Every Saturday, The Intelligent Speculator does a review of good read around the blogosphere. Here’s what caught my attention this week:
Look at this video about Fundamental VS Technical approach.
There is no Free Lunch according to Zack
Magic Diligence takes a pass on Deluxe (the company that I get checks from!)
When Not To Invest In Stocks | The Stock Investor – Stock Advice And Tips posted at The Stock Investor.
Important Points about Trading Systems posted at Forex Strategy.
Dry Bulk Shipping Companies & Baltic Dry Index (BDI) – Comparative Stock Analysis posted at One Family’s Blog.
At Dividends Value, they did a write up on Cullen/Frost Bankers
Moolanomy.com talks about the very important issue of 401K and IRA funding limits…
What are Annuities? – Fixed and Variable posted at ABCs of Investing
When Not To Invest In Stocks | The Stock Investor – Stock Advice And Tips posted at The Stock Investor
What is a Hedge Fund – A Definition posted at Investing School
Diversification Can Be Achieved From Fewer Stocks posted at Dividend Tree
Carnivals:
Tree.com was the result of a spinoff from IAC interactive Corp last year, and as I discussed last week, I have not been a fan of 
Valueclick is a stock that I have been looking at for a long time and trying to get an opinion on and still today as I write this after another extensive look at their products, I have a difficult time being convinced either way. Valueclick has been involved in internet advertising for a long time and through acquisitions mostly it was able to cover most of the different segments of internet advertising purchasing Commision Junction to offer cost per sale advertising and thus merging with its more conventional “banner advertising” that came from both Fastclick and Valueclick. It also survived the dot come bust earlier in the decade thanks to a very strong cash position and very safe management.
While this article will not result in a buy or sell recommendation, it is geared to answer some of the questions that I so often receive, mainly about Google’s growth prospects. If Google is already so dominant in search advertisement, how can it continue to increase its revenues and profits. Of course, this is no simple question and certainly one that top executives at Google spend a lot of time wondering about.
Executives are using private jets, so what?
I am usually a fairly moderate person and while I would not consider myself to always agree with political right views, I usually do. While I do not usually agree with left wing views regarding the economy, I can usually understand the logic behind them in cases involving unions for examples. I do not often agree, but I can have a conversation with an opponent and get their point. But recently, especially in this financial crisis, I have been increasingly hearing the arguments and accusations towards the high paid executives for using corporate private jets instead of using couch seats on commercial airplanes.
There have been numerous accusations but the most vocal ones have come during the very public hearings of the US auto executives. I will not stand here and say that their actions over the past few years were justified, but to blame them for the taking the trip from Detroit to Washington by corporate jet instead of by driving is ridiculous in my opinion and yet we have very rarely heard any opposite opinion in the media.
However, the calculations seem so easy to understand here. Let’s not argue (at least not right now) on the pay of executives and if it is justified or not. But let’s just take raw numbers. Imagine that an executive has an annual salary of $10 millions. Could be higher or lower but let’s use that number. Ok so imagine that our executive has no vacations, here is the breakdown:
Annual salary: $10,000,000 USD
Weekly salary: $192,308 USD
Daily salary: $38,462 USD
Now let’s just count it down. Is you use your car, it will obviously take a while to go, perhaps half a day, which is worth about $20K. And the same reasoning works for commercial airlines. Even if the flight was to cost $20K, wouldn’t it still be worth it? Personally, I would prefer having that executive, even if paid by the government as in many banks right now, to be working on a recovery plan for his bank than waiting in line in an airport, I would feel that my money is better used if he can actually be productive while working aboard his jet.
Is the executive better than me? I would think not! But is his time worth more thann mine? Economically? Absolutely!! Do you look down on someone paying others to clean their house? How is it different really? I’m not saying there is no abuse but generally I think it is well used…What do you think? Don’t you agree that the (mostly) left wing media often only shows one portion of the story?