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Interesting Items for Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Bill Rempel writes about John Hussman.

Nintendo (NTODY) was mentioned in today’s Wall Street Journal, as its soaring stock price has recently given it the second largest market cap in Japan (for now).

You may remember I wrote about Nintendo a little over a year ago. All of the information in that post is out of date – but, if you like opening time capsules, feel free to have a look.

I was generally positive on the company, but (as you’ll see below) I concluded with something far short of a clear endorsement of the stock. You would have done best to disregard my closing remarks; the stock has performed extraordinarily well since I wrote that piece. Here’s how I ended things last year:

So, if you are comfortable with Nintendo’s position in handheld gaming and you truly believe in both the company and the Wii, shares of Nintendo would be a reasonable long-term investment at this price. However, even considering the large amount of cash and securities on the balance sheet relative to Nintendo’s market cap, Nintendo isn’t a “value” style purchase based on past performance alone. Buying shares at the current price is a bet on a brighter future.

While I like Nintendo’s future prospects, it’s usually safer to bet against a revolution. So, I’d have to say Nintendo is a very interesting business that’s priced a bit too high to be a very interesting investment.

Visit Bill Rempel’s Blog…

On Warren Buffett and the Federal Reserve

With the larger than expected Fed rate cut today, I thought it might be appropriate to add some perspective from Warren Buffett. He made these comments to CNBC’s Becky Quick, before the announcement from the Fed:

Warren Buffett: (Laughs strongly.) I represent a different view, maybe, than your other viewers. I don’t think it makes any difference whatsoever to an investor in stocks what they do today. I don’t care, I wouldn’t care whether they raise the rate in terms of what I would do in stocks. If I knew exactly what they were going to do, I would not change a buy or a sell order that I have in…The important thing in stocks is to buy a stock in a good business at a reasonable price. Anybody that is buying or selling stocks based on what the Fed is doing, or what they think they’re going to do at their next meeting, I think is destined to not having a great financial future. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the value of good companies 3, 5 years from now.

WB: I’ve worried about inflation every day since I learned about the phenomenon, 60 years ago. (Laughs.) It’s always a danger, always a danger. It’s never gone. It’s always in remission, and question is how well do you do over time controlling it. But, the purchasing power of the dollar will go down over time.

Read Full Transcript…

Interesting Items for Saturday, September 15th, 2007

Value Blog Review, one of The Eight Best Investing Blogs, has a review of another one of the eight best investing blogs – Controlled Greed.

Value Discipline discusses Janet Lowe’s “Warren Buffett Speaks”.

And, finally, if you haven’t read Max Olson’s two-part series on Warren Buffett’s investment in See’s Candy, please do so now:

Read Quality Without Compromise, Part I

Read Quality Without Compromise Part II…

Guest Column: Quality Without Compromise, Part II

Gannon On Investing guest columnist, Max Olson, has written the second article in a two-part series on Warren Buffett and his investment in See’s Candy.

The article, entitled “Quality Without Compromise, Part II“, is an excellent complement to Max’s earlier article, “Warren Buffett and the Washington Post“.

Read it now…

Guest Column: Quality Without Compromise, Part I

Gannon On Investing guest columnist, Max Olson, has written the first article in a two-part series on Warren Buffett and his investment in See’s Candy.

The article, entitled “Quality Without Compromise, Part I“, is an excellent complement to Max’s earlier article, “Warren Buffett and the Washington Post“.

Read it now…