Dear rss free blog,
After our
year-ago re-start-up of Global Investing following the bankruptcy of the former
publisher, Rightside Advisors, I have good news and bad news.
The good
news is that we are in the process of creating a new website which will be much
better than the temporary site we settled for a year ago in desperation. The
web designer has managed to extract from hashed files the Global Investing
issues which I wrote during the Rightside period, so we have our track record
back. This will be made available on the new site which will go live in about
10 days.
We also
have the issues we printed monthly until Jan. 2008, more of our track record. I
am not sure if we can put them onto the site because I do not have them in PDF
format. But that is something we will work on.
The bad
news is that technology does not come cheap. My newsletter will have to charge
more for subscriptions. Of course we will honor all existing subscriptions. But
we have to substantially boost what we charge for new ones and renewals. We are
offering a daily stock advisory with a strong track record. I need to pay
myself properly, which I haven’t done since the re-start-up. We need to pay our
team of brilliant contributors for their ideas and articles.
You can
beat the boost in prices by subscribing or renewing right away before the
switch takes place. One month and 3 month trial subscriptions will not be
offered on the new site, so those holding them should seriously consider
switching to a full annual or two-year sub now before the increase. In future,
for trials, we will offer a day’s access for $10, much less for the money.
A few
notes about recent issues. First of all I was asked by CZW why I do not mention
“safer” cumulative preferred shares in the newsletter or in my piece yesterday
quoting Institutional Investor. Non-cumulative
preferreds do not make up dividends if they have been omitted.
Under the
rules of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, only non-cumulative preference shares
count toward a bank’s capital ratio. So banks do not issue cumulative preferred
shares.
A Canadian
reader asked what to do about ADR fees (on American depositary Receipts held in
brokerage accounts.) I have been fighting against them for years, starting in
2006 when they started. The number of unsponsored ADRs has since skyrocketed as
banks saw this as a money-earning business. Fees are not charged on sponsored
ADRs as the foreign company itself pays the fees.
I organized
our readers to complain to the SEC and their brokers about these charges. We
did not succeed.
ADR fees
charged by the depositary banks serve a couple of nefarious purposes of the US govt. First,
fee earnings help banks make money to help them survive the financial crisis.
Secondly, fees discourage foreign investment helping keep Americans in USA-only
stocks.
Fees can
be added to your basis when figuring out US capital gains. In fact, I have
simply been adding the fees to my basis on a separate line when I file rather
than inputting them individually into my portfolio. So far I have passed audit.
However I
have no idea what Revenue Canada will do.
Another
technical note discovered when my accountant said to turn my IRA into a Ross
IRA. This will have one great advantage. My new account has to pay taxes on
every stock transferred, so the prices of obscure ex-ADRs I own will have to be
updated. I own in my IRA a former Citigroup ADR for a Thai fund management co.,
MTD, still listed and trading happily in Bangkok.
But I have no idea what it is worth as the price in my IRA account is 18 months
old. Now I will know.
Speaking
of Thailand,
a correction from Paul Renaud, our Thai-based contributor, for my note
yesterday about Michel Camdessus. He writes: “the ‘Asian Contagion’ was in
1997, not 1995! How can you forget?? The worst thing the IMF did
is mandate that SE Asian countries raise interest rates, and
dramatically. Imagine rising interest rates just as economies contract.
This is in fact one key reason why the crisis become so devastating after
the initial bang.
“Can you
imagine in this current US
financial crisis, if the US
was mandated by some global body to raise interest rates, rather then drop them
to near 0, as they did?”
Apologies
for getting the date wrong and failing to stress raising interest rates.
News from
our portfolio companies and two sells today. We have four Q4 reports to cover. News comes from Israel, Brazil, The Netherlands, Finland, China, Britain and, to give you a taste of things, New Jersey.
*Bonus
stock Cognizant Tech CTSH was raised to buy
from hold by Stifel Nicolaus. It is
incorporated in the US
but is a major player in Indian IT outsourcing. It is cheaper (in p/e) and faster growing that the Bharti Indian rivals.
