ERICOPOLY

I would have purchased my laptop directly from Microsoft if they would only offer it -- so much easier than wiping the machine and installing a clean OS on top. (to eliminate the software loaded by HP/DELL). I wonder if there are antitrust problems with their shipping their own PC, whereas the tablet market is perhaps considered to be (from a legal viewpoint) a new and totally different market from PCs.

For some reason I can't see it when I go to the site. I just see an ad for SmokeyBear. Try with a different browser. It did not work with Chrome but seems to work fine with IE. I find that by resizing the browser window Chrome will behave itself. Sort of like a bad motor that needs a good kick.

Paul Miller in that video talks about a $2.5b pre-tax settlement "hit" as if it were a setback, when the bank under discussion (BAC) is trading for a $170b pre-tax discount to book value.

Why wasn't MKL greedy when others were fearful? I think I remember that the only stock they bought between Oct 2008 and March 2009 was KMX (CarMax). That's it!

I wonder if that would have been possible (getting his debts sorted out) if Obama had elected to go with the Austrian approach to solving the economic crisis. So why is David Siegel - a man who defined excess and debt in the 2000s - now saying that debt and spending are ruining the country? I asked David during a phone interview last night, and he told me that this was about his workers, not himself. He said his own finances have vastly improved. He has paid off all of his major lenders.

It would be refreshing to purchase a laptop directly from Microsoft without the pre-loaded crap the OEMs add on.

It's both printing and an asset swap. First they print the money, then they swap it for an asset (bonds). However they are using disappearing ink -- it gets undone both as interest is collected as wells as when the bonds reach maturity. It is inflationary of course (but right now it's like spitting into a deflationary headwind). They can reverse it of course by selling the bonds -- but if they realize a loss on the trade (including interest) it still amounts to a certain degree of printing.

And this part of the article is particularly telling: AAA reported in its latest update on Sunday that the statewide average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $4.655. Saturday's average of $4.6140 was the highest since June 19, 2008, when it was $4.6096. Gas prices in California are up an astronomical 0.9% (cumulatively) over the past 4 years since the prior peak in 2008, which was prior to all the QE programs at the Fed.

$6? Wow, glad I'm not living in that part of California. The refinery is back online now, so soon you'll have your answer. Will prices decline in the weeks ahead? Here is some more information for you: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/07/calif-gas-prices-hit-all-time-high/1617801/

The CPI for California "all urban consumers" is rising at slower pace than that of the nation as a whole. http://www.dir.ca.gov/OPRL/CPI/PresentCCPI.PDF Period is Jan 2011 to Aug 2012.

You mean the rich women with the collagen-injected lips? I'm in California but I don't know what you mean -- what are you seeing hyperinflating price-wise that is different from other parts of the country?

Let's say that people get dismayed by the low long term rates (pinching net interest income)... this will lead to lower estimates of where the stock is at in 6 years. Then at the same time people see the progress the company has made and gain more confidence that it will survive without dilution. The common stock price gradually rises. I suppose if both happen at the same time you can have a warrant price that tracks or lags the common for a period of time. Or maybe I'm just trying to fit a narrative to random facts.

But banks still must find ways to put that additional cash to work — an increasingly difficult proposition, given the Federal Reserve's intention to keep the long end of the yield curve low, said Sam Bullard, senior economist at Wells Fargo. But I presume they can continue to let long term debt mature using the rising deposit base instead of issuing new long term debt. Effectively wringing more profit out of existing loans, instead of making new loans.

I noticed some fairly heavy insider selling around $17 in Feb/March. Tu, Felice and Schuckenbrock appear to have found an urgent reason to sell over 2/3 of their shares. Fair value or did you sniff a business slowdown on the breeze? http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/dell/insider-trades Swainson was buying his first shares for $17 at that time -- he is probably obligated to purchase those shares given his seniority as head of software. He was only just joining the company at the time.

Are you renting because you think that RE is in bubble territory? My opinion is that homes in this neighborhood are still falling in price and that my investment portfolio has a lot of remaining upside. I hope I can continue to rent this house for several more years before buying. Look, if mortgage rates go materially higher it will be good news for BAC stock. So I'm thinking that BAC would be benefitting at the very time that housing inventory would get tough to sell (interest rate shock). So that's ideally the time for me to buy.

I just did a cash out deal. I sold my house in Washington and now I'm renting in California.

I wish it could be shown that JP Morgan was encouraged by the feds to rescue Bear Stearns. Then JP Morgan could countersue the government with misrepresentation claims of their own. Wishful thinking, I know. It's really stupid to think that by making JP Morgan pick up the tab this will serve as a warning to prevent it from happening again -- when JP Morgan isn't the one that committed the so-called fraud. Like if the neighbor's dog is barking, you shoot the cat as a warning to other dogs.

Based on what you said, the Tesla Model S cannot be made unless it is a reinforced Hummer. Yet the EPA rates it at 89 MPG equivalent (going from memory here). That's one hell of an efficient Hummer! Anyways, energy efficiency isn't the entire story. We finance a massive military in part to secure our access to the global oil markets. Maybe you are burning domestic fossil fuels like natural gas (or even coal) to generate electricity to power the cars? That's a win/win even if the math worked out to be no better than burning gasoline (however the math does work out to be better than with gasoline due to the lost energy of the internal combustion engine). I saw somebody argue on TV last night that Obama wasted 80 billion on green energy subsidies. He threw the Tesla investment in there. It just seems to me that energy security and national security are in the same pot. Do we need as many aircraft carriers etc... if we didn't run our economy on oil? How much do we spend on defense and can 80 billion be saved from our defense budget without reliance on oil supplies from the Persian Gulf? I suspect that we just spent hundreds of billions fighting a war in part for the oil security.

Can you elaborate? I believe what he's saying is cash-at refinance at 30 year interest rate, invest the proceeds in short term bonds (losing money on the negative spread for a while) and then buy long term treasuries when the long term interest rate has moved significantly higher than your mortgage interest rate.

The 24 minute mark of this video points out that the SUV version, the Model X from Tesla, outperforms the Porsche 911 in 0-60. http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-unveils-model-x It's all wheel drive too (dual motor). They are going to sell a ton of these is my prediction ;)

A view from underneath: http://www.insideline.com/tesla/model-s/2012/2012-tesla-model-s-signature-performance-suspension-walkaround.html

VW Bug owners have fun. I meant fun in terms of top of the line sports sedan fun -- M5 level fun.

I think what sets the Model S up for success is that it is a really fun car to drive that people will have a blast owning. The Volt/Leaf/etc... just aren't sexy.

One thing I learned about the Roadtrek -- it's kind of a pain to plug it in and unplug it again whenever I park it at home. The Volt (and Cadillac) have small range on the battery charge before it moves on to burning gasoline. This means you probably have to plug it in every night. I guess I'm lazy. The 300 mile range of the Tesla is very appealing in that we would probably only charge it once a week.

The reason why I want to buy a Model S is that it's basically getting the same acceleration performance as an M5 -- I'm talking about the "performance" version of the Model S. The performance version gets 0-60 in 4.4 seconds. But it doesn't have the lag when you punch it -- it immediately starts pulling. And they're in the same price point too. The Volt is not competing with a Model S. About 10 years ago I purchased an Audi S4. It was fun, but I was very irritated that when I punched it there was always a lag before it would respond.