June 11, 2006
Interesting Bits in Barron’s — Week of June 12, 2006
Here are the (lightly edited) bits I found interesting in this week’s issue:
“Over 53% of companies with market caps below $250 million have zero research coverage.” — Alex Paris, interviewed by Harlan Byrne
“While Spain’s population is only one-eighth the size of the U.S. population, Spanish contractors built half as many new homes in 2005 as went up in the States. The boom was triggered by low European interest rates, which slid from 4.75% in 2000 to 2% last year. That caused Spain’s primary-home ownership rate to spike to 90%.” — Arindam Nag
“Tsingtao is the No. 2 Asian beer in the U.S. after Japan’s Sapporo … shares of Tsingtao are 27% owned by Anheuser-Busch … Tsingtao is the only Chinese beer brand with global recognition.” — Leslie Norton [ed. I never drink Tsingtao and almost exclusively drink Japanese beer here in China.]
“Debit balances in margin accounts at the New York Stock Exchange amounted to $241.5 billion in April, up from a low of $130.2 billion in September 2002. They’re now close to the level last seen in March 2000, when leverage peaked at $278.5 billion.” — Jacqueline Doherty
“On July 1, rates on existing variable-rate student loans will rise by 1.84%, as they make their annual adjustment based on the results of recent 91-day Treasury-bill auctions. As a result, rates on loans from the primary federal program will move to 7.143% from 5.30%, reflecting the recent rise in interest rates.” — Kathy Yakal
“The cash-to-assets ratio of mutual funds, for example, has dwindled to 4.1%, near a 33-year low and only a tick above where it was in March 2000.” — Rhonda Brammer
“One of Dalal Salomon’s inventions is what she calls the life-planner box. Custom-designed and specially ordered, these cloth-covered boxes are divided in half, with one side containing keys and other odds and ends (’the kinds of things that are too important to lose track of, but that often end up tossed into junk drawers’) and the other a three-ring binder with copies of wills, trusts and copies of deeds and other documents in the client’s safe-deposit box. There is also a booklet listing the location of key documents and names to call in the case of an emergency or death. ‘I organize the whole thing, because the task of assembling all this is so overwhelming that…very few people will actually do it if they are left to themselves,’ says Salomon.” — Suzanne McGee [ed. Smart idea.]
Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
June 11th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Tsingtao - yuck.. I don’t drink any Asian beer except for San Miguel. Jap and Korean beers are over-carbonated and synthetic in flavour, Tiger beer lacks any flavour.
This made things even more challenging when I had to play those drinking games as if the quantity of alcohol wasn’t enough.
I hope they have more non-Asian beers these days than just Heineken?
June 11th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Eyal: Yes, there are quite a few non-Asian beers, but they’re all produced at joint ventures here, so the quality is always a question. I like Kirin’s Ichiban (”prominent wort, finest barley malt, premium hops, smooth finish, no bitter aftertaste”), but I’m no connoisseur (what’s a wort? ;-) ).
June 11th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
lol. As a drinker of ales (usually porter or bitter) I have an issue with the “no bitter aftertaste” ;-)
I will be able to report on the availability of ‘real’ ;) beer in the area of Guangdong after next week.
June 11th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Great. Please also report how prominent their worts are.
June 12th, 2006 at 3:01 am
Wort is pre-fermented beer.
You must ask yourself this, are Asian beers brewed in accordance of the Reinheitsgebot?
June 12th, 2006 at 8:55 am
Tom: Gesundheit!
June 12th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
“Over 53% of companies with market caps below $250 million have zero research coverage.”
How do I figure out which stock has coverage and which stock does not?
June 12th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Paul: You can always call the company up and ask.
June 18th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I can report that so far the Kilkenny and Guinness at the The Paddy Field in Guangzhou are as good as anywhere else :)