Cheaper isn't necessarily "better"
Our local pharmacy in London is run by an incredibly helpful Indian family, who seem to go above and beyond our expectations every time we need anything. Since having our first child, this reliability has been a source of great comfort. As my wife and I were leaving the pharmacy with our son on Saturday morning, we both passed comments to the effect that it seems rare to have your expectations consistently exceeded - in effect that simple tasks are kept simple by helpful and knowledgeable people.
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Don’t lose the bigger picture…
It's been a tough few days for Goldman Sachs. A fraud case that identifies one of the ways in which it was helping itself by betting against its own clients has caused its stock price to fall considerably and a series of knock-on claims coming from state owned banks around the world. Boo-hoo, might be the expected view given the comments I've passed previously about the organisation. This week, however, I actually have a mild sense of sympathy for them. A very mild sense of sympathy.
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Don't Push It…
In the years running up to Lehman Brother's collapse in September 2008 the bank was one the most profitable institutions not just within the industry, but in all industry. Lehman's share price had been as low as $9.66 after the Russian crisis in 1998 and had risen to the equivalent of almost $170 per share in early 2007 ($85 per share considering the 2006 stock split). Every quarter for nine years it had beaten analyst earnings estimates and seemed invincible.
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Better the devil you know…
Last Tuesday Ireland's finance minister, Brian Lenihan, announced the details of the terms on which Irish banks would transfer loans from their balance sheets into the NAMA "bad bank" plan. The numbers were quite brutal, with an average transfer price of 47% for the initial loans transferred.
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