To All, Barron's review. Good but odd issue. Most of it is crap, but the few items that are good are keepers.
1. Alan Abelson's blistering of Alice Rivlin's comments that she could see no sign of frothy markets or a bubble economy is extremely funny and right on the mark. One comment of especial interest to this wounded warrior is that "one Schwab is now worth two Goldman's." I ripped into Rivlin on this thread earlier last week, but Abelson does it much better.
2. Chaste and Sh-ttyGroup report on Tuesday. Looking at the First Call estimates, you have to wonder why these dogs have gone up. Even if they beat estimates handily, Chaste is growing hardly at all and Shi-ttyGroup is likely to grow negatively. Oh, yeah, I want these geniuses managing my cos. If you can't show growth in this type of credit bubble, when do you do well?
3. Three boring main articles.
4. A long piece on watching Greenspan. Why? Just read the article he wrote about how the Fed led us into The Great Depression and that is what Alan is doing now. No need to watch. <g>
5. Interview with a media hedge fund guy. Unlike most, he buys cos. that few know. I like that attitude. But, since I've only heard of one co. he recommends, and I don't like it, I am withholding judgement about whether he is smart or not. <g>
6. Market Watch has a good bit by John Hussman. He says, if the Dow had grown at the same rate as earnings since 1982, it would now be at 2000. Unfortunately, they spoil the effect by putting a quote from some goof named Bob Brinker right above it. Isn't this the guy who had the silver skates in Holland? <g>
7. A formal apology to Sand Brothers (a broker). I have made fun of them in the past. But they slammed American Home Products pretty good in Research Reports and I have puts on AHP. So, I guess they are good guys after all. <vbg>
8. An outstanding piece in Plugged In by Bill Alpert about the coming multiple killing clash between Cisco and Lucent. Anyone who plays these two jive turkeys should read it.
9. Great Mailbag. No, I'm am not in it. <g> Comments on Smithers and Buffett's mention of overstated earnings are great. Also, a myth fan (no, not that myth <g>) explains the real significance of Cassandra to the idjit futurist who called bears Cassandras.
10. The most gratifying piece in the issue is Michael Santoli's coverage of Larry McMillan's new theory that sellers of volatility are not the winners in the options game. Volatility buyers win much more often than the academics would have us believe. In other words, for the past thirty years, buyers have been beating sellers, but sellers have always claimed that only sellers win. The Chief Quant Jock at Pru agrees. Off the bell curve results happen much more often than standard analysis predicts. Whew! I don't have to give back all the money I've made on long options over the decades. <g> I hope Edamo on the Dell thread has his nose rubbed in the Barron's piece. And I hope Spot used it first. <g>
11. Now that Closed End funds are again listed in the Market Week section, the Mutual Funds pullout section is officially a total waste of time and paper.
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