Stupid and It’s the Economy, Stupid June 2, 2000January 28, 2017 Where would I be without Alan Rogowsky sending me URL’s like www.STUPID.com. Sure seemed stupid to me. I bought a tingler, a talking barbecue spatula and a programmable electronic frisbee. Not sure whether any of this stupid stuff will actually come, or what I’ll think of it, but I will be running to the mailbox every day. One item no one would call stupid is the dishwasher cabinet we imagined Tuesday. David Maymudes was one of several, including a New Zealander, who advised me that something very similar is already for sale! (Click here.) Great minds, and all that. The brochure even says “you can use clean dishes directly from one drawer while loading dirty dishes in the other.” Look at the way the first letters of these paragraphs cry WOLF. If I got them to spell COKE or NIKE or DELL, could I charge them for it? Finally, I hope I haven’t totally lost you to the talking barbecue spatula, because — thanks to David Blumgart for this one — if you’re interested in the economy, you should really click . . . here.
Buying a Single Share as a Gift June 1, 2000February 15, 2017 One of you asked about buying single shares of stock for kids, et al, as gifts. I said I thought it was ridiculous (and wasteful in requiring the company to start sending quarterly and annual reports which your recipient may not even want) and suggested sending a framed canceled certificate for 1000 shares, and pointed you to Scripophily.com for this. Tom Bolger: “I disagree. When you purchase scripophily, while it looks nice, it’s of no value. It’s just an expensive piece of paper. Depending on its collectible value, almost the cost of a real share. Not all of us are wealthy enough to purchase a ‘significant’ quantity of stock for a gift. But for the cost of a single share, yes, at a premium for the service, you not only get a nice piece of paper to hang on the wall but as a shareholder, you also receive an annual report and any giveaways (AT&T gives calling cards, Wrigley gives chewing gum). The real value is starting a child interested in stocks and hopefully a lifetime of successful investing. And after several years, who knows, maybe your $100 investment in a Dell may split several times and be worth $1,000. Now that’s a gift.” OK, on a less grumpy day, I suppose I can see this is no worse than getting the kid a Star Wars Imperial Cruiser or something. Maybe even a little better. Fine. First a share of Nike; soon an application to Wharton. Fair enough. Tom found two sites devoted to this cause: Oneshare.com charges $35 (including shipping) plus the cost of the share itself. Add another $34 if you want it to arrive framed. A competitor: Framestock.com. A current favorite on both sites: a $17 share of World Wrestling Federation stock. Yours, framed, for under a hundred bucks. erika: “i just finished reading one of your intresting books and i would like to know if you can explain it to me with a little more details. please the book i read was the only investment guide you will ever need. can you please e mail me with a respond thankyou so much erika” — Apparently not the only investment guide she will ever need.