Barry Ritholtz submits: To my regular readers, this is very old news - but the significant play it has gotten recently is not. Complete Story »
March, 2007
I recently learned that if you have to fly on short notice due to a medical emergency or a funeral, there is something called a “bereavement fare” or “compassion fare”. The rules differ between all the airlines, but basically if you qualify you get around 50% off the highest non-restricted airfare available. You’ll need to call each airline directly for details. These full fares can be extremely high, and even at half-off still way more than what you would get at a site like Expedia.com. The main benefit to these fares is that you can usually change your arrival and departure dates much more easily and without penalty fees. Here is a good article at SmarterLiving that goes into more detail ...
Related Stocks: ACAD, ACAS, AHO, BBI, GT, MDRX, NYX, SVU, SWY, UTX, VCLK Miriam Metzinger submits: Stocks discussed in the lightning round session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Friday March 30. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis: Complete Story »
Related Stocks: AIR, AN, BBY, CC, DELL, GME, GOL, HANS, HPQ, KMX, RSH, SHLD Miriam Metzinger submits: Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Friday March 30. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis: Complete Story »
Filed under: Launches, Conventions and conferences, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Next big thing, Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Verizon Communications (VZ)This week, the biggies of wireless attended the CTIA conference in Florida. As always, there were some big announcements, such as from Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) regarding its huge mobile build-out of WiMAX. Dipanshu Sharma, the founder of V-Enable, was also there (his firm develops voice-activated wireless applications). Here are some of his takeaways:Mobile TV Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) MediaFLO handsets got a lot of attention. Last year mobile TV was dominated by companies using IP streaming for watching TV on the phone. Streaming over IP clogs carriers' networks, so this year both MedioFLO and DVB-H were showcased. It was mostly MediaFLO that stole the show for mobile TV. Verizon ...
Filed under: Rants and ravesBeing that I'm a hale-and-hearty defender of the First Amendment, I always take special notice of occurrences which could have significant impact on the dissemination of art, literature, or other such things. Once again, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has quashed a request for a .xxx domain to be created for the registration of "pornographic" websites. I cannot blame ICANN for shying away from giving its approval when I understand that the position of responsibility that approval would place it in is unacceptable for it, and would take the group well outside the scope of what it was created for.So, we are still faced with the heavy infusion of pornographic material within the mainstream internet, and whether or not something can ...
Filed under: Products and services, Television, Google (GOOG), Viacom (VIA), EntrepreneursOne of the great paradoxes of innovation is that in many cases, advances that have a tremendous effect on society make very little money for the innovators. Consider Warren Buffett's comments on new technology:Sizing all this up, I like to think that if I'd been at Kitty Hawk in 1903 when Orville Wright took off, I would have been farsighted enough, and public-spirited enough -- I owed this to future capitalists -- to shoot him down. I mean, Karl Marx couldn't have done as much damage to capitalists as Orville did. I won't dwell on other glamorous businesses that dramatically changed our lives but concurrently failed to deliver rewards to U.S. investors: the manufacture of radios and televisions, ...
Filed under: Television, General Electric (GE), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), News Corp'B' (NWS)Sanjay Malakar and Howard Stern are smack dab in the middle of a high-stakes battle for America's attention. According to The New York Times , the battle pits Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), as led by Howard Stern, and VoteForTheWorst.com -- along with Stern's silent partners: all the other networks -- against American Idol's corporate sponsors, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox Network and Idol-rights owner, CKX Inc. (NASDAQ: CKXE).Stern's stated goal is to destroy Idol's popularity by encouraging people to vote for Malakar, whose unique hair styles and ability to bring 12-year-old girls to tears have contributed to his survival on the show despite weak vocal skills. If Malakar wins, acerbic judge, Simon Cowell, has ...
Filed under: Forecasts, Other issues, Private equity, Personal financeTiger 21, the world's richest investment club, is cutting back on stocks. Comprised of 123 members with combined assets of $7 billion, the club is focused on investment education for high net-worth individuals (although one one might assume they already know a thing or two about money). The group sports an unusual portfolio: 30% stocks 28% real estate 15.6% fixed-income 8.8% private equity 9.6% alternative investments (e.g. hedge funds) 8% cash While this may seem bizarre, the portfolio's construction is a result of the unique needs of rich investors, who rely on their investments for income. Very ...
