I mean, everybody else is, right? Now that many short-term funding sources have dried up it is amazing to see how many different types of companies are applying to become banks. First it was the investment banks (Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley), then credit card companies (American Express), and ... Read more

I find it rather amusing that six weeks of a horrendous market can lead so many people to declare that a "buy and hold" investment strategy is no longer viable. The evidence for such a claim is quite unimpressive, in my view. They assert that people who invested in the broad U.S. equity te ... Read more

Has anyone else noticed that whenever Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson speaks the market goes down? Today is no exception, as we learned that Paulson has abandoned the idea of using the TARP funds to buy bad assets from banks using a reverse auction process. When the idea of auctions first came to l ... Read more

A week after announcing it would close 20% of its stores, electronics retailer Circuit City (CC) has announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While that really is no surprise (retailers can't operate in the red forever), investors should consider who wins from this development ... Read more

During the last couple of decades dividends have not really been a core focus for investors. That has been partly due to the fact that companies have been paying them out at historically low rates. Did you know that over the very long term dividends have represented about 40% of an investor's total ... Read more

I rarely blog about politics here, but it is very difficult to get the full truth (from either party) during a presidential campaign. Since I started this blog in 2004 I have commented once each election cycle on a certain lie that always makes the rounds before we head to the polls. Most of you hav ... Read more

Well, aren't you glad October 2008 is over? After all, the 17% drop in the market was the worst month in 21 years (Crash of 1987). Given the tremendous drop in stock prices, we are beginning to read about many perma-bears who have turned bullish, which is quite a good sign for investors (this week's ... Read more

I did a television interview yesterday on BNN which discussed the overly optimistic earnings estimates for 2009, which was prompted by my blog post from last Thursday . Here is the video clip: ... Read more at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PeridotCapitalist/~3/tMcPjYvwguM/video-clip- ... Read more

It is pretty easy to find ridiculously low stock valuations in today's market, but here's an example of the value present in the current bear market. Valero Energy (VLO) this morning reported third quarter earnings of $1.86 per share, well above estimates. The stock closed yesterday at $15 per share ... Read more

In recent weeks there has been plenty of talk about the Treasury's TARP initiative, but little progress on its actual implementation. On Friday we got news that PNC Financial (PNC) was the first bank to get a capital infusion from the TARP, and would use much of the cash to help fund its acquisition ... Read more