bookie71

Maybe gold see http://www.adn.com/money/industries/mining/story/1005008.html

Let's see, only the A's have voting rights, I wonder who controls the A's? Any doubt as to the outcome of the vote? ::) 8)

I thought he did the split so he could offer the BNI share holders a tax free swap if they wanted one.

Additional equity is not additional liabilities - additional equity helps assure that liabilities get paid.

I wonder if by splitting the B's, it will make it easier for the Gates Foundation to dispose of the required number of shares each year?

A question for you experts out there, "Aren't you automatically put on credit watch any time you do an unusually large deal?"

He isn't spliting the A's only the B's

I wonder what effect this series of articles will have on the company???? http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/11/mcclatchy_digs_into_goldman_sa.html

Taxes are a factor in any intelligent decision, BUT too often taxes will out weigh common economic sense. I have been doing taxes since 1965. Too many folks only look at the tax effect and don't look at their long range plans. For most people (I doubt if there are many on this board who fit in this category) long range planning is about six months down the road. Most make decisions based on the fact that they read and hear that the rich don't pay taxes, so they don't want to pay taxes. They hear about tax free exchanges and insist that they do one even if they don't want "like kind " property. Two years later they come back and say, "Why did you let me do that?" GOOD DECISIONS must be based on solid economic facts, of which only one factor is the tax effect. jmho

For about 25 years our firm had 3 tax returns that were part of the "cost of living" index. Several years (4-5) they redid the COLA formula and dropped the tax returns. I'm not sure why, but at that time the lady I had dealt with at the Dept of Labor in Washington D.C. told me that they felt times had changed and the items that made up the index had changed. I'm not sure if this answers any of the above questions, but the calculation has changed. We had replaced a CPA who had retired.

The big problem is that after WEB leaves can his replacement keep his hands out of the operating companies. It is easy for someone to say they will but doing it is alomost impossible for most people. It'll start with small things, perhaps a monthly or weekly report then something else until it becomes just another big company.

"If we have a moderate amount of inflation (not Hyper) then theoretically our houses would increase in value and the debt load on those houses would be easier to pay off, meaning that fewer people would default. Also all of the debt both personal and governmental would be easier to pay off." . . But, don't forget that you have a surge of "Boomers" going on fixed incomes and that will make it harder to pay off, especially if they have large amounts of consumer debt.

I believe that there are two old addages: 1 - Don't put all your eggs in one basket; 2 - Put your eggs in one basket and watch it very closely. #2 works best for me and has for quite some time - Schwab says I'm too concentrated, but they have given LUK an F rating for quite some time ;D

A lot of folks got burned really bad with this latest downturn. I suspect it will be quite some time before a lot of them reenter the stock market if ever. I know several that went to cash at the bottom and that are still there.

For the past few years several companies in Anchorage have been trying to start their own phone books. One company, GCI has (from nothing) has become the number one dominant carrier, by a large percentage, the other large phone company who used to be number one and now is CS, the third phone book is an outfit out of Salt lake City and their book always has a ram on the cover. ACS has the real yellow pages. My unscientific observations of the books used in our small office building: All three bring enough books for all the phones plus some in the building. I take most of the GCI and Ram books to recycling an no one seems to want them. I take the older ACS books to recycling as everyone seems to keep them, including myself. I believe that this is what a well known investor calls a moat. I don't use the internet for phone numbers , because I just don't think of it (different generation). The numbers I call regularly are in my cell phone.

My problem with Wal-Mart has nothing to do with the numbers. Since Mr. Walton died they have become obsessed with the bean counters. When Sam was alive he went out of his way to encourage US manufacturing if possible and for the time treated the employees OK, not great but OK. Now the employees are almost slaves (again a personal opinion),they buy the cheapest products even changing formulas to get cheaper inventory (check out Corning Ware). Costco has done very well doing just the opposite.

One of our local politicians has said of one of his opponents, "He is a legend in his own mind." ;D :D ;)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112893572

Crip, "around $25 BILLION dollars like I discuss a $20 pizza." In elementry accounting, we refer to it as "materiality" ;D :D ::)

Google them, they do this on a lot of merger, buy out activities.

Someone told me years ago that to short the housing market , you short the banks making the loans. It seems to work, but I've never had the nerve to do shorts.

05:12 PM 09/01/09 DJ Wells Fargo CEO: Expect To Repay TARP Soon Without Share Sale-Bloomberg Thought you might be interested in this: DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) expects repay $25 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program without a new share sale, the bank's chief executive told Bloomberg News Tuesday. "We will pay it back, but we're going to pay it back in a shareholder-friendly way," John Stumpf said on Bloomberg TV. "We are now earning capital so quickly, organically, we don't want to dilute our existing shareholders." Full story at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=WFC%3AUS&sid=allmwXXTY5ok -Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2900 Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=aRYUVpYKVvI7DbFf52kn9A%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day. (END) Dow Jones Newswires September 01, 2009 16:16 ET (20:16 GMT)

One article that I read some time ago suggested that part of the problem is that Japan has a much larger percentage of an aging population. I'm not sure if that is a factor but I haven't seen that noted.

Due diligence to most of these characters means, "See which product has the best commission."

"Berkowitz has noted that Lampert was clearly not as brilliant as everyone hyped him to be," . nor is Berkowiz as brilliant as he seems to think he is. jmho (and it is worth exactly what it cost you)