In the News II

Quote: DRich

Stock buybacks are only good if you believe your company will appreciate more than the other options that you could invest that money in.

applies to individuals in this way: holding on to a stock that turned out to be a dud only makes sense if IT will appreciate more than other stocks you could buy even though you take a loss [taking a loss at the right time can work out well for that matter]

but I am guilty of holding on to them sometimes, inertia I guess

Quote: DRich

Stock buybacks are only good if you believe your company will appreciate more than the other options that you could invest that money in.

That's also quite correct. Interestingly enough, stock buybacks simultaneously help to make that outcome more likely.

Quote: Mission146

I'm not certain that it actually did cost more as many factors go into that, so it's not as if you could just do a straight inflation calculator and say it cost more back then. There are any of number of things to have happened in those decades. It's a very complicated industry that I do not claim to know much about.

It was so expensive that even Frank Sinatra would buy stolen tickets.

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U.S. Officials leaked to the NYT their belief that the Wagner Chief Prigozhin who earlier defied Putin by criticizing the Ukraine War was probably assassinated by Putin

not sure how many others were on the plane that crashed


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/25/world/russia-prigozhin-ukraine-war-news

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Quote: PotPie

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U.S. Officials leaked to the NYT their belief that the Wagner Chief Prigozhin who earlier defied Putin by criticizing the Ukraine War was probably assassinated by Putin

not sure how many others were on the plane that crashed


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/08/25/world/russia-prigozhin-ukraine-war-news

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He was a dead man walking as soon as he went against Putin. There was never going to be any "safety" for him.

Putin sent his condolences; maybe he didn't do it.

Not a chance that he didn't do it.....

Putin likely has enough access to whatever money is needed to pay off someone who knew where he was. Between that and threats he probably didn't have that much of a problem catching up with Prigozhin.

Quote: rxwine

Putin likely has enough access to whatever money is needed to pay off someone who knew where he was. Between that and threats he probably didn't have that much of a problem catching up with Prigozhin.

Considering the plane was associated with the Wagner Group and had just left Moscow it was probably pretty easy.

Quote: rxwine

Putin likely has enough access to whatever money is needed to pay off someone who knew where he was. Between that and threats he probably didn't have that much of a problem catching up with Prigozhin.

I have read speculation that Putin is probably the richest person on earth and it is not even close.

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China's once powerful economy is now stumbling


a huge question mark is how will this effect the U.S. economy


from the article:


"For much of the past four decades, China’s economy seemed like an unstoppable force, the engine behind the country’s rise to a global superpower. But the economy is now plagued by a series of crises. A real estate crisis born from years of overbuilding and excessive borrowing is running alongside a larger debt crisis, while young people are struggling with record joblessness. And amid the drip feed of bad economic news, a new crisis is emerging: a crisis of confidence.

growing lack of faith in the future of the Chinese economy is verging on despair. Consumers are holding back on spending. Businesses are reluctant to invest and create jobs. And would-be entrepreneurs are not starting new businesses.

“Low confidence is a major issue in the Chinese economy now,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist for Macquarie Group, an Australian financial services firm.

Mr. Hu said the erosion of confidence was fueling a downward spiral that fed on itself. Chinese consumers aren’t spending because they are worried about job prospects, while companies are cutting costs and holding back on hiring because consumers aren’t spending.

In the past few weeks, investors have pulled more than $10 billion out of China’s stock markets. On Thursday, China’s top securities regulator summoned executives at the country’s national pension funds, top banks and insurers to pressure them to invest more in Chinese stocks, according to Caixin, an economics magazine. Last week, stocks in Hong Kong fell into a bear market down more than 20% from their high in January"



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/china-economy-confidence.html#:~:text=And%20amid%20the%20drip%20feed,to%20invest%20and%20create%20jobs.


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I think China is going to fall apart. Their debt is ridiculous and their population is declining. They are going to fall apart like something that we have never seen before. They are currently the second biggest economy and in 20 years they will probably one of the smaller ones.