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• Beijing Olympics win gold medal for cost overruns

  Posted Jul 29 2008, 05:44 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, stocks, economy, Jon Markman
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  Cities compete like crazy to get the Olympics, but are they really such a prize? New research by sports economics professor Brad Humphreys suggests that cost overruns are usually out of control, and countries end up with much lower economic growth a year later -- belying all the hype that comes in advance.

  Humphreys says the Olympic Games in Beijing, scheduled to start in two weeks, were originally expected to cost $1.6 billion, but a recent tally shows that China has spent $40 billion. The University of Alberta lecturer says the Athens games in 2004 were budgeted for $1.6 billion and ended up costing $16 billion. The London games were budgeted at $8 billion and already $19 billion has been spent. And one of the worst examples is Montreal, where citizens just finished paying off the games, 30-plus years later. Taxpayers always end up footing a big bill for their leaders' Olympic vanity.   Read More...

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• Surprising stocks top best of 2008 list

  Posted Jun 26 2008, 01:18 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, Merrill Lynch, Investment Banking, Motorola, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros, Valero, stocks, economy, Jon Markman
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  It’s easy to imagine that the 25 best-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Index this year are all oil and gas producers, and the 25 worst-performing stocks are all banks and brokers. Yet as we near the halfway mark in 2008, it turns out that there are quite a few surprises in the mix of best and worst.

  For instance, the No. 1 stock in the benchmark index this year isn’t an oil producer, but a coal miner, Massey Energy.  It’s up 155% so far, rising to $89 from $35 as coal prices have soared in the wake of booming demand in China and India. The No. 2 stock is actually a discount retailer, Big Lots. It’s up 100%, from $15 to $30, as investors speculate it will get a big share of tax-rebate money from low-income Americans.

  Most of the rest of the next best 15 gainers   Read More...

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• New investment frontier: Lebanon?

  Posted Jun 12 2008, 02:04 AM by Jon Markman
  Filed under: Investing, Morgan Stanley, stocks, Jon Markman
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  As we watch the brokerage industry trip and crash this year over its mistakes in the mortgage business, it’s nice to know that it still has a sense of humor. How else to explain the decision by industry heavyweight Invesco to launch an exchange-traded fund focused on the countries in North Africa and the Middle East -- and name it the Frontier Countries Portfolio?
  
  I really don’t consider Kuwait, the United Emirates, Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt to be the frontier of anything except, possibly, some marketing guy’s imagination. Do they really have cowboys and cactus in Beirut these days?
  
  After a little digging, I did discover that “frontier countries” really is a new industry euphemism for a bunch of little countries with investable public stock markets but thin regulatory, reporting and transparency standards. I suppose you could make a lot of money    Read More...

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