Liberty

Nassim Taleb interview about all this:

Well played, sir. 8)

I'm already set to the max, which is 50 topics. I wonder if there's an easy way to set it so that the max is higher (100 would be good).

To see what SpaceX really wants to do to cut down costs much further, check this out:

Being a "find a few stocks I really like and hold them for a long time" kind of investor (Claude Shannon style, if you will), I don't have that many original ideas that I consider good enough to post here. I def. want to post more ideas, but I have to find them first. One thing that I think more of us could do is update existing threads. The Investment board has so many great ideas, but some of them have fallen to page 5 despite being as attractive (or more) as the stuff on page 1. Sometimes, out of sight, out of mind..

SpaceX is amazing.

I would guess that most people on paypal use it with their credit card, no? I guess over time there could be a movement to direct account linking, but for that paypal would have to make people feel as safe as CCs which protect people from most forms of frauds right now.

Thanks for posting that link, seems interesting. Will dig deeper when I have a chance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/business/is-insider-trading-part-of-the-fabric-on-wall-street.html?_r=1

I think it's possible for DP to slump for a short period, but very hard to imagine a few billion people in emerging markets not buying significantly more clothes going forward (probably the most affordable luxury). There's also a feedback loop: if cotton prices go down, farmers plant less of it and switch to other crops, so supply gets smaller for next season... Also, China has shown a wilingness to step in with massive stimulus, and they have a lot more dry powder than the west and more levers they can pull quickly (and according to the Economist, they're almost certainly under-reporting their current inflation, which creates problems, but not deflation). It will also help when US and EU come back, won't slump forvever. On top of this, specialty DP prices would probably drop less because supply will always be much smaller and long term safety of supply probably means even more there than with rayon producers. Just my 2 reminbis.

While reading this I couldn't help but remember all of those news items from 2008-2009-2010 where European leaders talked about how the U.S. model didn't work and how Europe was so superior financially, more careful and conservative, and so on.. Funny how things changed (or rather, reality just caught up with them at a different speed).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408493723814210.html Interesting piece. If behind paywall, you might be able to access it here: https://www.google.ca/#hl=en&tbm=nws&sclient=psy-ab&q=what+chinese+consumers+want+wall+street+journal

Higher material costs should also impact competitors and allow LQ to pass on costs to customers over time. Strong swiss franc is a different thing, though...

MA & V would be my picks as well. They're essentially a small tax on global consumer spending. As stated above, the transition from cash to plastic will provide growth for years. Both companies will also be able to leverage their brands and technology towards mobile payments. This all requires very little in terms of capital. MA has taken advantage of this by regularly buying back shares. Eventually both will be able to pay out sizeable dividends. First picks that came to my mind too.

I've been playing with checklists lately to try to improve my process and I thought I would bump up this thread since I think checklists are probably still underrated. Once mine's done, I'll probably post it here. If you have one and want to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like they got a pretty good deal on that european credit facility, replacing one with an effective interest rate of 7.6% with one at 3.81%.

I started a thread about a similar topic a few months ago, but I can't seem to find it using the search function. I remember some interesting answers. If you dig a bit through the archives you should be able to find it.

http://www.marketfolly.com/2012/05/notes-from-ira-sohn-conference.html

Bought a few shares today at 20.09 -- couldn't resist.

Maybe that's his watchlist and he'd just like a buying opportunity :)

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/how-ackman-won-in-the-fight-over-canadian-pacific/

This one's hitting multi-year lows. Anyone buying? Like RIM, there used to be a lot of chatter about this one a few months ago, but now it's mostly gone. I'm curious to know if despite the silence some people here still view this one as a good value? (I'm not buying -- don't care much for the business and can't trust management at all) And some news: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/hewlett-packard-said-to-consider-cutting-as-many-as-25-000-jobs.html

There's one here: http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/investment-ideas/jp-morgan/

Hopefully that's be a small step in the right direction for corporate governance in Canada.

Must be pretty new, first time I see that design.