MoneyLife Interview
Nice piece with Chuck Jaffe of MoneyLife. Here’s the link – go to the December 24th show, starts at the 17 minute mark. http://www.moneylifeshow.com/archives.asp
Author Archive for: Simon Lack
Entries by Simon Lack
Why Flying is Getting More Expensive
I was struck today by an article in the New York Times (“On Jammed Jets, Sardines Turn on One Another”). As airlines pack more people onto planes, the flying experience (as least in Economy Class) becomes ever worse. This was hardly news to anyone who has flown domestically in the U.S. in recent years. Airlines […]
Two Kinds of Insider
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook (FB) and Rich Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan (KMI) would appear to have little in common (though they are both billionaires). However, they share one thing in common in that both recently made transactions in their own stock. FB has ‘A’ and ‘B’ shares, whose rights are identical other than […]
An Activist Chooses an MLP
We’ve written before about the benefits of being the General Partner (GP) in a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) rather than a Limited Partner (LP). MLPs are a great asset class; the more stable, midstream businesses that invest in energy infrastructure operate a toll-type of business model with fairly predictable cashflows. Their 5-6% distribution yields are […]
These Two Deserve One Another
Aubrey McLendon is the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy (CHK). He’s a swing-for-the-fences kind of CEO; he almost bankrupted himself with leveraged holdings of his company’s stock when it plunged in 2008. In 2011 Forbes named him America’s most reckless billionaire. He famously negotiated a sweetheart deal allowing him to personally invest in individual wells […]
Too Many Quant Hedge Funds
The Economist turned its critical eye at quantitative hedge funds recently, noting the poor performance of such “black box” strategies since the 2008 Financial Crisis. The article’s headline (“Computer Says No”) is a wry reference to a British sitcom called Little Britain, a humorous touch that will have been missed by many U.S. readers. Quant […]
Amazon's Octocopter
You had to watch 60 Minutes on CBS to know what an octocopter is, but after watching Jeff Bezos discuss Amazon and some of their plans I just love Amazon as a customer! I buy things from them probably every other day. My recent orders include: New battery for my Samsung Galaxy smartphone Toner cartridge […]
The Corvex Discount
A year ago Corvex, a hedge fund run by Keith Meister, published a detailed analysis of why ADT was a cheap security. ADT is the largest market leader in home security monitoring in North America. They were spun out from Tyco earlier in 2012. Meister identified an underleveraged balance sheet supporting a business model with […]
Investors Are Overweight Bonds
So says the Wall Street Journal in an article this morning announcing that Investors See End To Bond Rally. Of course the real problem with fixed income is not just the eventual tapering of asset purchases by the Fed, maybe sometime next year under Janet Yellen or maybe beyond that. It’s that yields don’t provide […]
The Economist Writes About MLPs
This weekend’s Economist discussed Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). Their Leader article primarily focuses on the different forms of corporate structure that are developing both to minimize corporate taxes as well as in response to legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley which raised the cost of compliance (disproportionately for smaller firms) for many traditional corporations. It’s interesting to […]
