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Could someone help me to pronounce Ajit Jain's name properly? I have only ever read the name and haven't a clue how to pronounce it.

I found this article to be very interesting in its talk of business models and what these companies are doing going forward. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook I haven't finished it yet but here is an interesting excerpt. Late in 2010, Jobs made a surprise visit to Apple's quarterly earnings call. The purported reason was to celebrate Apple's first $20 billion quarter, but Jobs clearly had something else on his mind: Android. At the time, Google's free mobile operating system was beginning to eclipse the iPhone's market share, and Jobs was miffed. He launched into a prepared rant about Android's shortcomings. "This is going to be a mess for both users and developers," he said, citing the inevitable complications that arise from the fact that Android phones look and work differently from one another. As for the crop of 7-inch Android tablets being developed to take on the iPad? "DOA--dead on arrival," Jobs asserted. (Jeff Bezos, for one, has ignored Jobs's perspective.) What Jobs didn't say in his outburst, though, was how little Android's market share matters to Apple. According to Nielsen, Android now powers about 40% of smartphones; 28% run Apple's iOS. But here's the twist: Android could command even 70% of the smartphone business without having a meaningful impact on Apple's finances. Why? Because Apple makes a profit on iOS devices, while Google and many Android handset makers do not. This is part of a major strategic difference between Apple and the other members of the Fab Four. Apple doesn't need a dominant market share to win. Everyone else does. The more people who use Google search or Facebook, the more revenue those companies can generate from ads. Amazon, too, depends on scale; retail is a low-margin business dependent on volume. Apple, on the other hand, makes a significant profit on every device it sells. Some analysts estimate that it books $368 on each iPhone. You may pay $199 for the phone, but that's after a subsidy that the wireless carriers pay Apple. Google, in contrast, makes less than $10 annually per device for the ads it places on Android phones and tablets. That's because it gives away the OS to phone makers as part of its quest for market share. Google's revenue per phone won't go up after the Motorola purchase closes--Motorola Mobility's consumer-device division has lost money the past few quarters. So despite Google's market-share lead, Apple is making all the money. By some estimates, it's now sucking up half of all the profits in smartphones.

Ok, Just for the pure fun of it, who thinks that it will break below $5.00? I think it will but if you asked me why, I would shrug my shoulders and say, "I don't know" But I am also wondering about the significance of the $5.00 barrier and if it will actually make any difference because of the mutual fund rules and the margin requirements. Is there any history of data about the significance of this barrier, does anyone have more experience with it? I wonder if there if there is a potential trading strategy around stocks at the 5.00 barrier?

Then why not just have a process of vetting the questions and possibly have the questions written down and handed in? Something about this smacks me in the wrong way but then again he has gone contrary to my way of thinking before and eventually won me over to his thinking and so I won't put it past him this time.

I just love reading articles like this one, thanks so much for posting it. I turned around and posted it on facebook.

I would be very happy with 3 days a week of delivery. I think that over their history they have provided great value to the country. And even today they provide value, but I believe that the entire concept and their place in it needs to be rethought instead of clinging to what they were in the past.

I would agree with this statement. I am sitting here thinking of the list that someone could compile about me if they only knew of all the petty, vicious, vindictive things that I have done. The times when I have stolen from others. The times i have plagiarized and never given credit. The many times I have promised to do something and then willingly forgot about it. The times I took advantage of a loophole in the system to my own advantage even knowing that it would cost some person/organization. Yet if you were to meet me you would come away thinking what a nice person I am. I was talking to someone who was by his own admission poor and he came across as rather proud of that fact because as he put it money corrupts people. Well I disagreed, I don't believe that money or power corrupts. Power/money only brings out and often puts on display the corruption that is already in us. As much as people would like to elevate Steve Jobs to the status of a deity, he is just a corrupts and fallen man, just like myself. But he has done SO MUCH MORE with his life then I have and has had his life under an amazing amount of scrutiny and so his flaws are documented and looked on with glee by those who would like to take this man who makes them feel like slackers and bring him down to a level where they can look down their noses at him and not feel so bad about their lives.

Could you elaborate on this further?

If you are just looking for protection against inflation then try stuffing cash in a mattress, or maybe gov Bonds. That will protect against Def. Now if you are looking for a small portion of your assets as a insurance policy against Def then wouldn't some put options on say Gold do pretty good in that situation?

Does it seem strange to anyone else that a swing of 35% is the difference in his mind between overvalued to the point where he is willing to short it and undervalued to the point where he is buying it. to me that really doesn't give much of a margin for error either way.

Is there a place to see this data going back many years? Just wondering because WEB was the first person that I know of who referenced these numbers as an indicator of the economy (I am sure there were plenty of others) but I can't seem to find any longerterm numbers to look at.

I don't disagree with your conclusion but I am always very skeptical when people start comparing our diet to the diet of different animals with the assumption that mammals are the same and have the same needs. Cattle have 4 stomachs and their entire digestive process is drastically different then ours, their needs are different then ours. That said I am in basic agreement with what you are saying.

Parsad, it is almost completely home cooked (my wife is an excellent cook) our meals are simple, meaning one main dish instead of multiple different items for each meal but that one dish is very good. we eat very little meat (it is difficult to get good quality meat at a reasonable price). We have raise simple tomatoes and peppers in pots in our back yard which is something that almost anyone can do no matter your gardening experience or available land. the ROI for raising those simple items is incredible. We live in the Michigan fruit belt and there are great u-pick places all around us and a nice summer evening for us is to go and pick a bunch of strawberries, cherries, blueberries or whatever followed by a trip to the beaches of Lake Michigan. my wife and I have been jokingly called fruitivores but that gives us really good quality fruit that is the epitome of fresh for a very reasonable price. And the fact that the time of picking apples together as a family counts as a wonderful time is an added bonus for us. when it comes to fruits and vegetables we tend to eat very heavily whatever is in season. This way you get better food for better prices. It just means that right now we are eating a lot of squash, potatoes and apples with our meals. I think this means that in January our costs probably stay around the same maybe a little higher but our quality of food most likely goes down. And then like you we shop for good deals at the grocery store and will sometimes change our planned meals based on what is a really good deal. by the way I have a friend who says their food budget is 400 per month and they have 6 kids between the ages of 4 and 18, not sure how they do it, I know they raise a lot of food having a 1/3 acre garden but I still find it amazing.

This has been a good thread, I will toss in my input here as well. I am 35 married with 2 children ages 3 and 2 Own a house free and clear and two cars I own my own business and it pays for extreme high deductible health insurance (10,000) and cell phones Estimated annual expenses Property taxes - 2000 Insurance on house and cars - 1800 food and other household items - 3600-4000 - can't seem to pin this one down and it changes with kids all the time. Clothing - 400 car repair and gas - 2500 - this is an estimate because we just moved and haven't established a baseline, I now walk the 9 blocks to my office. Health care - 2000 on an average year, when we have a new child it jumps Entertainment, eating out - 600 Utilities, gas, electric, water, waste - 1500 no home phone and our cell phones take care of our internet at home. this totals out to around 15,000 per year, I am sure I am missing something here. there are some things that are left off of here that are very inconsistent: Home repair - this year I have put around 15,000 into home repair but don't expect it to always be that way. Travel - I believe in mixing business with pleasure so sometimes our travel expenses are mostly covered by the business and frankly with the children at the age they are we haven't traveled much outside of business for the last 3 years.

to paraphrase Aesop "An ounce in hand is worth two in the ground"

nope, 35, I am behind him in years but even more so in wisdom, experience, and of course bankroll

Today just happens to be my birthday as well, always thought it was cool to share a birthday with WEB.

Interesting.... http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daniel-gross/fed-tightening-really-162741764.html;_ylt=AmBI4SDQpSxe7MY4BfvbY2W7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1ZGhubWtiBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawN0aGVmZWRpc3RpZ2g-?sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

I would love to be able to navigate this site from my android.

has anyone here read any of the books by Marty Whitman? which ones are the best and how highly would you rate them?

Beer, could you provide a link to either that article or that course you mentioned? Thanks

Packer, your post brought out a couple of thoughts that have been banging around in my head. I can't seem to come to any real conclusion about inflation deflation but in relative terms it seems to me that Europe is much more likely then the US to have Deflation and the US is much more likely then Europe to have inflation. But that is only in relative terms and I still haven't a clue what will happen.

Majority of this is stuff that you have heard before but there are some useful items in here and some good questions. http://www.fatpitchfinancials.com/2017/live-chat-with-joel-greenblatt/ SmallCap

I was recently reading WEB's article in fortune from the 70s about inflation and came across this measurement. Stock holders equity as a percentage of total assets. He comments that in the years leading up to 75 it moved from 63% to 50% as companies used more leverage. Any idea what that percentage is now and is there any graph of its progress over the last few years? SmallCap

Selling a portion of my holdings of NROM.OB just had a 25% run up and I want more cash. I also just sold a rental property and made out very well on that.