Reading Time: 2 minutes Who is better positioned to weather the recession (or depression as some people like FT Martin Wolf said), American Express (NYSE: AXP) or Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS)? I got some DFS last week so my opinion maybe biased, but wait: I hold Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) which in turns holds significant number of AXP shares

Reading Time: < 1 minute I remember reading this last year, this morning I read it from Yahoo Finance. Here is the prospectus at SEC, and here is a glimpse at IPOHome. It looks like they are going to IPO on Feb 10 (from the roadshow, again from IPOHome). I think most people heard about their product enfamil (Amazon, Wiki),

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update Feb 5) It appears BoA CEO Ken Lewis bought additional 200,000 BAC shares yesterday (source: bloomberg). (Original Feb 4) Today Bank of America stock (NYSE: BAC) fell below $5 the first time since 1990s. The company was in trouble earlier this month as the loss from Merrill Lynch turned out to be much bigger

Reading Time: 2 minutes What is the best investment one can make in 2009? Invest in yourself: health, family, financial knowledge, job skills, business skills,…among all I think health is the most important because without it everything else will get hit or become less meaningful. Amid growing belly I decided to do something about it this year. I used

Reading Time: < 1 minute Since I have done some travel lately, I have oppertunity to see people in the airport or airplane. It seems to me Blackberry is everywhere. I remember Blackberry was popular a few years ago (also from airport impression), now it’s pervasive / everywhere. There are lots of coverage on Blackberry recently such as: 1) Obama

Reading Time: < 1 minute This morning, 9:05 AM, CFA Institute web page is again hit hard: I mean all the people are trying to log in and see the results of CFA level I exam last Dec. After about I waited 25 minutes, just before I entering the customer meeting room, I am seeing passing rate: 35%. This is

Reading Time: 2 minutes Happy New Year!!! The Chinese New Year of ox, or bull (or cow). If you missed making new years resolution on Jan 1, this is another time to make up. Hotel Frequent Guest Program Like Airline frequent flyer programs, there are hotel frequent guest programs. And I joined two lately: Hilton HHonors and Mirriott Rewards.

Reading Time: < 1 minute Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A; BRK.B) has not done well lately. Nonetheless, Nightly Business Report (PBS) interviewed Buffett. The topic ranges from new administration, recession and investing. The interview is about 30 minutes long. Interestingly Susie Gharib tried to ask particular investment advice, Buffett declined politely.

Reading Time: < 1 minute It seems the financial crisis has been more like a banking crisis these days, with the RBS virtually nationalized by the British goverment, and Citi and Bank of America increasingly can not stand on its own. The No. 1 and No. 2 US banks according to market cap, J.P.Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:

Reading Time: 2 minutes Bank of America is back in the news because they asked and got $20 billon from US govement, to back the loss from Merrill Lynch acquisition. (Source: Yahoo Tech-ticker) Personally I like Bank of America, ever since I became their customer serveral years ago. Two benefits of being BoA checking acct cosumer: 1) Their branch