Five for Friday (and the Weekend)

Whew. What a busy week it's been. But I've got my fingers crossed that my workload can wait until Monday, and that I can devote some time this weekend to a variety of other stuff. Such as completing questions Geoff Gannon sent me for an interview for his site, Gannon on Investing (which he's also doing with some other bloggers as I understand it). Back to this site, here are five items you might find interesting this weekend.

• Dave of The Hackensack blog brings to my attention this feature article from the Atlantic Monthly on the Chevy Volt, General Motors' (GM/NYSE) electric hybrid scheduled for 2010. I posted yesterday that Jerry Flint thinks GM is putting virtually all its chips on the Volt, and this article reinforces that view somewhat. Writer Jonathan Rauch talks to a range of folks inside and outside GM about the car, and Bob Lutz has not only bought in to the project, but is leading the charge (no pun intended). It's a lengthy article, so might want to print it out before reading it.

• Speaking of GM, Jim Jubak makes the case for the company over at MSN Money. Of course, he's looking at the company at much lower prices than I paid for its stock. But I don't think I am wrong on GM, I think I was just early. Something I can say about so many stocks I hold these days, unfortunately.

• Jonathan of the Cheap Stocks blog (maybe the best value blog around) pens a "Dear Bill" letter to Bill Miller of Legg Mason Value Trust fame. Jonathan is "firing" Miller from running the large cap portion of his company's 401(k) plan. Like the editor of Cheap Stocks, I have a different view of value investing from Miller -- but I doubt I'll ever beat the S&P 500 15 years in a row. Jonathan notes that Miller hasn't just stopped beating the index, but has seen his performance drop off to an alarming degree. I'm not a close follower of Miller, yet it seems his concentration in financials has killed him. I don't think of myself as a cigar butt value guy, but compared to someone who's bought Amazon and Yahoo! over the years, I'm certainly closer that side of the value investing dial.

• I think it was 1970 or 1971 when the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles came to town to play an exhibition game. I was a huge O's fan. They were managed by Earl Weaver and the stars included Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair and a seemingly cast of thousands. This was during a stretch when the Orioles won three straight American League pennants (yet painfully lost 2 of 3 World Series). They were so good that the great Jim Palmer was number three on the pitching rotation at that time. The starting pitcher for the Phillies that day was none other than Jim Bunning. The same Jim Bunning who is now a Senator from Kentucky, and who stated at a Senate Banking Committee hearing this week, "When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I woke up in France." Unlike that day Bunning took the mound all those years ago, I now root for him and am cheering him on.

• The Economist is a truly fine magazine (or "newspaper" as it calls itself). It's opinionated, and can be wrong about this or that. Sometimes I think it's wrong a lot. But it's well-written and exhaustive, and makes American weeklies such as Time and Newsweek seem lightweight by comparison. For my money, The Spectator in the UK is THE BEST written weekly in the English language. Yet if someone says that title belongs to The Economist, I wouldn't invest the time in arguing with them. In fact, among the best pieces in the magazine are its obituaries. Writing a good obit is an art, believe it or not (the Daily Telegraph in Britain is famous for them). The obituary for John Templeton starts this way: "If on any day over the past few decades, you had chanced to be strolling in the early morning at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, you might have seen a wiry, determined figure power-walking in the sea. Keen as a whippet, his thin arms pumping, he headed into the prevailing swell. In his 80s, he would do an hour of this. In his 90s, he still managed 25 minutes. Sir John Templeton spent his life going against the flow." Terrific stuff.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Thanks for reading and, if you haven't already, why not subscribe to this blog's RSS feed by clicking on the icon at the top of the left hand menu? Have a great weekend.

Comments

[RJ]

John, you said, "but I doubt I'll ever beat the S&P 500 15 years in a row." Given that, one wonders if you have your core long term money in an S&P 500 index fund.

I remember the Orioles you describe very well (I guess we're about the same age). Those were great memories of my youth. Especially since I was a Pirates fan back then... and I won't rub in the '71 and '79 World Series. :0)

[John]

RJ: No, never had any money in an index fund. Virtually all my long term funds are in the stocks listed on this blog (spread over my regular brokerage account and two retirement accounts). I was simply praising Miller for beating the index over such a long period of time.

And the Pirates...yep, my memory is that the O's were up 2-0 in 1971 and lost, and were up 3-1 in '79 and lost. I think they were the first team to be up 3-1 and lose a Series. But the Pirates were a class act with great fans, so that soothes the ache, a bit anyway ;-)

[David]

Good stuff, John.

Speaking of electric cars, did you notice Tesla Motors on the cover of Fortune this week?

Here's one more item of note for your list. I remember you talking about Thomas Donlan's editorials recently, so I thought I'd pass along this Financial Sense Newshour interview link, with Donlan talking about his new book, "A World of Wealth".

http://www.financialsense.com/Experts/2008/Donlan.html

Don't know if you caught this one already. I hope to catch up with some of the recent FSN broadcasts over the next few days.

[John]

Thanks, David: I did catch Donlan on FSO and thought he was great,and he has an especially good editorial in this week's Barron's.

[talapoku]

In your opinion, what's the best movie ever created?

[John]

I don't know about the best, but my favorite is Casablanca.