The markets have had a nice little rally the last few months. If strength continues I am looking for large caps and healthcare to continue to lead the way. One person happy to see the summer go is TraderTim . His bearish look at the markets is always entertaining.
I am long some Ebay, Adobe, Akamai and Apple and Yahoo tech big cap. I own some Rydex healthcare, XLV and Ambien maker SNY. I am not short anything at the moment in my accounts. I am not as happy as Tim to see the summer go :)
Ben Stein is a great financial writer, but maye best known for his signature line: “BUELLER, BUELLER.”
He has a great article in the New York Times that calls out against Management Buyouts and the Private Equity Firms that make it happen . Here are his 5 main reasons:
• Management self-interest
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Conflicts-of-interest
• Lack of full disclosure
• Insider trading
It is the weekend’s must read and Roger over at Information Arbitrage, a smart hedge fund dude himself, gives a detailed analysis of the wonderful piece himself .
Unless laws change as it relates to MBO’s, look for private quity firms to grow and grow.
About a year late with this information, Barron’s has an article on housing entitled : “R.I.P., housing market?” . The shame is they cover their asses still by adding a question mark. No longer it is only a magazine worth skimming these days.
If you can’t eneter the site – here are the key paragraphs and links:
If you’re trying to buy or sell a home, chances are you’re taking the market’s pulse on a daily basis. For the rest of us, the Housing Bubble Blog (www.thehousingbubbleblog.com) might be a good place to start. Blogmaster Ben Jones posts several times daily, penning lengthy tomes with lots of links to regional and national housing-related stories. On Aug. 24, the day after the Commerce Department announced that existing-home sales were down 4.1% in July, Jones pulled in links to related stories from publications as varied as Fortune, the Reno Gazette-Journal and the Marco Island Sun-Times. These links take you to the full story.
Jones does a good job of spotlighting not just the major real-estate markets, but housing issues around the country. He offers illuminating anecdotes about a market seemingly in meltdown mode, such as the one about the woman who offered to throw in a Jeep Wrangler free with the purchase of her home at the asking price. The ploy didn’t work; she subsequently lowered the price. Then there’s the real-estate developer in Southwest Florida whose net income has fallen nearly 70% since 2005. The Housing Bubble Blog offers much of interest to real-estate specialists and non-specialists alike.
ON AUG. 24, when the numbers were released, Calculated Risk (calculatedrisk.blogspot.com) supplied viewers with charts and tables illustrating housing-market conditions, including sales prices and inventory levels, and specifics about the disheartening home-sales news. Links take viewers to sites such as Econbrowser (www.econbrowser.com), which offers analysis of economic conditions and policy.
The anonymous blogmaster at Calculated Risk describes himself as a retired senior executive with a background in investing, finance and economics. Once he had the chance to digest the announcement about July’s sales decline, he passed along a tip from a company insider about significant layoffs that could be coming at one of the nation’s largest home builders. He (or, perhaps, she) also linked to gloomy comments from economists and other industry insiders. Like all blogmasters, housing scribes have their biases, and many are none too cheery these days.
Other housing blogs worth a look include HouseBubble.com (www.housebubble.com), which posts links to key housing stories daily, and Housing Panic — The Bubble Blog with Attitude (housingpanic.blogspot.com), hosted by a “former homeowner” and “expat,” or expatriate. As promised, attitude abounds — about housing, politics, the Middle East and more — along with comments from readers. There’s some intelligent discussion here, but this blog is not for readers easily offended.
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