To understand the following passage, please see the numbered guide to the missing words below: Few would 1 that the behavior of financial markets sometimes defies common sense. There are downright absurd stories like Long Island Iced Tea seeing its stock soar nearly 300% in December after a 2 move to change its name to “Long […]
Julie Won
Making Sense of GE…
What in the world is going on with General Electric? Once one of the world’s most revered companies known for producing managers par excellence, now it looks like a disaster. The Lex column in the Financial Times just called GE “a rolling train wreck of unexpected and expensive blunders.” Its stock is off 40% the […]
The 2-Minute Thought: A Tale of Two Cities: Cape Town and Toyama
Cape Town, South Africa is running out of water. The city has managed to temporarily fend off what it calls “Day Zero,” the day it will turn off the taps to the city’s 4 million people and businesses. But as of now, Day Zero still is coming. Just a few weeks ago, Day Zero was […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Avoiding Crowded Exits
Since volatility and fear have returned to the market, there has been a lot of talk about where you might hide if things get really bad. Suggestions span the gamut: Cash, gold, put options, and various selections of large-cap “safe” stocks are some recent ones I’ve read about. Here’s another thought — not just for […]
The 2-Minute Thought: “My Hopes Are in Cryptocurrency”
Personally, my hopes are not in cryptocurrency. I have no hopes tied up in Bitcoin, Ripple, or Ethereum, though I am interested in seeing how they evolve. But I just read a post by Korean journalist Juwon Park titled, “I Am a 24-Year Old South Korean, and My Hopes Are in Cryptocurrency,” and now I […]
Retail is Dead, Long Live Retail…
Is there hope for retailers with a heavy bricks and mortar presence? There may just be. In fact, it may just be that reports on the death of retail have been greatly exaggerated. For one thing, quite a few retailers have announced good holiday results. The tone at the recent ICR Conference for consumer and […]
The 2-Minute Thought: The Lesson from Retail Stocks: Patience
The stock of Kohl’s Corporation (KSS), the operator of Kohl’s department stores, fell from $79 in early 2015 to $36 by mid-2016. For anyone who got interested in the stock as it was falling, it’s been a frustrating period. Kohl’s has had its ups and downs, but the news has been generally dismal. The stock […]
The 2-Minute Thought: The Calendar Effect and Eating
In a recent Financial Times story that profiled several workers making sandwiches at the UK-based sandwich shop Pret A Manger, it was fascinating to read about the rhythms of the shift from 5 am through the breakfast and lunch rush. It also was fascinating to read that there’s a weekly pattern to what customers choose […]
The 2-Minute Thought Looking for Stocks Like Pepper Food Service
Source: Nikkei Asian Review Do you know Pepper Food Service? It’s a Japanese company that runs steak restaurant chains. If you haven’t heard of it, you’d be far from alone. But you may wish you had because its stock is up more than 800% since January of this year. At one point in late October, […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Tax Reform in a Different Spirit
Suffering from tax reform fatigue? If so, perhaps it would be refreshing to take a look at something completely different — like Japan, which also is planning changes to its tax code but in an entirely different spirit. What’s different? One thing is that although Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party are conservatives, […]
Things Are Better Than We Think…
Ready for some good news before the Holidays? Here it is: The world is happier than you think, and things probably are not as bad as they seem. What do I mean? Take a look at the chart here from the excellent site Our World in Data. It compares how happy people are with how […]
The 2-Minute Thought: What I Learned from Writing a Novel in a Month
Forgive me for taking a slightly longer break from “The 2-Minute Thought” than expected. The reason was that I wrote a novel in the month of November – and then I needed to recuperate for a week. Yup, I wrote a novel in 30 days. It isn’t bestseller material, and it ain’t publishable or even […]
