txn stalling

The stocks currently around the low 32 mark, but I think it can rise back to the 35 range soon. The current lull in price is due probably to some year end sellers and other people who are taking profits after the stock went from 27 to 34. After this round of selling is done, TXN will get back to 34-35 in early January 06.

Take It From Japan: Bubbles Hurt - New York Times

Take It From Japan: Bubbles Hurt - New York Times

An article about the aftermath of the Japanese real estate bubble and bad loans

a reminder of Japanese real estate

During the 80s, Japan's burgeoning economy led to a spectacular rise in real estate prices. This was shortly followed by a dramatic decline in prices. The problem that existed afterward was that many people were burdened with large loans on property with decreased value. In cities, families were living in small appartments because they have a large loan and can not sell their appartments for a substantial loss. This can happen here also. Already, appartment and condominium prices in cities have increased dramatically in the last decade due to low interest rates and other factors. House prices have increased in the surrounding suburbs and even rural areas of America have noticed house increases. Towns with a population of 30,000 have house prices unheard of ten years ago. As interest rates rise, house prices can drop since people are not willing to take on large loans with a high rate. This leaves previous buyers with a large loan and a loss in value of their property. For the economy as a whole, residents would be making payments on their homes and less money would be available for spending.

House prices are too high

It's getting difficult to sell homes in this market. Appears like prices are getting to be too high for buyers. Prices even in the rural south and midwest have increased by 100,000 over the past few years. This reminds me of the housing boom and bust in Japan about twenty years ago. People were locked into large loans for small houses. People will still spend money on improvements for their home to improve its market value.

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Wrought Iron Gate - $2000

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Investing in India

This is from an old article.

If you're trying to invest in India from America, you might have reognized that your options are limited or non-existent. India is the world's second most populated country with roughly one billion people. In addition to its population, its economy has also recently emerged as showing incredible growth. As of 2003, the country's GDP (a measure of its economic output) is growing at a rate of seven percent. Despite this growth, only two stocks allow you to invest in Indian companies from America: the India Fund (Ticker IFN) and the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund (Ticker IIF). Both of these are exchange traded funds (ETFs). They are basically mutual funds that trade like stocks during the day. More information can be found at a good source for ETFs the ETFConnect website.
The website provides basic information like the fund's objective, its historical performance, and its top holdings in India.
One of the things to keep in mind when investing is the fund's premium or discount. Since you are buying a share of a group of holdings you may not be paying the actual worth of the holdings themselves. When an ETF is trading at a premium, the price of an ETF share is actually more than the value of the underlying assets. At a discount, the opposite is true. The ETFConnect website shows you the stock's recent permium or discount on the upper left. As of December 26, 2003, IIF is trading at a significant premium, and IFN is trading at a smaller premium.

12/26/2003

Tobacco's effect on US healthcare

The US spends about $1 trillion dollars a year on healthcare. From limited experience looking at the patients admitted to hospitals, at least ten percent of the nation's healthcare expense is spent on treating the side effects of tobacco smoking: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, etc. For a closer impact, when waiting for hours in the ER to get seen by a physician, that physician is probably taking care of 2-3 patients with conditions related to cigarette smoking.

Inverted Yield Curve

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/18/business/yourmoney/18stra.html

NY Times story about inverted yield curves predicting recessions.

Where did all the money go?

As Google's price has stabilized after a large run up in the last two months, this stock's history is reminiscent of many other internet stocks from years ago. As the stocks become overvalued, insiders sell their stakes and create vast fortunes for themselves, as expected for people who have worked and created this company. Other people making money include those who invested early after the initial offering. If a stock goes up steadily and keeps the trajectory as the company delivers good news over time, this situation would benefit everybody. In the past, stocks that have risen dramatically have left late investors holding large losses.

How to Use the P/S Ratio [Fool.com: Commentary] November 15, 2005

How to Use the P/S Ratio [Fool.com: Commentary] November 15, 2005

TXN to 36

As I wrote in a previous post (http://investjs.blogspot.com/2005/11/txn-trading-range.html), this stock is approaching its analyst target of 36. From the way its moving, it could reach 36 within the next 2 weeks. It has moved significantly in the past few weeks, from touching its 200-day MA to well above its 50-day MA. 36 would be a new 52 week high, but it's only 2.15 away.

Chart from Yahoo Finance.