Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors: The Future Of Berkshire Hathaway Without Warren E. Buffett

Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors
by VW StaffMarch 19, 2014, 4:19 pm
Excerpted from a great value investor. Below is commentary from Paul Lountzis 2013 Letter To Investors (dated February 15, 2014)
The stock market had one of the strongest years in its history in 2013 continuing its strong performance since the equity markets hit bottom in March 2009. Read more of this post

Lease Accounting Standard Inches Forward; Despite disagreements about how to report leases, standard setters held firm on putting all of them on the balance sheet.

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Lease Accounting Standard Inches Forward
Despite disagreements about how to report leases, standard setters held firm Wednesday on putting all of them on the balance sheet.
David M. Katz
Rather than going back to the future, the Financial Accounting Standards Boardapparently moved closer to the completion of a final new standard governing lease accounting by stepping forward to the past. Read more of this post

olding CEO and CFO Roles Is a Tightrope Act; Why you shouldn’t hold both roles at once – and what to do if you have to (on an interim basis)

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Holding CEO and CFO Roles Is a Tightrope Act
Why you shouldn’t hold both roles at once — and what to do if you have to (on an interim basis).
Marielle Segarra
Last month, publicly held California newspaper publisher Daily Journal Corp. announced that it needed more time to finish its audit and submit its 10-Q statement for last quarter. The firm is two quarters late on its financial reports. It also received a notice (its second one in the last year) that it is not in compliance with NASDAQ filing rules. Read more of this post

Avoid Those Rose-Colored Dividends; Don’t let investor communication objectives stand in the way of making sound dividend policy decisions during a downturn

March 20, 2014
CFO.com | US
Avoid Those Rose-Colored Dividends
Don’t let investor communication objectives stand in the way of making sound dividend policy decisions during a downturn.
Gregory V. Milano
Although there are numerous dividend-related metrics, including dividend yield and dividend-payout ratio, any thorough discussion of dividend policy should focus heavily on the signaling effects of dividends. Dividend proponents seek a steady stream of regularly increasing dividends per share to reveal a healthy company to the markets. Indeed, many investors use such signals as one of their criteria for deciding where to invest. Read more of this post

In the past six years, Compustershare founder Chris Morris has sold $155 million worth of scrip, equivalent to 27% of his holding, and ploughed the proceeds into a dizzying array of hospitality-related ventures

Brewery an insurance against headaches for Computershare’s Chris Morris
March 21, 2014
Adele Ferguson

Computershare founder Chris Morris. Photo: Eddie Jim
Pubs, clubs, a farm, a brewery and an island – these things cost money, as Computershare founder and chairman Chris Morris has discovered. In the past six years Morris has sold $155 million worth of Computershare scrip, equivalent to 27 per cent of his holding, and ploughed the proceeds into a dizzying array of hospitality-related ventures. Read more of this post

China yuan band widening a sign of caution, not reform zeal

China yuan band widening a sign of caution, not reform zeal
5:03pm EDT
By Kevin Yao
BEIJING (Reuters) – Paradoxical as it may sound, China’s move to give the yuan more wiggle room is a sign of caution and deepening concern about the slowing economy rather than a promise of Beijing’s vigorous pursuit of market reforms, government economists say. Read more of this post

Hong Kong-listed Kerry Logistics Network is open to the idea of mounting a secondary listing here, despite turning down this option last year

Logistics firm not ruling out secondary listings here

Friday, Mar 21, 2014
Jonathan Kwok
The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – Hong Kong-listed Kerry Logistics Network is open to the idea of mounting a secondary listing here, despite turning down this option last year.

Kerry Logistics floated its stock in Hong Kong last December, and in the lead-up, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) had asked the company to consider a secondary listing here, said chairman George Yeo, a former Cabinet minister, on Tuesday. Read more of this post

R&D in China: Research and embezzlement

R&D in China: Research and embezzlement
Mar 20th 2014, 7:58 by Y.O. | BEIJING
Among China’s high-profile corruption cases, an investigation of provincial science administrators would not seem the most consequential. But one case in Guangdong province hints at the scale of corruption and waste that plague China’s state-led science and technology system. Compared to China’s rigid education system corruption is an under-appreciated—but perhaps as important—obstacle to innovation. Read more of this post

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity

Investing in infrastructure: The trillion-dollar gap; How to get more of the world’s savings to pay for new roads, airports and electricity
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

IF YOU have been to New York’s La Guardia airport recently, taken a train during London’s rush hour, tried to drive in Lagos or endured one of India’s ubiquitous power cuts, you will have first-hand knowledge of the world’s infrastructure deficit. According to the World Economic Forum, global spending on basic infrastructure—transport, power, water and communications—currently amounts to $2.7 trillion a year when it ought to be $3.7 trillion. The gap is almost as big as South Korea’s GDP. And it is likely to grow fast. Read more of this post

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver

The great transition: The government is right to reform the “hukou” system, but it needs to be braver
Mar 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

CHINA’S future is now firmly urban. Already around 54% of its people live in cities—and the proportion is rising fast as ever more jobs are created in offices, factories and construction sites, luring ever more people from the countryside. There are now around 250m rural migrants living in cities. Despite many wobbles, in the property market (see article) and elsewhere, this extraordinary revolution has been surprisingly smooth: there are, for instance, very few shanty towns of the sort you see in Brazil or India. Yet at the heart of prosperous, urban China sits an enormous inequality, based upon the hukou system of household registration. Read more of this post

The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About

PRESENTING: The Secret Trading Strategy From The 1930s That Hedge Funders Don’t Want You To Know About
MATTHEW BOESLER MARKETS MAR. 20, 2014, 3:24 AM
“The large operator does not, as a rule, go into a campaign unless he sees in prospect a movement of from 10 to 50 points. Livermore once told me he never touched anything unless there were at least 10 points in it according to his calculations.” Read more of this post