Why Warren Buffett Loves Ketchup, Plain and Simple
For many Americans, Warren Buffett isn’t just one of the world’s greatest investors. He’s a folksy grandpa with a mysterious wizard’s touch. Everything about him—his upbringing, employees, travels, personal life, investing style, even his home decor—has been picked over for details about what exactly goes into his pixie dust. (There have been two dozen books published on him in the past year alone). Naturally, his $28 billion purchase of HJ Heinz with U.S.-Brazilian private equity group 3G Capital (owner of Burger King and a piece of Anheuser-Busch InBev) on Feb. 14 caused a lot of chatter. But the move is no mystery; it’s classic Buffett, and here’s why. Buffett lauded Heinz for good management and for making “great tasting products.” No surprise that the “Sage of Omaha” is a big burger eater. But that’s hardly enough to sway Buffett the number-cruncher. As market watchers know, he’s considered a value investor—someone who buys companies when they’re cheap—which ...
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Dow Hits Record, Erasing Great Recession Losses
(NEW YORK) — The stock market is back. Five and a half years after the start of a frightening drop that erased $11 trillion from stock portfolios and made investors despair of ever getting their money back, the Dow Jones industrial average has regained all the losses suffered during the Great Recession and reached a new high. The blue-chip index rose 125.95 points Tuesday and closed at 14,253.77, topping the previous record of 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007, by 89.24 points. “It signals that things are getting back to normal,” says Nicolas Colas, chief market strategist at BNY ConvergEx, a brokerage. “Unemployment is too high, economic growth too sluggish, but stocks are anticipating improvement.” The new record suggests that investors who did not panic and sell their stocks in the 2008-2009 financial crisis have fully recovered. Those who have reinvested dividends or added to their holdings have done even better. Since bottoming at 6,547.05 on March 9, 2009, the Dow has risen 7,706.72 ...
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Paul B. Farrell: Time bomb to market meltdown ticks louder
The ticking time bomb gets louder as we keep watching an avalanche of predictions that echo Warren Buffett’s earlier warnings of recession, bubbles and another market meltdown.
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Can the Estate Tax Solve the Fiscal Cliff?
The battle over the fiscal cliff has so far revolved around income taxes for the wealthy and entitlement reform. But there are many other ways the federal budget deficit could be trimmed that haven’t received much of the spotlight recently, and one of those is the estate tax. The estate tax has gone through many changes over the past ten years, as the tax cuts enacted early in President George W. Bush‘s first term reduced the rate Americans pay on inheritances and raised the threshold amount under which estates are exempt from the tax. The tax was briefly repealed altogether in 2010, before it was reenacted in a 2010 compromise which set the estate tax rate at 35% for estates valued at more than $5 million ($10 million for a couple), indexed to inflation. But without Congressional action, the estate tax will revert to its pre-2001 form January 1st. Under that version of the law, estates valued over $1 million were subject to an estate tax on a graduated basis from 37% to 55%, and a 5% ...
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The $7 Cup of Starbucks: The Culmination of the Coffee Chain’s Long-Term Strategy
This week Starbucks began selling a cup of coffee for $7. This may seem ridiculous, but it’s the logical next step of the chain’s long-term marketing strategy: To convince consumers that a product that used to sell for less than a buck is in fact worth much more. In almost 50 locations throughout the Northwest, coffee drinkers can find a curious item next to peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes: Costa Rica Finca Palmilera, a hard-to-grow bean also called “Geisha” that sells for $7 for a “grande” and $40 for a half-pound bag. (MORE: The Other Side of Warren Buffett’s Common Sense Tax Argument) In a way, the release of Starbucks’ highest-end (and most expensive) coffee to-date is similar to what the fast food industry has been doing – offering premium items in order to compete with so-called “fast-casual” restaurants like Panera Bread and premium burger joints like Five Guys. Starbucks is starting to see smaller, high-end roasters like Stumptown Coffee Roasters out ...
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