Dinar

oh, and let's not forget, the current receipients of Rhodes' scholarships are not scholars but activists. Look at the Harvard winner this year - a supporter of Hamas if I am not mistaken and will be majoring in progressive activism!

@Spekulatius, you are a snob! I remember going to my house of my aunt's father in law in a city of two million people in the USSR in the 1980s (the guy was very well respected doctor, and a crippled veteran of World War II), and he did not have a normal bathroom. As in there was no toilet period. So yes, every time I visited him, I had to use an outhouse. Man, you Germans are spoiled! By the way, there is an old Russian joke that there are just two problems in Russia - fools and roads, and just two Russian generals that are any good - General Moroz (freeze) and General Bezdoroszhie (no roads.)

Let me guess your first passport was from Czechoslovakia or was it GDR?

In my opinion, the biggest problem Nestle, and many other consumer staples is face is essentially zero volume growth. With zero volume growth, hard to grow above inflation, and hence fair multiple is call it 16-20x free cash flow, so you want to buy say at 10? Nestle is unlikely to ever trade at a p/e of 10, unless it is a market where every is down 40%.

@ValueArb, your numbers are off. Federal long term capital gains rate is 23.8% (you are forgetting Obamacare surtax) and qualified dividend tax rate is 23.8% for the same reason. Also, state income tax rates have generally risen in that time frame. For instance, CT went from 0% to 7%, NJ from 6% to 11%, and NY from 6.6% to 11-12%.

Twenty five percent in USD

MURA - Mural Oncology

I would bet a nice bottle of champagne that you are NOT correct. Call the IRS or your accountant or tax lawyer or find a relevant passage of the tax code.

@lnofeisone, check with your accountant. From what I remember, you have to declare the accretion above the 0.25% every year, and you WILL get taxed on it.

What exactly are you referring to?

@Xerxes, thank you for the post. I was only long Campari in the spirits space, and sold it after the CEO announced his retirement. I am still long Dior, but I would not be a buyer here.

You do not understand a very simple concept. Capitalism cannot function without rule of law. You do not have a rule of law in China. Oh, and the article is talking about tens of thousands. When I mentioned it to my friends from high school who are Chinese and live in an area with a lot of Chinese people, they stated that there has been a flood of people recently out of China in their neighborhood.

As opposed to you, the masses have zero faith that CCP is either working or will solve these problems. Man, I wish you had spent thirteen years of your life living under communism, like I did. You'd have a different perspective on CCP.

AIV, BELFB, BTI, CI, CLPR, Evolution AB - EVO SS, GHC, Heineken Holding, JOE, Keck Seng Investments, MCEM, Melrose PLC - MRO LN, NEN, PM, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, VSTS

@Luca, Chinese do not seem to agree with you. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-chinese-migrants-us-border/?srnd=premium

@Luca, the difference between those who have money and those who do not mostly comes from personal choices - some people are hard working, some are not, some are diligent savers and some are spendrifts. I know plenty of people who have accumulated millions of dollars in wealth while never making more than $100K per annum, and I know plenty of people with $200k+ annual salaries and zero savings. The difference is: one vacation per year vs four, treadmill at home vs personal trainer at the gym, new car every three years vs driving a car for ten years, having a dog and not having one, bringing breakfast and lunch to work and cooking dinner at home vs buying breakfast, lunch, dinner & getting coffee at Starbucks in the afternoon.

@Xerxes, thank you, very interesting

@Xerxes, Gaza is NOT a slaughterhouse. Had Israel done what Assad did in Syria ten to twenty times more people in Gaza would be dead and Gaza would not exist anymore. How do you propose fighting a war when terrorists are hiding among "civilian" population and hospitals are used as Hamas command centers?

@dealraker, Charlie does WFC have an EPS estimate 5 & 10 years out?

Good grief, I looked at it in 2004. Is it still around? I will take a look again, thank you for the remainder.

Pro-forma for December dividend and increase in March closer to 10.7-11%

@Luca, if China's prospects are so bright, why are millions are so eager to flee? US and the West has massive problems (unchecked immigration, Islamic terrorism, welfare culture, terrible education system, political correctness run amok - everything is the fault of whites, males, heterosexuals, universities that preach Marxism and destruction of Western civilization, demographics, and the list goes on.) Yes, China handles many problems much better than the West - Uighyr problem, infrastructure, no teaching in schools to lowest common denominator - unlike California algebra is not considered racist. However, nobody in their right mind who can escape China stays there - all the entrepreneurs, and successful professionals who can gladly flee at the first choice they get. This does not bode well for China's future. China's demographics are incredibly bad.

Why do you say shit NY apartments? A very substantial portion of the value is the Tribeca House, Brooklyn Heights property, 1010 Pacific, Dean Street property, the Upper West Side property and the Aspen, none of which I would call garbage. Sure, the Flatbush property is in that category, but how much value net of mortgage do you assign to it?

Vestis a couple of weeks ago. While the stock is up around 10% from my purchase price, I think that the upside is tremendous and it may as much as a three bagger over the next 5 year if the company hits the targets that it mentioned at its investor day.

Correct. I would caveat it though that it may not apply to IRA account, but check with your tax accountant to be sure.