Comments:
- Your Social Security Card
- Password Cheat Sheet
- Spare Keys
- Checks
- Passport
- Multiple Credit Cards
- Birth Certificate
- A Stack of Receipts
Coca-Cola approved a two-for-one stock split, doubling the number of its shares outstanding to 11.2 billion from 5.6 billion. The stock split is expected to be effective July 27, with new shares set to be distributed near Aug. 10. At that time, each shareholder of record will double their holding, receiving one additional stock for each share held. The split marks Atlanta-based Coke’s 11th in its 92-year history and the first in 16 years. The company, which makes Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite, among other drinks, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1919. Its stock has since been split 11 times, the first in 1927 and, prior to Tuesday’s split, most recently in 1996.Comment: Not my favorite drink but one of my favarite stocks. Vintage (1949) ad.
A man Afghan officials say is a member of the Taliban shot dead a woman accused of adultery in front of a crowd near Kabul, a video obtained by Reuters showed, a sign that the austere Islamist group dictates law even near the Afghan capital.
In the three-minute video, a turban-clad man approaches a woman kneeling in the dirt and shoots her five times at close range with an automatic rifle, to cheers of jubilation from the 150 or so men watching in a village in Parwan province. "Allah warns us not to get close to adultery because it's the wrong way," another man says as the shooter gets closer to the woman. "It is the order of Allah that she be executed".Comment: the 'Pericope de Adultera is the famous passage from John 8. And there is an interesting similarity - Where was the man?
If every unemployed person would vote for Romney we could solve this thing!
The merger closed Monday, creating a utility giant with former Progress CEO Bill Johnson at its helm. Hours later, the newly merged company's Duke-dominated board met for the first time and threw Mr. Johnson out of the job. It replaced him with Jim Rogers, who had run Duke before the deal and was slated to become the merged company's executive chairman. The boardroom coup was the latest bit of maneuvering by Mr. Rogers, a lawyer who worked his way to the top of one of the country's largest utilities.NC attorney general launches probe of Duke-Progress Energy merger after CEO change Excerpt:
Johnson last week signed a three-year employment contract that was supposed to take effect Tuesday. Duke Energy reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that Johnson is entitled to a severance, bonus and other payments of up to $10.3 million. On Friday, Williams confirmed news reports that Johnson's combined package, including pensions and stock awards, could be worth nearly $45 million.Comment: I would take that job (CEO for a day!). Nice severance package! Image is B/W still from The Hudsucker Proxy
San Diego fireworks go kaboom then fizzle -- prematurely
Excerpt:
When most of the country was going ooh and aah over Fourth of July fireworks displays, San Diego spectators were treated to a spectacle that lit up the night sky -- for all of 15 seconds.Comment: The problem: Computer Glitch
... tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their Internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers for the DNSChanger malware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago.
Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States. Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the Internet.
The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service.Comment: Official DCWG.org site to check for Malware (image above)
Anderson Cooper: "The Fact Is, I'm Gay."
Excerpt:
The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud. I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.My own statement:
The fact is, I'm heterosexual, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud. I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.Not that anyone ever wondered about me!
California official faces calls for resignation after proclaiming July as 'straight pride’ month https://t.co/aOLa0gqNYK pic.twitter.com/yhxC9cgxtX
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 8, 2018
Chief Justice Roberts actually ruled the mandate, relative to the commerce clause, was unconstitutional. That’s how the Democrats got Obama-care through in the first place. His ruling means Congress can’t compel American citizens to purchase anything. Ever. The notion is now officially and forever, unconstitutional. As it should be.
"Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority. Congress already possesses expansive power to regulate what people do. Upholding the Affordable Care Act under the Commerce Clause would give Congress the same license to regulate what people do not do. The Framers knew the difference between doing something and doing nothing. They gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it. Ignoring that distinction would undermine the principle that the Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The individual mandate thus cannot be sustained under Congress’s power to “regulate Commerce.”Excerpt from ruling (p 12):
Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choicesComments:
A scheme to skim credit and debit card numbers from customers at a Rosedale Center food court restaurant is responsible for about $100,000 in bogus charges, Roseville police said Thursday. Police are publicizing the case in hopes that they will hear from diners who used a credit or debit card at the Chinese Gourmet Express. ... Also, the restaurant's corporate office told Roseville's lead detective that its executives became aware of a computer breach about two weeks earlier, involving the theft of customer credit and debit card information but the had yet to notify law enforcement.Comment: Chinese Gourmet Express What would Charlie Chan say?: "Always danger where men are evil, but knowledge best weapon for protection". Source
Hillshire Brands Co. is set make its debut as a public company Friday after spinning off from Sara Lee Corp., and speculation about it being an acquisition target is already under way.
Hillshire will focus on meat brands such as Jimmy Dean, Ball Park and its namesake Hillshire Farm, which Sara Lee acquired in 1971. It will also sell frozen desserts and bakery products.
The other company to emerge from Sara Lee will be an international coffee and tea company called D.E. Master Blenders 1753, referring Douwe Egberts, one of the company's coffee brands. That business will be based in the Netherlands.
In a note to investors this week, Bernstein Research analyst Alexia Howard said there are a range of potential suitors for Hillshire Brands, including Hormel Foods Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc. She noted that no other meat-focused company of Hillshire's size and strong stable of brands had been previously available.Comment: Hormel would be a good match
In Praise of Discrimination in the Health Insurance Market
Excerpt:
... discrimination is what makes insurance work. An insurance regime where everyone pays the same amount is called "community rating." That sounds fair. No more cruel discrimination against the obese or people with cancer. But community rating is as destructive as ordering flood insurance companies to charge me nothing extra to insure my very vulnerable beach house, or ordering car insurance companies to charge Lindsay Lohan no more than they charge you. Such one-size-fits-all rules take away insurance companies' best tool: risk-based pricing. Risk-based pricing encourages us to take better care of ourselves.
Car insurance works because companies reward good drivers and charge the Lindsay Lohans more. If the state forces insurance companies to stop discriminating, that kills the business model.
No-discrimination insurance isn't insurance. It's welfare. If the politicians' plan was to create another government welfare program, they ought to own up to that instead of hiding the cost.Comment: On this day the the landmark SCOTUS Obamacare ruling is to be announced, this frames the discussion well! When it comes to economics, I'm basically a Libertarian
Kraft Foods Inc. To Transfer Stock Listing to NASDAQ
Excerpt:
At the time of the spin-off later this year, Kraft Foods Inc. will change its name to Mondelez International, Inc., and the company's common stock will trade under the symbol MDLZ. Concurrently, the North American grocery business will be spun off to form a new company, Kraft Foods Group, Inc., whose common stock will trade under the symbol KRFT. The symbol KFT will be retired at that time.Comment: On "Mondelez" = "delicious world" but some people find the name offensive.
If you hold onto an investment for longer than five days, consider yourself the new millennium's version of Benjamin Graham.
The average holding period for the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), the ETF which tracks the benchmark for U.S. stocks, is less than five days, according to shocking statistics in analyst Alan Newman's latest Crosscurrents newsletter.
"Given recent average volume, the SPY trades its entire capitalization and then some each and every week," wrote the always-provocative analyst. "Does anyone really wish to argue where valuation might enter the picture in this scenario? Value does not matter in the slightest."
Analysts blame the hot potato market on the disappearance of the individual investor and the entry of the high-frequency trader. After three bear markets in the last decade, individual investors - especially baby boomers careening toward retirement - don't have the risk tolerance to be burned once again.
"True liquidity has not come back and the pros and high frequency traders rule the world," said Brian Stutland of Stutland Volatility Group. "Plus, if the average person ever comes back, then they won't have time to play all day long back and forth in the market. So, maybe buy and hold really is dead."
Newman notes in his newsletter that the average holding period for all stocks was almost four years from 1926 through 1999. After a tech mania, a housing bubble, and the explosion in electronic trading, the average holding period sits at just 3.2 months today.Comment: I'm a "buy and hold" guy. I subscribe to Benjamin Graham's value investing model. I eschew stocks that I don't intend to keep at least (but probably more like 3) 1 year
