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Monthly Archives: November 2009

A Tale of Two Chinese Game Stocks

November 6, 2009
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A Tale of Two Chinese Game Stocks

It’s one thing to talk about government interference with business in the abstract.  In the U.S. this is usually a matter of massive paperwork, taxes, red tape and restrictions on employment, environmental impact, worker safety and health care. In China, things can get significantly weirder. Take the Chinese Web portal and online game company Netease.com (NTES).  NetEase is a competent, thriving enterprise with lots of online services and lots of subscribers.  But the big story for people holding the company’s stock was its acquisition of the franchise for World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game with a...

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A Generation of Booming and Busting

November 5, 2009
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A Generation of Booming and Busting

In 2005, as if by magic, Web sites, TV talk and news shows, newspapers and magazines were filled with stories about how the Baby Boom Generation was going to be turning 60.  In 2008, further illustrating the continuing association of the Boomers and the Beatles, the cute features were about the song “When I’m 64,” Paul’s jaunty little ditty that asked: “Will you still need me/Will you still feed me/When I’m 64?” And there’s not much risk in predicting that when the first Boomers reach full Social Security retirement age–now 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954–there will...

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A Great Indian Growth Stock

November 4, 2009
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A Great Indian Growth Stock

Currently, the market is in a correction; last week it began to inflict some pain on some players.  But I have peace of mind because I’ve been here before. I note the headlines about job losses, the health care bill, pollution controls, GMAC’s cash shortage, the H1N1 flu and the corresponding vaccine shortage, our national debt, the continuing credit crunch, the weak dollar (until last week), Barack Obama’s falling approval ratings and the continuing trouble in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and–of course–Israel. I even read with interest a Wall Street veteran’s comparison of the current period to 1938 on Wall...

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Finding Peace of Mind

November 3, 2009
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Finding Peace of Mind

Back in 1944, journalist and playwright Mary Coyle Chase wrote the play “Harvey,” which ran on Broadway from 1944 until 1949 and then was adapted into a movie that starred Josephine Hull and James Stewart. The play won a Pulitzer Prize; Jimmy Stewart scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (but didn’t win), while Ms. Hull took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. What this has to do with investing, we shall see. It starts with the phrase “cold beer at Akron,” which pops up in the following scene, where Elwood P. Dowd (Jimmy Stewart) has just explained...

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Two Favorite Health Care Companies

November 2, 2009
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Two Favorite Health Care Companies

One of the important objectives of health care reform is to increase the efficiency of the current system from top to bottom. Cutting costs and waste could save billions and reduce everyone’s health care costs considerably. My screening process has led me to a unique company that could play a big role in cutting health care costs. HMS Holdings (HMSY) provides cost-reducing services to healthcare providers, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and government sponsored health care programs, such as Medicaid and the Veterans Health Administration. HMS Holdings reduces costs for Medicaid by making sure claims are accurately paid, billing problems...

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