3i Group Acquires The UK Luxury Retailer “Agent Provocateur”

Just last year, European private equity company 3i bought high-end UK lingerie brand and retailer, Agent Provocateur, in a reported $120 million deal. AD has been doing well since the company was founded in 1994 by the son of Vivienne Westwood Joseph Corré and his wife Serena Rees, but things have been especially good since 3i’s acquisition. Just recently, the company set up a plan for aggressive worldwide expansion.

The company already 40 boutiques across 14 countries, and their plan is to open more stores in areas directly competing with similar shops in their niche. There are already 8 stores in the United States and AD plans on building at least 2 more: Boston and Chicago. They also have Bahrain, Geneva, Puerto Barres, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Germany in their crosshairs.
Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon.com’s Frustration-Free Packaging Shows The Beauty Of The Free Market

Sometimes companies do things that have no obvious direct benefit but do have an indirect benefit. One example is Amazon.com’s recent frustration-free packaging idea. They’re basically making the world better because of the indirect benefit to the company.

Amazon doesn’t have any obvious reason to make product packaging less frustrating. On the surface, it doesn’t seem that they make any money by doing it, but by making the online shopping experience even more appealing than it already is, customers are more likely to buy online. Plus, Amazon gets the positive press of being the driving force behind a project that makes the world a bit less frustrating. That’s the indirect, intangible benefit.
Read the rest of this entry »

Worried About The Economic Crisis? Go Pray To A Golden Calf

In case you missed it, October 29th was the official “Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies” according to international nutcases, Mike and Cindy Jacobs. And what did they do on the day of prayer? They went down to Wall Street and prayed to the big bronze statue of the bull. Sound familiar? Good thing Moses wasn’t there.

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems.”

Wow. I remember reading somewhere that god’s not a big fan of people worshiping golden cows. Maybe I’m wrong, who knows. Check out the video:
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Happened Before, It’ll Happen Again

I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Bob Murphy, but he certainly hits the nail on the head this time:

Let me say it once again, for the record: Suppose that Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek were right, and that really low interest rates (caused by the central bank flooding the market with artificial credit) screw up the market’s coordination over time. Then that means we are now sowing the seeds for an even bigger crisis four or five years from now.

It’s true, many people would say, “That’s irrelevant. Right now the pain is so bad, we need to stop the bleeding and deal with future problems down the road.”

However, that’s exactly what people were saying in light of the “unacceptable” pain that would have occurred due to the dot-com crash and 9/11 attacks. It never occurred to people back then, how bad the housing boom would end up being.

Fed Cuts Rate By Half A Point to 1%: A Band-Aid On Our National Cancer

The Federal Reserve lowered the Federal Funds rate by half a percentage point today in the hopes that it’ll ward off the deep recession that keeps peeking it’s ugly head up at us. That’s about what everyone expected they’d do, but stocks still fell sharply right after the news, probably since many investors wanted an even more aggressive cut. Stock did eventually rebound and are still on their way up as this is being written.

The Fed’s statement on the cut said that, “The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures.” Many people may not realize it, but we’re at the point now where it’s actually possible that the Federal Reserve could reduce the overnight lending rate to zero. Japan reached that point in the 1990s and remained there for years while it struggled to revive its economy. That’s grim.
Read the rest of this entry »

Rate Cut To Happen Today: Investor Confidence Is Strong, Market Is Up

Tuesday, October 28th was a big day for Wall Street. The Dow jumped 889 points and retook 9000, and yet it was only the second biggest one-day jump this month. It’s been a bizarre and volatile October. But the market wasn’t as volatile today as it had been lately, so far Wall Street has extended yesterday’s huge gains since investors are growing more optimistic that an expected interest rate cut will help the economy toward recovery. I’m glad some people are optimistic, because I’m certainly not.

It’s not that I don’t think the Fed will cut rates, I think they will. But it’s already at 1.5% and it’s expected that they’ll lower them a further half a point, maybe even three quarters of a point. I just think that’s the wrong move, since artificially low interest rates are what got us in this mess in the first place. What if interest rates actually go below 1%? That’s insanity, and it doesn’t bode well for the economic future of this country. Either way, the decision should come out any minute now, so we’ll see what happens then. Commentary to come.

Record Drop In Gas Prices

The national average price for a gallon of gas dropped 53 cents to $2.7785 last Friday, October 24th. That’s about $1.33 less than it was at it’s peak this past July.

Those prices come from a similar drop in the price of oil, which is down about $4 dollars a barrel on Friday the 24th. At one point on Friday, light crude dropped to $62.65, the lowest it’s been since May of 2007.
Read the rest of this entry »

Steve Jobs Heart Attack Rumor Started On 4Chan By A Teenager

On October 3rd, a rumor that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack sent Apple’s stock crashing down from $105.04 per share to $94.65 per share, equaling a loss of $9 billion in market value. All that in just 10 minutes. That shows how important Steve Jobs is to Apple. It also shows how fragile the market is at times.

Generally, when a fake news story has a substantial impact on the value of a company’s stock, the SEC gets involved. And that’s just what they did this time. Manipulating the value of a stock for your personal gain is a crime with some hefty penalties, so the SEC tried to trace the story and see if it’s originator had any financial reasons for starting the rumor. It turns out he didn’t.

The story made it’s way to CNN’s iReport.com, which is where it really started to hit the mainstream news, but it’s origin was a tad less respectable: an 18 year-old kid posting on 4Chan as a prank.
Read the rest of this entry »

How To Invest In Gold, Really

If you’ve been following along this financial crisis, listening to Common Sense investors like Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers; and keeping an eye on the commodity markets, you know that gold is where to be right now.

But it isn’t as easy to invest in gold as it is to invest in the stock market proper. Many people don’t even know where to start. And if you search online for information about investing in gold, often you’ll only find websites talking about benefits or disadvantages of investing in gold; without any black and white facts on how it’s done. Well, here you are:
Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Tries Strongarm Tactics In China: The Tiger Is Not Happy

Microsoft has recently launched an anti-piracy program that specifically targets Chinese computer users, and Chinese users are furious.

The “Windows Genuine Advantage” program turns the user’s screen black if the installed software fails a validation test. This could mean serious trouble for China’s 200 million computer users since the vast majority are believed to be using counterfeit software, whether they know it or not.

Dong Zhengwei, 35, a Beijing lawyer, described Microsoft as the “biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority,”
Read the rest of this entry »