Comcast the other night. It’s about golf.”
So the Vietnam war draft dodging Rudy is now talking about how he would “go anywhere any place to defend his country”. I guess it is easy to be a hero when you no longer have to risk your life for it.
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-rudy-giuliani-love-article-1.2122253
the fed will cause the end of the world. the market is the best choice for all
http://www.pragcap.com/glenn-beck-and-rand-paul-discuss-the-fed
doesnt this sound liker the banks and their mortgages
http://www.ibtimes.com/hurricane-sandy-victims-sent-altered-engineering-reports-could-number-10000-1822210
At first I was going to say that this is very much like Nasdaq of 2000 – this based on Pinterest’s newest valuation. I don’t think that all the social media stocks will make it. Zynga is down 75% from IPO and > 80% down from peak. I like to use twitter, but don’t know how it will monetize.
That said, the NASDAQ 100 which is referenced doesn’t even include Twitter. It does FB, but they have already shown an ability to print cash. The full NASDAQ would include TWTR, but because it’s market-cap weighted, stocks like that would have a minimal impact.
This time is different.
how not to privatize social security
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2015/02/investment-charges-when-mexico-privatized-social-security.html
looks kind of like what our friends on wall street want though
Great link.
To paraphrase the gold quote:
“We need governments because men can’t trust financial private enterprise.”
“Here’s some evidence on the fees that emerged. The “initial load” is the amount of each deposit that is is immediately paid to the investment adviser. The “annual fee” is then paid each year on the balance in the account. As Hastings explains: “Fund managers charged an average load (a fee taken as a share of account contributions at the time of contribution) of 23 percent and an annual fee on assets under management of 0.63 percent, implying that a 100-peso deposit earning a 5 percent annual real return would only be worth 95.4 pesos after five years.” …”
Happily DIYer…
russia’s economic problems causing China problems
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-weather-service-blames-russian-ruble-for-inaccuracy-2015-02-16