• curiouscat.com
  • About
  • Books
  • Glossary

    Categories

    • All
    • carnival (41)
    • chart (8)
    • Cool (35)
    • Credit Cards (45)
    • economic data (62)
    • Economics (439)
    • economy (126)
    • Financial Literacy (292)
    • Investing (324)
    • Personal finance (356)
    • Popular (43)
    • quote (194)
    • Real Estate (120)
    • Retirement (65)
    • Saving (90)
    • Stocks (158)
    • Taxes (51)
    • Tips (129)
    • Travel (7)

    Tags

    Asia banking bonds capitalism chart China commentary consumer debt Credit Cards credit crisis curiouscat debt economic data Economics economy employment energy entrepreneur Europe Financial Literacy government health care housing India interest rates Investing Japan John Hunter manufacturing markets micro-finance mortgage Personal finance Popular quote Real Estate regulation Retirement save money Saving spending money Stocks Taxes Tips USA

    Recently Posts

    • New Health Care Insurance Subsidies in the USA
    • Individual Stock Portfolio Investment Planning
    • Finding Great Investments Keeps Getting Harder
    • Huge Growth in USA Corporate Debt from 2005 to 2020
    • Retirement Portfolio Allocation for 2020
    • Tencent Gaming
    • Tucows: Building 3 Businesses With Strong Positive Cash Flow
    • The 20 Most Valuable Companies in the World – Jan 2019
    • 20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog in 2018
    • An Inverted Yield Curve Predicts Recessions in the USA
  • Blogroll

    • Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
    • Freakonomics
    • I Will Teach You to be Rich
    • Jubak Picks
  • Links

    • Articles on Investing
    • fool.com
    • Investing Books
    • Investment Dictionary
    • Leading Investors
    • Marketplace
    • Trickle Up
  • Subscribe

    • RSS Feed

    Curious Cat Kivans

    • Making a Difference

Investing and Economics Blog

Very Good Amazon Earnings

Wow. I have been a believer in Amazon’s long term strategy. Earnings have not been as positive as many expected (over the last few years) but I continued to believe Jeff Bezos’ long term strategy and execution were very positive. I was a bit concerned that present earnings were not better. This quarter the earnings were quite impressive. One quarters numbers are not significant to the long term success. And if earnings were to be less impressive in the coming quarters that would not sour me on the stock. But the good earning are a nice surprise and something that has been made possible through many years of smart moves by Amazon (that reduced short term profits over those years).

Net sales increased 32% to $3.02 billion in the first quarter, compared with $2.28 billion in first quarter 2006. Excluding the $84 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales grew 29% compared with first quarter 2006. Operating income increased 38% to $145 million in the first quarter, compared with $106 million in first quarter 2006.

Net income increased 115% to $111 million in the first quarter, or $0.26 per diluted share, compared with net income of $51 million, or $0.12 per diluted share in first quarter 2006. First quarter 2007 effective tax rate was 23% compared with an effective tax rate of 47% in first quarter 2006.

Related: Amazon Innovation

April 25th, 2007 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Investing, Stocks

Great Google Earnings

Google quarterly earnings are amazing again. Google reported revenues of $3.66 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, an increase of 63% compared to the first quarter of 2006 and an increase of 14% compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. 63% jump to $3.66 billion, very impressive and a 64% increase in earnings.

GAAP operating income for the first quarter of 2007 was $1.22 billion, or 33% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $1.06 billion, or 33% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2006. Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2007 was $1.41 billion, or 38% of revenues. For 2006, GAAP operating income for the first quarter of 2006 was $743 million, or 33% of revenues.

This type of performance is next to impossible to achieve, which makes it amazing they have achieved it but also unlikely it will continue. Still I am happy to own some Google (and glad I have owned it for awhile).

Related: 10 Stocks for 10 Years Update – Sleepwell portfolio results (largest holdings: Google, Templeton Dragon Fund and Toyota) – Investment Books

April 19th, 2007 by John Hunter | 3 Comments | Tags: Investing, Stocks

General Air Travel Taxes Subsidizing Private Plane Airports

This is the kind of stuff that makes so many people so cynical about how those with the gold make the rules. Somehow unless enough people pay enough attention to stop every single boondogel the politicians seem to keep throwing money at their rich friends. Then those rich friends give a reward the politician’s re-election campaigns for the taxpayer money they received. Traveler taxes awarded to small airports:

The federal government has taken billions of dollars from the taxes and fees paid by airline passengers every time they fly and awarded it to small airports used mainly by private pilots and globe-trotting corporate executives.
…
Passengers pay as many as six separate taxes and fees on a single airline ticket, adding up to more than $104 billion since 1997, the AP found. Yet these assessments often are overlooked by the millions who click the “buy” button to purchase tickets online, even though they can exceed 25 percent of the total airfare.
…
Congress will decide later this year whether to curtail the huge public subsidy for small airports, while pilots’ associations, airport managers and other interested groups are fighting to keep it.

Any guess on what they will do? I would guess fund their friends and themselves. It is true if the public actually pays attention then I believe they would stop until they think the public won’t notice and then slip the millionaire subsidies back in.

J.T. Wilson Field in Somerset, Ky. got more than $12 million since 2001, much of it through the influence of local Rep. Hal Rogers, a longtime Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee who uses the airfield for trips home. Wilson Field is home base to 26 small planes and one jet. Despite millions in improvements, including a passenger terminal, the airport has yet to see scheduled commercial service.

The article includes many more examples.

April 16th, 2007 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Economics, Taxes

Learning About Personal Loans

Personal Loans are either secured of unsecured loans to an individual. Secured loans have some form of collateral such as a car, stocks (margin loan) or a house (home equity loan). Unsecured loans are usually involve less paperwork (which is often an attraction to the borrower – though margin loans often take no paperwork). The interest rate on unsecured loans is normally higher since the lender does not have collateral.

Credit cards are a form of unsecured personal loan. They normally are the worst way to borrow money (though for a very short term loan – say a month or two – when you factor in the ease of use they can be the best option). The problem is many people treat their credit card as a normal source of loans. This is a bad personal finance strategy. See our credit card tips for more information.

Personal loans often have “teaser” rates – interest rates that are low (and quoted in big bold colors) while the real rate is hidden in small type. Don’t fall for the hype. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) helps you look through the hype to the real cost, but is still not a perfect measure of the cost to the borrower.

A MSN money article discusses the horrendous terms of some “payday loans”: Loans with triple-digit interest. Read more about personal loan terms such as: payday loans, Annual Percentage Rate (APR), line of credit, etc..

Related: Payday Loans = Costly Cash, FTC Alert – Learning About Mortgages – How Not to Convert Equity – personal finance articles on loans

April 14th, 2007 by John Hunter | 1 Comment | Tags: Financial Literacy, Personal finance, Tips

Save Money on AV Cables

Maybe this will help people understand HDMI cables…:

“Question: Is there any difference between a cheap (i.e. $10 HDMI cable) and an expensive (i.e. $150 HDMI cable)???”

I have an EE degree. I work as a broadcast engineer. I live and breath digital and analog signals every day. So yes, you could say I’m qualified to give the answer to this question…

That answer is, “No, an expensive HDMI cable will make NO difference in the quality of your picture OR sound”

April 12th, 2007 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Personal finance, Tips

Retirement Savings Survey Results

Have less than $25K in savings? Get in line

Nearly half of all workers saving for retirement have savings that fall short of the $25,000 mark, according to the 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates. Predictably, the youngest workers (ages 25-34) dominate this group – 68 percent of them have less than $25,000 earmarked for their later years. But so do half of workers age 35 to 44 and a third of workers age 45 to 55 and over.

What is a very rough estimate of what you need? Well obviously factors like a pension, social security payments, age at retirement, home ownership, health insurance, marital status… make a huge difference in the total amount needed. But something in the neighborhood of 10-25 times your desired retirement income is in the ballpark of what most experts recommend. So if you want $50,000 in income you need $500,000 – $1,250,000. Obviously that is difficult to save over a short period of time. The key to retirement saving is consistent, long term commitment to saving.

Related: Saving for Retirement – Start Young with 401k and Roth IRA – Retirement Delayed: Working Longer

April 11th, 2007 by John Hunter | 6 Comments | Tags: quote, Retirement, Saving

Held Hostage By Health Care

Held Hostage By Health Care:

Workers, he says, are increasingly shackled to their jobs for no reason other than to cling to their employers’ health insurance coverage. These are people, he says, “who don’t leave a job even though they’re unhappy and would be more productive somewhere else.”

This is one of the many problems with the existing health care system in the USA. That system now costs 16% of USA GDP – the highest cost anywhere.

After a decade of working in a job she wanted to leave, Holmes Johnson found the courage to move on. “Starting my own thing was too overwhelming, and my husband’s plan did not offer the coverage to make us feel secure,” she says. A few months ago, she landed a public-relations position with a comparable salary at Washington law firm Sterne Kessler Goldstein Fox. After checking the firm’s formula for prescription-drug coverage, she made the jump. In what other country, she wonders, would that be the deciding factor?

The USA economy has strengths and weaknesses. The strengths have allowed the health care system to function poorly and still be tolerated. It has reached a point where it cannot be tolerated in its current form.

Related: Starbucks: Respect for Workers and Health Care – Health Care Crisis

April 7th, 2007 by John Hunter | 2 Comments | Tags: Economics, Personal finance

Victim of Real Estate Bust: Your Pension

Victim of Real Estate Bust: Your Pension – Part 2:

The skeptics also point out that credit spreads for junk bonds are so low today because we’ve had several years of historically low bond default rates. But anyone who’s ever opened up a book on economic history will tell you that most bad loans are made when times are good and the markets are complacent, not when times are bad and Wall Street is full of fear.

The central premise of this post is that risk is being mispriced by the market (by failing to account for the risks bonds… are overpriced). And that when those risks are exposed (for example, as the sub prime crisis builds, recession…) prices will fall. Historically markets do exhibit this pattern – when times are good risks are not fully factored into prices, then those risks are appreciated and prices decline.

Related: adjustable rate mortgage – investment risks – Mortgage Defaults: Latest Woe for Housing – Coming Collapse in Housing? – How Not to Convert Equity – Saving for Retirement

This interesting graph, shows the amount of adjustable rate mortgages due for interest rate adjustments (which will increase mortgage payments for millions of people).
Read more

April 6th, 2007 by John Hunter | Leave a Comment | Tags: Financial Literacy, Investing, Real Estate

Democratising Commerce

C.K. Prahalad on Democratising Commerce: The Challenge for the 21st Century – audio – pdf:

Just the four carriers of cell phone services in India have created a market capitalisation of $75 billion plus in the last five years. So there is a huge opportunity to create economic value for the companies and at the same time getting people to be connected. This connectivity has changed the lives of ordinary people, from taxi drivers to small corner shops, road-side shops, to people who are plumbers and carpenters. All of their business models have changed. Now they can use the cell phone to increase their yields, increase their productivity.
…
we cannot have in the 21st century a society which does not pay attention to five billion or 80 per cent of people who do not get the ability to participate in the benefits of globalisation. If we just leave them alone and do not pay attention to them I think it is very hard to maintain both peace and some form of law and order.

Listen to more podcasts from the Times: Ten of the world’s leading business thinkers provide the latest thinking in economics, management, finance, strategy and marketing.

April 1st, 2007 by John Hunter | 1 Comment | Tags: Economics

           
Copyright © Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog

    Personal Finance

    • Credit Card Tips
    • IRAs
    • Investment Risks
    • Loan Terms
    • Saving for Retirement
  • Archives

      All Posts
    • March 2021
    • January 2021
    • August 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • May 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • August 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • June 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • November 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • November 2007
    • October 2007
    • September 2007
    • August 2007
    • July 2007
    • June 2007
    • May 2007
    • April 2007
    • March 2007
    • February 2007
    • January 2007
    • December 2006
    • November 2006
    • October 2006
    • April 2006
    • March 2006
    • January 2006
    • December 2005
    • October 2005
    • July 2005
    • May 2005
    • April 2005
    • April 2004