Dangit, Arley! No sooner do I post my rather wordy essay on Return on Equity than you have to go an make a statement that I feel requires some caveats.

I'll keep it short. All three of the industries you mentioned have undergone significant changes in the last 30 years so that they no longer resemble the industries that have generated the historical returns that make them so appealing to an investor. There are very good companies in each of those industries (banking, insurance, and utilities) but caveat emptor.

For a small inkling of what I am talking about, the history and current troubles of Freddie Mac are a good parallel.

9:51:36 PM  #  

Alright, as promised, here is my latest investment article on Return on Equity.

Feel free to poke holes in it, comment, or ignore away.

9:44:02 PM  #  

Pixies together again. After more than a decade, the legendary Pixies are reuniting in April for a world tour. Can today get any better!?! Link via [Boing Boing Blog]
3:31:52 PM  #  

The new Pennywise album is out (as of yesterday) in stores now!  You can read a review of the album's kickoff party at House of Blues at Epitaph and another review of the album at Rolling Stone.  Short summary of both reviews?  The album and the band kick ass!

3:28:49 PM  #  

Excellent article by Bill Joy (formerly of Sun as officially announced today) on Wired where he talks about the implications of the coming advances of nanotechnology, robotics, and the population explosion.

He paints a doomsday scenario that you can only dismiss if you have absolutely no concept of evolutionary theory and network theory, and viral dispersal.  Still, having said that I think there are some key points he missed.  I'm still trying to digest it so I'm going to refrain from commenting for now...

And Arley,  I'm going to give you another investment installment later tonight after work.  My wife is going running so I'll have a couple of hours alone to sit down and pound something out that's actually worth reading (I hope).

9:45:07 AM  #  

My new laptop bag arrived from ebags yesterday!  It's the only thing I could find that was reasonably slim and still be able to hold my Dell Inspiron 8500, which is one mammoth laptop.  Now I can officially chuck that oversized monstrosity of a laptop bag that I got from Dell (boy was that a mistake) and carry my laptop with me with a minimal amount of fuss.

Am I the only one who immediately seeks to cram every pocket full of something when they buy a new laptop bag or backpack?  I got into work today and spent a good 5 minutes unloading everything from the bag because every pocket was stuffed.

9:26:51 AM  #  

Sun Microsystems' Co-Founder and Chief Scientist Resigns. William N. Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, is leaving the company he helped found 21 years ago. via [New York Times: Business]
9:16:22 AM  #  

Argentina Defaults on $3 Billion I.M.F. Debt. Argentina defaulted on a $3 billion loan payment to the fund rather than dipping into its scant foreign reserves to pay the debt. via [New York Times: Business]
9:14:24 AM  #