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Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Lesson of the Stanley Steamer

August 31, 2009
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The Lesson of the Stanley Steamer

Today marks the 110th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Washington in New Hampshire by an automobile.  The car was a Stanley Steamer, driven by Freelan Oscar Stanley himself. This is reason enough for me to tell you a little about the Stanley twins, finishing with a lesson that I believe is relevant to today’s automobile industry and certain investments you might make. The twins were Francis Edgar and Freelan Oscar, born in Kingfield, Maine, in 1849.  They were identical in appearance, and inseparable. As young men, they taught school, made violins and dabbled in charcoal portraits.  But...

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Announcing Cabot’s Affiliate Program

August 30, 2009
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We often get requests from people about whether they can re-publish the content we produce in Cabot Wealth Advisory and our answer is almost always yes, as long as we receive proper credit. We love sharing information and are happy to spread our message to as many people as possible. So we recently started a syndication-affiliate program to make this information sharing easier. Affiliate programs are very popular today online. Companies like Cabot use these programs to expand their universe of readers, as well as to sell subscriptions.  Traditionally, smaller companies see this as a great opportunity to acquire...

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Solutions for Reducing the National Debt

August 29, 2009
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Solutions for Reducing the National Debt

Last August, there was a lot of buzz about the film “I.O.U.S.A.” and I wrote about it for Cabot Wealth Advisory. (Click here to read the full post.) At the time, the U.S. national debt looked pretty bad, but this was before we had failed banks, a stock market crash and a long string of government bailouts. This week brought the prediction of a 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion, which is more than the total of all previous deficits since the United States’ founding. The White House went on to say that by the next decade’s end, the...

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What’s Cooking with Williams-Sonoma?

August 28, 2009
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What’s Cooking with Williams-Sonoma?

As an emerging markets specialist, I usually recommend a stock from outside U.S. borders.  But I also watch the wider market, and for this issue I’ve picked a U.S. stock with an intriguing story and an earnings-powered gap up under its belt. It’s a specialty retail company that’s had some good earnings news and has another good reason for attracting attention. Williams-Sonoma (WSM) is a San Francisco-based retailer that operates more than 600 stores including 264 Williams-Sonoma high-end kitchen stores, more than 200 Pottery Barn and nearly 100 Pottery Barn Kids stores along with a few dozen outlets and...

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What Golf Teaches Us About Investing

August 27, 2009
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What Golf Teaches Us About Investing

I probably play an average of, oh, say, one round of golf a year.  That includes the years when I go totally berserk and get in two or three rounds, as well as years like this one when I probably won’t play at all. For all the abuse golf attracts based on some of its obnoxious practitioners and its sometimes questionable land-use practices, I think it’s a fabulous game, and there’s one big reason why. Because it can’t be mastered.  Even if you have every advantage there is. If you take away from golf the opulent clubhouses, the manicured...

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