rogermunibond

IOW in the race to the bottom on corporate taxes, Ireland is way out in front and the US is way behind.

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/06/03/411777635/episode-629-buy-low-sell-prime http://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494199339/why-middlemen-are-taking-over-the-global-economy Online reseller, retail arbitrage, whatever you want to call it. NPR did a story on it.

Um, BRK invested in the TXU LBO bonds and lost $900mm. And Buffett didn't include the opportunity cost of deploying that $2B into safer investment or even a risky investment that didn't blow up. He counts the dividends received against the price paid.

How long ago was their RL position initiated? Any trip to TJX and seeing that monstrous inventory of RL/Polo product that sits there would be enough to dissuade any investor. Seems like Polo/RL has lost is cachet. Interestingly, so has J.Crew and Vineyard Vines, whom I thought would have benefited from RL weakness.

VRX took down a lot of guys including Ruane Cunniff and Lou Simpson. Typically they've avoided blowups.

DIS - 2005 355% BRK - 2006 144% ATSG - 2008 6479% Still hold all three, though I sold 1/3 of my ATSG holding last year.

That's a CB&I related venture. Exelon, CBI and an alternate asset manager.

2018 midterm will be interesting.

Are you talking about STR Holdings? It's delisted right? Curious why you think they'll come back from the dead.

Ireland will react to the US tax cut. IP, corporate holdings, asset shuffling. It'll be a race to the bottom. Either way only lawyers and accountants win.

Reagan had Volcker defeating the inflation bugaboo. So he cut taxes, deregulated, ran a deficit, and Volcker lowered the cost of borrowing and quashed inflation. A pretty potent brew for economic growth.

As someone who followed NVDA and ATI during the 2000s graphic card battles, the recent ramp up of NVDA is totally surprising. Jen has been talking about GPU cluster supercomputing for some time. Through the early 2010s. The fact that it's becoming so material to revenue is a testament to his doggedness at spending the $s needed in R&D to make it happen. Would that other CEOs take these big bets?

The industry is ripe for consolidation and has great economics. EL and LO are fantastic businesses. The earnings call was weird. They kept asserting over and over that they are confident in their $1.53 adj earnings guidance for 2020. Analysts kept at them. FY17 is transition. Back half look for growth. We shall see.

Posted in a different thread - all the real VCs passed do don't blame them. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/opinion/dont-blame-silicon-valley-for-theranos.html

POST

Twain said there are lies, damn lies and statistics. This kind of innumeracy permeates American culture - paired with what Hofstatder described as the "anti-intellectual style in American culture. It's what made Will Rogers so popular. I don't think the scientific community has made it easier to accept science either as during the 60-90s there were numerous pronouncements - much of it related to health recommendations, child rearing, etc. that have been walked back or reversed.

The schadenfreude is thick with Theranos. Somehow they need to get Will Ferrell in this movie. Maybe cast him as David Boies? Nice bounceback script after Ferrell and McKay had to drop the Ronald Reagan hot potato movie script they had bought.

O3B was recently acquired by SES. O3B is an MEO company. OneWeb is another LEO company. They've signed up Airbus as the contractor and are planning to build hundreds in a Florida facility. http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/19/oneweb-will-mass-produce-historic-number-of-satellites-with-new-florida-factory/ Google has Project Loon - high altitude balloons and have apparently gotten government agreements with Sri Lanka and India. The other player who is regional now but going global is ViaSat with their very high bandwidth Ka satellites. I've got some money in that one having followed Baupost.

That's how Brazil conquered hyperinflation. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_MacLean_Abaroa I think it's this guy and La Paz, Bolivia was the test ground for the anti-corruption stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/opinion/dont-blame-silicon-valley-for-theranos.html Top VC firms avoided Theranos because they realized it was all "hand-waving." Third-rate VCs, media and old guys from govt/defense were apparently though.

Borrowing. Or monetizing debt with helicopter money drops. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/9b3c71f8-d97f-11e5-a72f-1e7744c66818.html

I use Republic Wireless too but there's one big down side and that's the Sprint network. Coverage is spotty outside of main thoroughfares.

{insert joke about handedness}

Standard Oil wasn't a E&P company. JDR bought up refineries, marketing, distribution, retail etc. If you had oil to sell, he was the only buyer. And he was the only seller to the consumer both retail and commercial.