Category: Business

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Business Economy

Started Financial Times subscription

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I started Financial Times subscription this week. Last week, I took advantage an offer (or a bait) of $49 for 6 months subscription. I have subscribed and read FT in the past (a few years ago when I did not know much about finance). The main reason is my WSJ and Barrons subscription are expiring, Barrons expires on Aug, WSJ on late Sept. While I enjoyed reading those two newspaper, I found the quality of those two paper are declining fast. Some obvious mistakes include printing same sentence twice (WSJ), paper becomes thinner and thinner (WSJ). As to Barron’s, they more or less get into what I would call “stock picking” business (guess the winners in the stock market, which is OK except they only show what they got right afterwards).

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Business

Sales tax on online shopping coming?

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I read two news this week, which makes me think this is coming. Keep in mind many local governments are upside down in terms of budget and debts, any tax revenue helps. Collecting tax revenue from online merchants in remote places like Seattle (HQ of Amazon) is a convenient choice.

Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) tax lawsuit (source: hotel-online): from my reading, basically the dispute is around the basis of tax, we know Expedia sells hotel room at discounted rates, but the local government (Columbus, GA in this case) think it should be the listed price. I am not lawyer but I lean towards the discounted rate.

Amazon may stop doing affiliate business. Quote WSJ Amazon Threatens Cuts Over State Taxes:

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) may stop doing business with some of its marketing affiliates over state taxes.

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Business

This tobacco bill

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Yesterday President Obama announced he is going to support the Tobacco bill (details by AP). Ironically the President was (is?) a smoker himself.

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Business

A new beginning

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For some of the auto dealers in this country. I know this title is a bit misleading, but it’s no worse than those “attention getting” balloons flying outside of car dealerships 🙂

balloons at car dealers

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Business

Will Newspapers go away one day?

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I remember a few years ago Warren expressed his dismal view on Newspapers future (in his annual shareholder letter). A few days ago Redstone (the controlling shareholder of CBS and Viacom) said something similar in an interview.

“The reason we have not gone to newspapers is because its a slow growth industry and I think they are dying. I’m not sure there will be newspapers in 10 years. I read newspapers every day. I even read Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.”

I am a newspaper reader. I subcribed to Barrons and WSJ (paper format). Both my wife and I preferred the paper format, because we can mark on it, and it seems to me I think more when read something on paper (vs. computer). Lately I am seeing some interesting phenomena: the WSJ gets thinner and thinner; sometimes I did not receive the paper.

Business problem of newspapers

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401k and Personal Finance Business

My view on Credit Cards: from both sides

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(Update 23Apr09) It seems Obama administration is going to make credit card more consumer friendly (marketWatch). So are they going to socialize the credit card: I mean, you and me (i.e., honest guys) pay the credit cards on time each month, will bail out the deadbeats, after we bailed out the Wall Street ??? We know the credit card companies (the wall street) are not charities. This thing looks more like dumber and dumber.

(Original) Yesterday I mentioned credit card when talking about recurring revenue. Credit card is the live blood of our consumer society. Like commerical paper for business, we (consumers) use (more precisely borrow from) credit card for our daily purchases. At the end of each billing period, we either pay off the whole balance or pay the minimum payment (not recommended from personal finance perspective, but so many people do this nowadays. The customers who carry balance (and pay >10% interest) also contribute the profit of credit card companies. But it appears now credit card companies started to upset their best customrers, amid the credit crisis.

Business
American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Citibank (NYSE: C) pay customer to go away

JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) charged monthly fee to customers, then gave refund under pressure from NY AG Cuomo (CNN Money story).

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Business

Renewable engery, recurring revenue

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Chinese solar stocks are on the fire these days, mostly due to the Chinese goverment subsidy news (like this one). For me, this solar thing is ONS, not for long term investments at this time. The most worrisome thing for solar, is not the over-supply (competition), is not the volatility of raw material cost (as I understand, the supply polysilicon is way too much down the road), not even the cost of eletricity generated by solar compared to cost of other traditional energy (fossil, and nuclear).

solar panel pic

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Business gadgets

GM, China 3G standard

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We all know GM is in trouble financially. Its stock (NYSE:GM) is around $6, a 50 years low. A lot pundits made fun of GM and its stock on TV or the web space. But I have a different feeling for GM. Among many reasons, I think of two:

1) In graduate school I worked in project for an automotive supplier (supplier for the Detroit big three GM, Ford and Chrysler). I went to Detroit and the Renaissance center twice because of the project. I still remember the GM engineer always asks tough technical questions.

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Business

Ingersoll Rand

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Company web page; Google Finance; Yahoo Finance; quick facts on Trane unit.

2Q 2008 results (Bloomberg), released on Aug 1.
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Ingersoll-Rand Co., the maker of Thermo King and Hussmann refrigeration equipment, said second- quarter profit rose 26 percent after acquiring air conditioner- maker Trane Inc.

Profit from continuing operations climbed to $262.5 million, or 90 cents a share, from $208 million, or 68 cents, a year earlier, matching analysts’ estimates. Sales grew 38 percent to $3.08 billion, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said today in a statement.

The results include about three weeks’ worth of sales from Trane. Ingersoll-Rand completed the $9.6 billion purchase June 5, creating a climate-control business that spans refrigerated truck parts, display cases and ventilation systems. The combined company is forecast to post sales of $17 billion this year as Chief Executive Officer Herbert Henkel expands the company’s industrial products after exiting construction machinery.
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Business

Amazon and Jeff Bezos

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Saw this from Yahoo Tech-ticker. While I would not necessarily compare Amazon/Bezos to Apple/Jobs, I admire Amazon the company and Bezos as a business leader. That being said, the stock (Nasdaq: AMZN) is still not cheap, with a PE (ttm) about 40. As a customer, some of the features I like about Amazon over the years include: suggestions “you may also like”; user reviews (5 stars); over $25 free shipping; wish list. As a techie (and analyst) I like Amazon’s investments in cloud computing a few years back (when this thing was not as popular as today). It seems their investments will pay off over time.

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