| November, 2013 "What happened to the president's promise, "You can keep your health plan"? Or to the promise that "You can keep your doctor"? Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a world-class physician. " "For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people's ability to control their medical coverage choices and they may die. I guess it's a highly effective way to control medical costs perhaps that is the point. " ~ Ms. Sundby from California. |
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The Professional Opinion - DJ 16086.41  Buy Recommendations None. Everything is rated as a hold, as is usually the case. Sell Recommendations None.  What a waste of flesh. |
 Note: Gains or losses shown here with the exception of mutual funds are from the original purchase date, not yearly returns. |
 Another superb month for those who are invested in equities is in the can. I highly doubt the teleprompter expected that 'spreading the wealth around' meant the wealthy should be getting wealthier but that's ok with me. The returns so far are some of the best I've had and how does that stack up with other years? 2006 - 25.92% 2007 - 17.80% 2008 - -43.80% 2009 - 53.55% 2010 - 27.03% 2011 - -03.83% 2012 - 19.02% 2013 - +30%? It looks like teleprompters are good for something after all.  |
Coach is out and CHS is in.  Coach was starting to remind me of a bargain warehouse with all their closeout sales, discount events and so on, and I was looking to replace the stock with something broader in scope in the ever fickle sector of women's clothing. One person I pay some attention to is Clifton Robbins of the Blue Harbor Group and he mentioned Chico's as one of his top holdings. That sounded good enough for me. Chico's last quarter was not that spectacular but they did do a sizable increase of their dividend. Eaton Vance (EV) is also in  Clifton Robbins also has a large holding in Eaton Vance, investment manager to the wealthy. He likes the valuations and thinks all this money being made by the wealthy is going to require some management and that's where Eaton Vance comes in. Me, the logic sounded reasonable so why not invest a bit in Eaton. Doesn't sound like the 'Taper' and 'easy money policies are going to end any time soon.  In search of better Household Utensils...  If you every get tired of buying vegetable peelers and can openers from Walmart which might last a month or so before going dull or breaking, consider OXO Good Grips as an alternative. Your spouse will be impressed. The subject came up the other day as a possible investment because we like their products so much and it took a little time to track it down:   It turns out OXO was acquired by Helen of Troy, LTD, a small cap company in the consumer products sector, which I have never heard of. I think it's worth a small investment and I do like their products. Amazon distributes them as well. The Health Care Fiasco....   The preceding was from a retired Oregonian couple who had a health care plan they liked which got terminated because it did not meet the new requirements under the new so-called health care law and an equivalent policy is giong to cost them nearly three times as much. So I wonder how Oregon's exchange is working...............  It speaks for itself.  This one made me chuckle. |
