I plan to bankrupt the U.S. Postal Service with extreme prejudice. And paper companies, too. This is not just a passive/aggressive way to get revenge for all the verbal abuse I've taken from New York post office employees. This is what I call the "Digitization of Everything."
I took most of 2009 off from tournament poker, since the market was so busy and profitable that I didn’t have time to play much. I really enjoy playing in pro-level tournaments, because poker at those levels is an entirely different game.
I’ve picked up a few things by playing with pros and I will share them with you.
Today I offer up, for free, my analysis of the book industry. I have been studying the impact of e-books for about 18 months. Bernstein did good work on this space a while back, which influenced my thinking greatly, however, my numbers and conclusions are different.
The battle so far:
Today instead of blogging, I'm posting my 2 page summary of VZ earnings. If you are following/investing in the smartphone trend, you have to do more than listen to that nutjob Cramer. No, not all players in this space will benefit. By understanding what is happening at the wireless carriers, you can form an informed opinion of who is capturing the value in the chain, and which stocks to buy.
One of the main debates in the market right now is whether the semiconductor cycle has peaked already. ISI and others believe it has. We have seen a lot of money leaving technology for health care and other areas.
One of the reasons given by the Chinese government why they want GOOG to censor search results is that they want to protect their innocent citizens from pornography. I love data and numbers, so let's see if their claims hold up.
I'm probably just hopped up on green tea, but the news of Google possibly pulling out of China is disconcerting to me. In the big picture, it feels like China's global trade methods are about as honest as the guys selling fake watches on Canal Street. I hope it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Some people are saying the Google threat to pull out of China is only a PR stunt. I'm not that cynical yet.
Today I'm not going to take the time to remove the jargon or acronyms. My apologies to normal people that don't think like a tech analyst.
• Chinese stocks down across the board on interest rate hikes in China, growing concern over durability white-hot Chinese economy.
• HDD numbers from IDC – raising 1H10 units. 1Q10 now 151.2M v prior 147.6M and 2Q10 to 148.6M from 141.8M. estimates that WDC 4Q09 revenue will range from $2.33-2.43B v cons $2.33B
Why I’m still long even though everyone thinks I’m crazy.
Bill Gross talks his book again, saying markets can’t do that well again, without the “sugar daddy” of government stimulus. Jeremy Siegel says economy is recovering, we avoided deflation, Bernanke made the right moves and the Fed will take liquidity out by raising interest rates, which will also put pressure on govt to hold the line on spending. I of course, lean toward the Siegel point of view, but understand Mr. Gross' effort to keep bringing in assets to his ginormous Total Return Fund.