I’m not a casino gambler because I know who wins. I learned long ago that a stock is worth what the next guy will pay for it – nothing more and nothing less. Bad news is good news, and good news is bad. It’s entirely unpredictable. For example: Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Two hundred thousand jobs were added last month, well short of the 500,000 expected increase.” CNBC: “That was a horrible jobs report today!” Stock Market: “Hurray! The Fed won’t raise interest rates,” and the market climbs two percentage points. Commodities have more intrinsic value than securities, and therefore,…
Read More
Most readers have likely seen the business triangle: cheap, fast, good ; pick two. My first emotional reaction to the triangle was that it was something a lazy bum would say. However, as a geezer, I think the law is valid for consulting. I will explain this in a future post. For utilities, it would be something else; maybe cheap, constant, yes. Those are the price, time, and quality attributes of utility delivery. For utilities, the term “constant” represents reliability. The term “yes” represents quality or accuracy. In this case, 60 Hertz and the applicable constant voltage. I explained how…
Read More
Last week we looked at the financial benefits of energy efficiency as compared to the stock market. I’m going to take this a few steps further, as forewarned last week.In both cases we start with the $39,000 investment and the stock market simply grows at its long-term average of 7.5% (Dow Jones Industrials). Obviously, a smooth appreciation of your investment is not the case and if you don’t have a strong stomach, you should avoid equities. Why is it called the Dow Jones Industrial Average anyway? It’s full of service companies, banks, and retailers. It includes Microsoft, but not Apple,…
Read More