News and Current Events

Mahindra’s U.S. Diesel Truck Hits Roadblocks »

Breaking into the highly competitive American automobile market is never an easy task, particularly for a brand that is entirely unknown to most consumers. Despite the challenges, Indian carmaker…

Jul 28 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

GM Announces Volt Pricing Starting at $41,000 Limiting Mass Market Appeal »

General Motors has announced a starting price of $41,000 for the Chevrolet Volt, the company's first move into the nascent market for electric vehicles. Buyers may be eligible…

Jul 27 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

Deepwater Drilling Ban Continues to Devastate Gulf Coast Economy »

The six month moratorium on exploratory deepwater drilling the Gulf of Mexico is continuing to heavily impact the economy of the Gulf Coast. Despite two court rulings, the federal…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »
Investing

Amazon’s New Kindle: Priced as an iPad Accessory? »

Rapid price deflation in the market for dedicated e-readers continued today as Amazon unveiled a new generation of its Kindle…

Jul 29 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

High Speed Rail May Threaten Freight Rail Renaissance »

There is little doubt that Amtrak's Acela represents a very attractive way to travel between Washington D.C. and New York…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

An Absurd Example of Technical Analysis »

On the lighter side, we present our readers with one of the most absurd examples of technical analysis seen in…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

Goldman’s Problems Continue with Threat of FCIC Derivatives Audit »

Despite paying the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial firm by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Goldman Sachs is…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

A Closer Look at Ensco’s Q2 Results »

Ensco plc recently announced second quarter 2010 earnings of $126.3 million, or $0.89 per share. As expected, the…

Jul 22 2010 / No Comment / Read More »
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Oil and Natural Gas

Deepwater Drilling Ban Continues to Devastate Gulf Coast Economy »

The six month moratorium on exploratory deepwater drilling the Gulf of Mexico is continuing to heavily impact the economy of the Gulf Coast. Despite two court rulings, the federal government is continuing to insist on a complete halt to deepwater exploration until the commission…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

A Closer Look at Ensco’s Q2 Results »

Ensco plc recently announced second quarter 2010 earnings of $126.3 million, or $0.89 per share. As expected, the results were negatively impacted by lower utilization for the fleet as well as lower average dayrates. Contract drilling revenues were $406.3 million compared to…

Jul 22 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

Shell Deepwater Expert Points to Flaws in BP’s Well Design »

At a recent presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival, one of Shell's experts on deepwater drilling suggested that flaws in the design of BP's Macondo well were likely responsible for the blowout that led to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. …

Jul 21 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

Oil Industry Plans Disaster Response System for Future Spills »

The Wall Street journal has reported that Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips are planning to announce the formation of a joint venture to design, build, and operate a rapid response system to address the impact of a future oil spill in…

Jul 21 2010 / No Comment / Read More »
Insurance Industry

Progressive Offers Discount Based on Driver Monitoring »

Progressive has introduced a new discount program designed to offer lower auto insurance premiums to drivers who have favorable risk profiles. The idea…

Jul 26 2010 / No Comment / Read More »

P&C Insurers Recover in 2009 But Underwriting Losses Persist »

P&C National Underwriter has published its annual report listing data for the top 100 individual insurance companies as well as the top 100 insurance…

Jul 24 2010 / No Comment / Read More »
Book Reviews

Ridley Melds Science and Economics in ‘The Rational Optimist’

Skeptics sometimes equate optimism with naivete, and this is often the case for sunny optimists who are gullible enough to believe in any business plan or far fetched concept. Optimism must be tempered with a…

Jul 14 2010 / Read More »
Summer Reading

Ten Books for Summer Reading

With the nearly unlimited supply of books on business and finance, it seems impossible to keep up with the list of important titles that appear on a regular basis. This is particularly true for books…

Jul 4 2010 / Read More »
Berkshire Hathaway

High Speed Rail May Threaten Freight Rail Renaissance

There is little doubt that Amtrak's Acela represents a very attractive way to travel between Washington D.C. and New York City. Leaving Washington D.C. a very short distance from the United States Capitol, one can…

Jul 26 2010 / Read More »

P&C Insurers Recover in 2009 But Underwriting Losses Persist

P&C National Underwriter has published its annual report listing data for the top 100 individual insurance companies as well as the top 100 insurance groups. Due to improvements in investing results, total policyholder surplus…

Jul 24 2010 / Read More »
BYD BYD F3DM

BYD Offers Dual Mode Hybrid to Individual Buyers in China

BYD has announced the availability of its F3DM dual-mode electric vehicle to individual buyers in China starting on March 29. The first sales location will be in Shenzhen. The city plans to have 24,000…

Mar 25 2010 / Read More »
Buffett and Wang Chuan Fu

Berkshire’s Investment in BYD: A Bet on Wang Chuan-Fu

Berkshire Hathaway's investment in BYD made its first appearance in Warren Buffett's annual letter which provides a table listing common stock investments with a market value of more than $1 billion. As of December 31,…

Mar 10 2010 / Read More »
Progressive

Progressive Offers Discount Based on Driver Monitoring

Progressive has introduced a new discount program designed to offer lower auto insurance premiums to drivers who have favorable risk profiles. The idea of offering discounts to drivers who do not use their cars…

Jul 26 2010 / Read More »
Progressive

A Look at Progressive’s Loss Estimation Accuracy

Last week, we took a brief look at Berkshire Hathaway’s loss estimation accuracy over the past ten years. As we noted in the article, the process of estimating the ultimate losses resulting from an insurance…

Mar 8 2010 / Read More »
Apple Computer

Amazon’s New Kindle: Priced as an iPad Accessory?

Rapid price deflation in the market for dedicated e-readers continued today as Amazon unveiled a new generation of its Kindle e-reader device. While the new Kindle features better e-ink technology and is smaller than the…

Jul 29 2010 / Read More »

Amazon Reports E-Book Sales Exceed Hardcovers; Where is the Tipping Point?

Has the tipping point been reached in the transition from printed hardcover books to e-books? It appears that this might be the case based on statistics released by Amazon.com in a press release today. …

Jul 19 2010 / Read More »
Contango Oil & Gas

Contango Announces New Production; May Pay Special Dividend

Contango Oil & Gas Company issued a press release today that announced new production from recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the company announced new production from eight onshore wells in…

Jul 21 2010 / Read More »
President Obama and Carol Browner

Expect Consolidation as Administration Pushes Small Firms Out of Gulf

Over the past several weeks, there has been a great deal of speculation regarding the goal of politicians who advocate removal of the $75 million liability cap for offshore oil spills. Based on a Wall…

Jul 2 2010 / Read More »
Noble Corporation

A Closer Look at Noble Corporation’s Q2 Results

Noble Corporation recently announced second quarter 2010 earnings of $218 million, or $0.85 per share. The results were negatively impacted by a combination of lower utilization for the overall fleet and sharply lower average dayrates.…

Jul 20 2010 / Read More »
Frontier Drilling

Noble’s Acquisition of Frontier Highlights Importance of Clean Balance Sheet

Earlier this week, Noble Corporation announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Frontier Drilling in a cash transaction valued at $2.16 billion. Frontier is a privately held independent drilling company with a…

Jun 30 2010 / Read More »
Ensco

A Closer Look at Ensco’s Q2 Results

Ensco plc recently announced second quarter 2010 earnings of $126.3 million, or $0.89 per share. As expected, the results were negatively impacted by lower utilization for the fleet as well as lower average dayrates.…

Jul 22 2010 / Read More »

Einhorn Comments on Ensco Position in Q2 Letter

Last week, we reported that David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital took a large position in Ensco plc during the second quarter. Ensco was profiled in an article on The Rational Walk in early June and…

Jul 20 2010 / Read More »

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