Reading Time: < 1 minute Dan Ariely (bio) is an expert in behavioral economics, and his recent book Predictably Irrational is well received. It is also quite relevant amid this financial market (and institutions) meltdown. 10 min audio (with slide show)

Reading Time: < 1 minute CNBC interviewed McDonald CEO Jim Skinner. My wife and I visited McDonald near my home (Creve Coeur, MO), and was very impressed by the setting of the new store (I remember about a year ago I visited it and here are some pictures). Disclosure:

Reading Time: 2 minutes First saw Rosetta Stone at the mall couple years ago (the kiosk). More recently saw its Ads on the TV. Today comes a monumental day for the company (bloomberg news, IPOHome, Yahoo Finance), the IPO (as old Warren says IPO stands for its probably overpriced). Fun and emotion aside, I think this language thing may

Reading Time: 2 minutes This is typically what happens, shortly after I sold a stock, it becomes golden goose. This can be best exampified by the US Bank stock (NYSE: USB). I bought some yesterday afternoon shortly before close. But I kind got a buyer remorse, thought my $16.50 price is a bit high. More importantly, I don’t know

Reading Time: < 1 minute From gurufocus, we can see investor gurus like Buffett’s buy and sell actions, usually 45 after the close of a quarter. NRG Energy is an interesting one, because it’s going to build the first nuclear power plant in the US for 30 years, and the offer Exelon put up last Oct. (0.485 share of Exelon

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update 23Apr09) It seems Obama administration is going to make credit card more consumer friendly (marketWatch). So are they going to socialize the credit card: I mean, you and me (i.e., honest guys) pay the credit cards on time each month, will bail out the deadbeats, after we bailed out the Wall Street ??? We

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update 20Apr09) Found this trick in google finance (chart), hold on mouse “up” or “down”, the time frame of stock chart extends or contracts. Stock Screener Here is an example: market cap $5 b to 25 b; PE ratio 10 to 20; dividend yield 2% to 5%; return on equity 15% to 25% (last 5

Reading Time: 2 minutes Chinese solar stocks are on the fire these days, mostly due to the Chinese goverment subsidy news (like this one). For me, this solar thing is ONS, not for long term investments at this time. The most worrisome thing for solar, is not the over-supply (competition), is not the volatility of raw material cost (as

Reading Time: < 1 minute Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) agreed to buy Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) on Jan 26 2009 (forbes). Quote Forbes: According to the terms of the deal, each outstanding share of Wyeth will be converted into $33.00 in cash and 0.985 of a share of Pfizer stock, valued at$15.57 per share, based on Pfizer’s current price. Last I checked:

Reading Time: 3 minutes Bought some Mead Johnson Nutrition (NYSE: MJN) shares last week. I wrote about it couple months ago before its IPO. This is one of my defensive plays in this downturn. It appears to me people will not stop making babies in the recession, from my very limited observation. More importantly, after China milk powder incident