I wasn't able to post as much as I wanted this week due to non-blogging duties. Not that there's much going on with my stocks. We're in one of those periods where we just slog along -- through news bad and worse -- seeing my holdings underwater and waiting for them to rise up like a Phoenix and color my brokerage statements black. In other words, we're in a Bear market and things won't be sunny for a good long while yet, I'm afraid.
The recipe mix I'm following has two ingredients: time and patience.
And among the best ways to spend time is to read. Here are five suggestions.
- One portfolio holding making news lately is 3i Group (III/LN). And not for good reasons, either. Reuters runs a report about 3i saying shareholder concerns about its debt level are misplaced: "When you have 5 billion pounds in assets as we do have and a pretty strong looking portfolio, it's hard for me to understand that anxiety, but they have it and that's the reality of it and it's up to us to do what the shareholders want us to do," Russell said. We'll see, I imagine.
- John Dizard penned a simply excellent (IMHO) column on gold this week in the Financial Times. If you subscribe to FT.com it is must-reading for anyone thinking about investing in gold bullion. His view is similar to that of Felix Zulauf in the recent Barron's Roundtable. Dizard in a long-term Bull on the metal, but not at current prices. He writes: "I don't like crowds, and the one around gold is just too big at the moment. Let's say western civilisation is coming to a bloody end. That won't happen for a few months, at least - I don't think that's going too far, do you? So why not wait until you don't have to pay an unjustifiable premium for something as common as a Krugerrand." And adds later in the piece: "You might choose, wisely, not to listen to people trying to time every intra-year turning point in the gold market. If so, you could do worse than to set aside, at regular intervals, a fixed, single-digit percentage of your savings to put into gold, or some related instrument."
- Niall Ferguson writes in the Los Angeles Times about governments clinging to the delusion that a crisis of excess debt can be cured by creating even more debt. Such commonsense is rare in Washington, and I suspect many capitals around the world.
- Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) made news this week by agreeing to become Commerce Secretary in the new Obama administration. Tim Carney writes a column correctly stating the Department of Commerce is a source of political corruption, waste and corporate welfare. And points out that Gregg voted to eliminate the department in 1995. Perhaps Obama and Gregg will abolish it. But don't hold your breath.
- Africa Confidential reports on this week's African Union summit in Addis Ababa. Heated debate focused on Libya's Gaddafi pushing the idea of continental government -- a sort of "United States of Africa." It was, as we can imagine, derided as not practical and even damaging to African security. I tend to agree, FWIW. I doubt the long-term success of the EU, so "continental government" probably wouldn't lead to greater prosperity for the African peoples.
And with those five items, I bid you a temporary farewell and best hopes for a great weekend. See you next week.
Great list as always. Saw the Dizard gold piece mentioned in Richard Russell's newsletter the other day too. Getting set to read the Niall Ferguson article now...
Posted by: David | February 07, 2009 at 05:40 PM
David: Thanks, as always. When I started this blog I had the fantasy that my stock-picking adventures would be most valuable to readers. The slowpoke tendencies of value investing combined with the Bear market has dented that, to say the least. I actually get a fair amount of emails from folks telling me how much they enjoy the links to articles they'd often not see otherwise.
Posted by: John | February 09, 2009 at 02:53 PM