Midas (MDS) announced that tire company TBC would buy the company for $11.50 per share, or about $310 million in cash. TBC would also assume $137 million in debt and pension liabilities. The price represents a 28% premium over Monday's closing prices. Shares of Midas are sharply higher in [...]

pubblicato il: 13/03/2012 - 18:38

...determine how they would fare if: the stock market fell 50%, U.S. GDP shrank 8%, and unemployment (as measured by the simple birth/death ray total participation dissecting model, divided by seasonal adjustments and political mandates, times the square root of U6) was 13%, in other words not too far from where it actually is now.

pubblicato il: 13/03/2012 - 13:26

In this series we are looking at the Fama-French three-factor model of investment returns. Any model of investment returns tries to predict an investment's returns and volatility by factors that can be measured in advance of investing. The first factor, beta, taught us that the riskier, more volatile stocks on average [...]

pubblicato il: 26/03/2012 - 14:30

Video (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The pharmaceutical giants look remarkably similar to the IBM of the late 80's and early 90's. For those of us who remember the IBM of that era, this is bad news. They can continue the path of the railroad industry early in the 20th century. Alternatively, they [...]

pubblicato il: 25/03/2012 - 20:19

As everyone knows, from March 26 to March 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in one of the most important cases to come before the court in our lifetimes: Florida v. HHS, the case that will determine the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Lest you think I’m exaggerating, the High Court has assigned six [...]

pubblicato il: 24/03/2012 - 15:59

  Cover of The Manchurian Candidate There is something very wrong when the sitting president refuses to divulge huge pieces of information about his background. What is he hiding? Maybe the “birthers” were a little extreme, but is there something wrong with this “manufactured candidate,” whose history remains sealed from [...]

pubblicato il: 24/03/2012 - 16:40

see photosCourtesy of Susan BuffettClick for full photo gallery: Warren Buffett: The Early Years This article, by Warren Buffett, as told to Randall Lane, appears in the upcoming April issue of ForbesLife magazine, as part of its "When I Was 25" series. By Warren Buffett Benjamin Graham had been my idol ever since [...]

pubblicato il: 26/03/2012 - 20:29

Fat Bastard (character) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) During my endocrinology training, I was captivated by a phenomenon I’d seen on the wards, and had just started to read about in the literature: type 2 diabetic patients receiving bariatric surgery exhibiting rapid, seemingly instantaneous improvements in their glycemic control, apparently related [...]

pubblicato il: 27/03/2012 - 05:59

VideoNothing at all funny about the Trayvon Martin killing, but on FOX and Friends, Geraldo Rivera claims that one of the major reasons why Martin was shot was--get this--because he was wearing a hoodie. No, you cannot make this up. You can find the interview and a transcript here. I

pubblicato il: 23/03/2012 - 16:09

It must have been a slow news week. So much attention was given to a series of news items related to employers requiring applicants and employees to turn over their Facebook username and passwords to them. It seemed to be an outrageous privacy incursion, but on closer examination it turns [...]

pubblicato il: 26/03/2012 - 02:32