ConocoPhillips Plans to Sell $10 Billion of Assets

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Description: ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, said it will sell about $10 billion of assets in the next two years and cut capital spending in 2010 to reduce debt and increase returns on capital. Source: Bloomberg.com Date: 10/08/2009 Keys: Evaluating project economics and capital rationing (p396), Stock market (p281) Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7WBQb3aYhUU Questions for discussion:… Read more »

U.S. Economy: Services Grow for First Time in a Year

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Description: U.S. service industries expanded in September for the first time in a year as the emerging recovery spread from housing and factories to the broader economy. Source: Bloomberg.com Date: 10/05/2009 Keys: Cash flows (p355), Growth (p586) Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a9IZDDP21AtQ Questions for discussion:  Why is the service industry index a useful measure of business growth? Do… Read more »

Making oil from algae

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Description:  Turning the carbon-eating organism into crude could conserve oil and lower carbon emissions. Source: CNNMoney – video report   Date: 10/02/2009 Keys:  Risk (p.209), Cash flows (p355) Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2009/10/02/n_ef_algae_oil.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion:  What are the risks associated with investing in this industry? What are the existing infrastructures that give this concept certain advantages over… Read more »

IBM Versus Google: You’ve Got To Be Joking

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Description: So IBM decided to drop the bomb on Google — Big Blue will offer a basic email service for $36 per seat, undercutting the latter’s $50 a head Apps pricing. A Gartner analyst called it “trouble for Google,” but I’m not so sure. I think that Google has still got some enormous advantages, and… Read more »

‘Abusive Swaps’ Would Be Banned Under Frank’s Derivatives Plan

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Description: Legislation tightening oversight of the $592 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market would give regulators authority to ban so-called abusive swaps. Source: Bloomberg.com Date: 10/03/2009 Keys: Stock market (p281), Derivatives (p664) Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=amik0fY5tT7c Questions for discussion: Do you agree with the effort to regulate the derivatives market. Explain your answer. Do you think the financial crisis… Read more »

Buffett praises BofA’s Ken Lewis — not!

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Description: The Berkshire Hathaway chief notes the ‘irony’ in the BofA chief having saved the system — by overpaying for Merrill Lynch just hours before it would have failed. Source: CNNMoney.com Date: 9/16/2009 Keys: Analysis (p85), Stock market (p281) Link:  http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/16/news/newsmakers/lewis.faint.praise.fortune/index.htm Questions for discussion: Do you think the Buffett’s criticism of Lewis is fair?  What… Read more »