Posts under ‘Commentary’

If logic prevails, Microsoft stock may be in for quite a rebound on Monday.  After announcing an offer to buy Yahoo! for 44.6 Billion on February 1st, Microsoft’s stock went into a steep decline.  Ending January 31st at $32.60/share, the stock closed yesterday at $28.56/share, a drop of roughly $4 or ~12%. 
Its clear that investors either [...]

I headed over to the International Monetary Fund website last night, trying to find out what the per capita income was for Afghanistan and ended up finding a list of per capita incomes for all the countries that participated in their data collection for 2007.   Afghanistan came in at $383 dollars per year.  The United States sits [...]

Requirement #1 to get you through a cold, dark, wet Seattle winter?  Coffee.  Caffe Appassionatto is roasted locally and served in many of the fine Seattle cafe’s.  Looks like Amazon only has three packs, but three bags of coffee for $20 isn’t bad and it’ll be just enough to last you through a Seattle weekend.

Requirement #2 [...]

Yesterday, VMware announced earnings.  The company makes virtualization software that can be used to maximize computer hardware by allowing you to run multiple operating systems on a single set of hardware.   It can offer additional gains by allowing a company to house all of its hardware in remote locations where rent may be cheaper, power [...]

With McDonald’s focused effort to enter into direct competition with Starbucks via their “McCafe” concept, I’ve been giving some thought to what that really means to the investors in both companies. 
McDonalds is certainly a juggernaut and has nothing to lose by entering into the industry (high margin coffee drinks could greatly increase the average order [...]

This morning, someone forwarded me a link to Rick Steves’ “Cold in Kyoto and other hot topics” article and, after reading it, I can’t help but feel like the current batch of presidential candidates are missing the boat. 
As some of you know, Steves is a well known travel author and tour guide.  He’s spent his [...]

I was listening to NPR on Friday while heading out for Thanksgiving, round II and heard an interesting argument about Americans’ over-consumption and insatiable appetite for cheaply made imported goods.
Is it true that we Americans are in love with having more, more, more or is there something else going on?  The interview was with several folks, [...]

I’m under 30, make a pretty good salary, have no significant debt (other than my house), how much should I be putting into my 401k?  My employer doesn’t match my contribution at all, but they do have a profit sharing plan so a percentage of my salary goes into my 401k regardless of my contribution.  In [...]

Well, it was bound to happen, this week Yahoo! announced their SmartAds platform to allow advertisers to better target potential customers as well as more flexibly create ads for specific  markets.  The flexibility in ad creation is a neat feature for advertisers and seems fairly unique, but the improved targeting is the piece that is really [...]

A couple recent news articles have opened my eyes to the fact that Americans seem to simply have too much money.  They have so much money, it seems they don’t know what to do with it.
NPR’s ”All Things Considered” had an interview last night with Charles Fishman of FastCompany magazine who recently wrote an article on the [...]