Last word on banking
Well, maybe for a while. I’m consulting the financial journalist’s bible - Michael Brett’s How to Read the Financial Pages - on banks and rights issues - as background research for a Moneywise column on Fred “the Shred” Goodwin, the RBS chief executive who recently asked shareholders for £12bn to improve the bank’s capital ratios.
This […]
Fake boob scandal rocks iBall
Yes, those boobs were fake!
As regular readers know, when I’m not writing this blog, or editing the Interactive Investor mothership, or writing my Moneywise columns (or eating Swedish Meatball Wraps at Pret-a-Manger), I’m writing scripts for iBall.
It’s a lot of fun, though sadly with success comes money and ambition and the iBall team has moved […]
How ratings agencies failed
Some notes from Triple ‘A’ failure - an article to be published in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine in which Moody’s walks Roger Lowenstein through the rating of a subprime mortgage SPV (special purpose vehicle). Although it’s seven pages long it’s worth reading in full, but here are some quotes that shed light on […]
Why I will never buy a financial product from a bank
Just a quick one to fit my inadequate feet into Richard’s very large shoes (well, usually dubious trainers actually, but don’t tell him I told you so) while he’s on holiday.
Rather than give the usual immaculate research and splendid detail which normally form the basis of Richard’s missives, I’m just going to report an incident […]
So long, and thanks for all the comments
I’ve never been one for market timing and I can’t believe my timing this time. I’m off for a couple of weeks, and its quite possibly the best possible time to be writing about stocks and shares. OK, the news isn’t all good, but there’s penty of it.
Normally I’d find it easy to switch off, […]
Budget reaction from real investors
I’m in the boardroom at Interactive Investor HQ watching the Budget with seven readers of this blog. Editor/commandant-in-chief, Steve McDowell, is in the chair for a special Budget edition of iBall, to go out later today (watch for it here).
Meanwhile I’m live-blogging our panel’s pithiest thoughts and you’re welcome to join in. Just post your […]
Meet other investors and have your say on Budget Day
Come and have a glass of wine and bite to eat on March 12.
Apologies for the go-slow for the past week or so. I’m caught in a deadline nexus where some come forward, others resolutely refuse to move back, and I’m going away for a fortnight over Easter. But before that is the nation’s annual […]
Bloggers’ cramp, do not disengage!
I fit this blog around editing Interactive Investor, writing scripts for iBall, and a couple of columns for Moneywise.
Just now life, holiday and squeezing the day job into the time around it, is intervening in the smooth flow of blogs.
Please do not disengage! I’ll keep blogging when I can, and I’ll be back at full […]
Annual ‘Interesting’ Report
Annual reports are the Steve Davis of investing. Ignore them, and you might end up snookered.
Today I’m posting links to some annual reports, recently published. Why? Because annual reports are the authoritative source of financial information for companies, and it makes most sense to read them while they’re still fresh.
I look at annual reports for […]
When is a car like a mobile ‘phone?
When it’s powered by electricity and given away for free…
How prescient that Money Terms should have defined the razor blade business model last week, where a company sells a product at a low price to get people to buy complementary products.
Think razors and blades, or printers and inks, but not, for example, cars and […]
