An unpleasant drop in the US market yesterday, but for me the damage was minimal. Since 2000 I’ve had a relatively neutral approach to the market, and seek alpha by going long on companies I like in sectors I like, and short on the reverse. (I have other money with Gareth Morgan who has a …
Category Archives: Business
Floating (ARM) rate mortgages are on the rise
CalculatedRisk has created a lovely chart of the rise in popularity of Adjustable Rate Mortgages in the USA. It is scary is that around 30% of mortgages in the last few years are ARM’s. This is bad as 1: ARM’s are easier for home buyers to get than fixed rate mortgages, indicating that the quality …
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Google Valuation
ValueCruncher tilts at Google – and finds the $500 per share market value wanting. It’s hard to justify the $500+ valuation based on fundamentals – Google made 1/64th of it’s market cap in the last 12 months, and expects to make 1/37th of its market cap in the next 12 months. Somehow analysts manage to …
US built cars less safe….
The USA car industry has seldom put safety first, and never drivability. Turns out the second affects the measurement of the first, as electronic stability control (ESC) was deemed required for those 13 vehicles that maxed out the rating standard in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tests. The winners include 3 Hondas, and …
Customer service – how to ensure phones are answered
Meg Whitman commented that in the early days Paypal customer support staff didn’t answer the phone – they were avoiding speaking to customers. I don’t understand why more customer service lines don’t follow Trade Me’s example. At Trade Me you pay$1.99 per minute when you call (a 900 or o900 number) customer service – but …
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Surfing from work…
Personal surfing from work is bad, says the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in New Zealand. While this may be a great debating point for the chamber, Brownlee clearly isn’t thinking this one through. I certaibnkly wouldn’t want ot work for him, nor for any organisation that wanted such micro control over my activities. Better …
Business class gets even better
Singapore airlines have launched their version of the lie-flat standard business class. It is insane – not only lie flat, but look at the size of that seat! It seems to be begging for two people to sleep in it… The bed itself does not seem that wide at the top – it appears that …
ShipBuktu – shop the USA
Shipbuktu alpha-launched today. The site is still in test, but the back-end logistics are set. essentially. I’m involved on an unconfirmed sem-official basis. Shipbuktu gives Kiwis a USA address, so you can shop the internet USA style. Amazon electronics, Gap clothing, and everything from telescopes to car parts are finally available to us here. Believe …
PS3 sales banned on eBay UK, restricted on eBay USA
Stupid. Really stupid. eBay USA is restricting sale of Sony PS3’s to members with high feedback, and even then only one per member. eBay UK is prohibiting sale of PS’s until pre-sales commence next year. Thus does eBay, which normally serves to reduce barriers, prevent trading across borders. The obvious play is to buy PS3’s …
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Overstock.com – and why it does not work
eBay wannabe competitor Overstock just had a horrible 3rd quarter, with revenues down on the previous year. Although it’s a cyclical business, pundits are concerned that revenues fell despite better internal operations. In the last quarter the conversion rate, and Google ads were less effective. Meanwhile the brand suffers (while attracting the morbidly curious like …
Job advertising
Surprisingly only now has the number of job listings online in New Zealand overtaken the number of job listings in newspapers – thanks to the launch of Trade Me Jobs. Source: ANZ For now the entry of online players has increased the size of the market, but that downward slope of newspaper classifieds must have …
NZHerald is Stuffed
A week or so ago NZ Herald either made a change, or someone (like Telecom) made a change for them, and as a result it often loads glacially slowly. It’s so bad that it essentially renders the site unusable for some folk. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it is because they have succumbed …
Lance Wiggs 