The marketing contingent should really enjoy this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clif-dickens/honest-slogans_b_4149655.html

I am underwhelmed.  This is what we call incremental improvements.  But then again, this could be just the thing to incrementally maximize profits.  If folks dump their iPhone 5 and buy an iPhone 5s perhaps my father was right when he said “find a fool and bump his head.”

Meanwhile, how are those working conditions in Chinese factories as Apple approaches $200 billion in cash?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/technology/apple-shows-off-2-new-iphones-one-a-lower-cost-model.html?pagewanted=all&

So one slum in Brazil receives some basic improvements due to the Pope’s visit.  Those improvements include repaving the street the Pope will travel on and establishing electricity to the chapel he will visit.  Two questions come to mind:
1. Should more high profile people visit every street in every slum, in particular schools and hospitals to get basic services established?
2. Why does it take visitation by “VIPs” (and I use quotations intentionally) to get this work done?  Doesn’t that seem to contradict the “we don’t have the resources” argument?

Sadly, with all of Brazil’s recent economic growth it appears the masses are left behind.  The widening wealth gap is a worldwide phenomenon, unfortunately.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76786436/

Notes:

• Data are obtained from CompuStat Research insight
• Returns include dividend reinvestment
• Each year a market-value weighted return by sector is computed then the arithmetic mean over the entire sample is computed.
• Something looks fishy with Energy and InfoTech.  I need to investigate the presence of any outliers.
  • Update: regarding InfoTech, the dot-com run up prior to 2000 appears to be the reason for the high cross-sectional average Rs of 16.27%.
• Stay tuned for similar graphs using median instead of weighted mean calculations.
• The median P/E firm in each sector can be more representative of the “typical” firm than a value-weighted average (Goedhart, et al. 2002).

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE8AK06J20121121?irpc=932

That is a good question considering the following quote:

Standard & Poor’s compared he historical performance of the stock market, corporate earnings and the economy under Democratic and Republican presidents and found all three did better when a Democrat occupied the White House. The S&P 500 gained an average 12.1% per year since 1901 versus 5.1% under Republican presidents; GDP increased an average 4.2% annually since 1949 compared to 2.6% under Republicans; and corporate profits since 1936 rose 10.5% a year under Democrats compared to 8.9% under Republicans

Under Obama, the stats on the economy aren’t as good but for stocks and earnings they’re even better. GDP has gained an average of just 1% a year but corporate profits have surged an average 51.8% a year and the S&P has rallied 12.3% since his inauguration.

Checkout this article to read more.

Shouldn’t Apple be spending their time, energy, and money developing new products rather that litigating?  Innovate not litigate is my motto.  🙂

Check out this article.

We talked about inflation, real rates, and nominal rates in class this week. This article is an example.

What I liked about thus article:

1. The comments at the end of the article. For example:

These banks are not too big to fail. They are failing and they are too big.

2. BofA’s explanation of the settlement: too reduce uncertainty.

I wonder what happened to the executives responsible? Also, I wonder if our government is part of the past shareholders that are receiving the settlement, the current shareholders that are paying the settlement, both, or neither? Answer that, cite your references, and receive up to 10 extra credit points!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/bank-of-america-to-pay-2-43-billion-to-settle-class-action-over-merrill-deal/

http://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-28/rim-defies-critics-by-finding-blackberry-sales-overseas