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Monthly Archives: November 2009

My Favorite Companies Past and Present

November 25, 2009
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My Favorite Companies Past and Present

Many companies became extinct during the 1930s, but the companies that survived helped to build the U.S. into the greatest industrial nation to date. I’m kind of a history buff, and I truly enjoy reading about the origins of companies and how they evolved. In addition to annual reports, Wikipedia usually provides an interesting history of old companies. It is surprising how many of our current U.S. companies were founded more than 150 years ago. One of the oldest is Bank of NY, founded in 1792. CIGNA, JP Morgan, DuPont, Colgate Palmolive, Hartford Financial, Procter & Gamble, Tiffany, Pfizer,...

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Lessons from the Great Depression

November 25, 2009
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Lessons from the Great Depression

Recently my Mom passed away (she was 95), and of course I was sad. One of the many thoughts that came to mind was how different everything was when she was born in 1914 and while she was growing up in the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. Not every home had electricity or running water. The wood stove was used by most Americans, as was the ice box, which was eventually replaced by the refrigerator. Houses came with parlors, pantries and cellars used for the cold storage of winter vegetables. Following World War I, the American economy went...

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Wimm Bill Dann Foods: A Milk Investment

November 24, 2009
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Wimm Bill Dann Foods: A Milk Investment

Earlier I wrote about the economics of the milk racket. So now that you understand the milk business better, are you ready for a milk investment? It’s in Russia, a country where milk consumption is growing as the standard of living improves, and its name is Wimm Bill Dann Foods (WBD). The company was founded in 1992, it’s headquartered in Russia, and it has annual revenues of $2.4 billion.  It has 34% of the dairy market in Russia and 20% of the fruit drink market.  Additionally, 7% of revenues come from outside Russia. Most important is that the company...

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Economics of the Milk Racket

November 24, 2009
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Economics of the Milk Racket

Today I’m going to wade into a subject that is deep and wide, and about which most of us know very little–the economics of the milk industry in the U.S. My interest in this topic was piqued some time ago by photographs of farmers dumping milk.  I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures, but I’ll bet, like most Americans, you can’t explain the issues behind the farmers’ protests. I was curious, so I investigated, and here’s what I learned. Of course, the federal government is involved (I knew that). But before we get into that, here are a few tidbits....

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Boundless Energy Demand in China Boosts A-Power

November 23, 2009
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Boundless Energy Demand in China Boosts A-Power

My stock idea for today is a company that’s working in the cracks in the Chinese power grid.  A-Power Energy Generation (APWR) is a small company that builds distributed power generating systems but is moving quickly into the Green energy sector. A typical A-Power project might be a small (less than $50 million) coal-fired power plant that’s adjacent to a factory or industrial park and provides power to the local area.  The plant may or may not be connected to the national power grid, but for its local users, it will certainly eliminate the brownouts and outages that plague...

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