Robin Sun's Digest: June 2009

Monday, June 29, 2009

Greatest Hitter: Roger Federer

On June 7, as Roger Federer was on his way to equaling Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam victories by winning the French Open, James Blake and a group of fellow pros watched on a television in the players' lounge at the Aegon Championships at The Queen's Club in London, a warm-up event to Wimbledon. It's hard to imagine NBA stars congregating to cheer on Kobe Bryant, or pro golfers arranging to watch a Tiger Woods play-off, but for Blake and his mates there was no question where their allegiance lay. "We wanted to see Roger make history," Blake says.

The world's most earthquake-prone cities

Tokyo
Beijing
Mexico City
Los Angeles
Lima
Tehran
Manila
Jakarta
Karachi
Naples

Source: Steven Dutch

University of Wisconsin at Green Bay

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Are Stocks Still Good for the Long Run?

Stocks, we have been told again and again through the years, are the best long-term investment. Prices go up and they go down, but give stocks enough time and they deliver returns that trounce those of bonds, real estate, commodities or any other asset class.

Ha! you say. Have you checked your 401(k) balance lately? Since the beginning of this decade, the stock market has been a money pit. At the market's nadir in early March, stock investors had lost more than 50% since March 2000, if you factored in inflation. Things have improved since then--to a mere 40% loss.

One Drip at a Time

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch recently stated the obvious when he said the newspaper business model of providing content online for free was "malfunctioning." Poleaxed by a severe ad slump and hemorrhaging red ink, printed newspapers and magazines have been downsizing or closing in some countries, even as their digital editions attract growing numbers of readers. Murdoch — whose News Corp. media empire includes the Wall Street Journal, a rare newspaper with a profitable, subscription-based website — has vowed to boost the earning power of his digital properties by increasing the number of News Corp. sites that charge for content.