Friday, April 3, 2009

Voting Proxies

As 'long term' owner of many stocks, I receive many annual reports to read and proxies to vote, particularly this time of year. I don't read them all - that would be a full time job, but I do scan the proxies and cast votes consistent with my general outlook. In short, I do 'walk the walk" and don't just bloviate about shareholder governance.

Here are my general guidelines.

1. Directors - vote against any director not actual owner of 1,000 share at a minimum. This means "OWN", not some phony units or phantom rights or anything else.

2. I vote in favor of cumulative rights, as that can make takeovers easier and can helps get management out of its trenches.

3. I vote in favor of resolutions giving shareholders an advisory vote on executive compensation.

4. I vote against ANY "green" resolutions.

5. I vote for the auditors, if they are a recognized firm.

6. I vote against any compensation plan granting stock options. I favor grants of restricted stock based on operating performance criteria.

7. I vote against any plan involving re-pricing of stock options.

8. IFF I think management is overpaid, I vote against management directors.

9. Other than specifically noted in the items above, I usually vote according to management recommendations.

I'll add more later If I think of them.

The Black List

One can find quite interesting items on the non Anglo-Saxon press, if one can read the language. In French, by the way, The Black List is "La Liste Noire". Oh, and "by the way" in French is "au fait" or "à propos".

So in Le Figaro, I saw the Black List of tax havens of the OECD. And I was quite surprised. Here are the four members - Costa Rica, Uruguay, Philippines and Malaysia. How about that ! These four nations do not respect any international standards for exchanging tax information. Places like the Caymens respect some standards it is on the "Grey List" ["La Liste Grise"].

Hmmm ... a certain loquacious commentor has been singing the praises of the Elysian fields of Costa Rica as paradise on Earth. "Au fait", the words for "tax haven" in French are "paradis fiscal". And it begins to become clear to my why it might seem to be one ;)

All that black cash can certainly make an economy look better than it really is. And the Anglo-Saxon press isn't covering it at all. Fascinating.

G20

I will write on this later, after reading more in depth over the weekend. And after the finance ministers meeting in Prague put some flesh on the skeleton.

Markets

Another big day up. The move began in Asia and was due, in my humble opinion, to signs of economic life out there which are not being reported well in the "Anglo-Saxon" press. The clue is the copper price, which is moving up. Iron ore producers seem to have enough demand to keep prices from collapsing in their negotiations with steel producers.

By the way, the ISM numbers shows that steel inventories were low while demand was bottoming. That is bullish.

Huge amounts of cash are on the sidelines and real sellers probably won't be big until Dow 10,000.

Word of the Day

"Exordium" - noun [$10]
Exordium means the beginning or introductory part, esp. of a discourse or treatise.
Sentence: The G20 communiqué to the press is a mere exordium for publicity before any actual agreements are even written. The meeting of finance minsters will determine what, if anything, actually gets done. Eyes should be on Prague now.

Le Mot du Jour

"Constater" - verb, transitive; regular -er conjugation
Constater means to note, to notice, to declare, to take note of; to certify, to establish.
La Phrase: J'ai constaté La Liste Noire des paradis fiscaux dans Le Figaro ce matin. C'était surpris.
Sentence: I noticed the Black List of tax havens in Le Figaro this monring. It was surprising.

61 comments:

Bud said...

Bman i like that list


especially 6 and 7

Bud said...

well the tide is turning


earlier Calpers.........and now the state of Utah making demands of beefers

lower fees, ability to withdraw, weekly performance updates, strategy updates and no fees til they come back into the black


we'll see if the beefers meet these demands..........i suspect most will have to



PS......does some Calpers executive read this blog ??

Bud said...

another good day for the forces of light.........GS goin to 200???



' L'aquarium de requin est un feu !!!!! '

Bud said...

president spear chucker totally caved at the G20


he is the exact opposite of W.......Bush wrongly and unneccesarily harmed relations with europe ( specifically france and germany ) over the iraq war


obama wants to be loved ( and he is loved by the euro's) ......so he will bend over to please them


obama totally blamed wall street for the global finacial crisis



europe has had double digit unemployment for decades........and that is our fault ???


pfffffffffffffffffffffffffft

mfl59 said...

Calpers....pffftttt...whoever runs that fund should be put on the street and working at a burger joint...

"buy and hold"

Bud said...

Bman vindicated after 2 years of rants


“For a while there, managers forgot that it was our money,” said Brad Alford, head of Alpha Capital Management LLC in Atlanta, which selects hedge funds for clients. “Now investors are fighting back.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayvxPALk.dXo&refer=home

Bunkerman said...

Calpers SHOULD read this blog, those serial blunderers.

Bunkerman said...

I'm not sure if Obama did anything at that G20 but ratify the trend.

I'll write more later on my "reserve currency" thoughts - they've been percolating for awhile - over two years.

At least he read this blog and went with the hedge fund regulations.

Bunkerman said...

Sigh .. I was right, but missed how dumb the Street really was ... and so missed the proscpet of true panic.

I guess living behind wire and puniji pits, and with piles of gold and ammo, makes panic a very distant concept.

;)

mfl59 said...

Bunkerman is there anything you like about hedge funds, or the "theory" of a hedge fund?

Bud said...

puniji pits ?? what's that


an italian dry fruit or nut ?? are they tasty ?

Bunkerman said...

oops, "punji pits"

Bud, google "punji sticks"

frosty knows about them.

Bunkerman said...

No, there is nothing I like about hedge funds that have over $100 million in assets.

I'd like to see them banned, and forced to become investment companies.

Bunkerman said...

A hegde fund shuold be a small private investment partnership with a few investors [under 35] and a manager. A small shop.

At level they are not dangerous to the common man.

Bunkerman said...

Small, I favor complete freedom for them.

Large - put them in chains or vaporize them.

Bunkerman said...

As in many things about life, "size matters"

;)

mfl59 said...

Do you think this administration will come down hard on hedge funds with a surfeit ($10) of regulations?

I know that many of the biggest beefers were enormous financial supporters of Obama during hid campaign...

Bunkerman said...

I suspect that Obama will do as little as possible. His SEC appointment was terrible.

That's one reason I hoped for lots of pressure from Europe.

mfl59 said...

A prerequisite to being a guest on CNBC.....one must be able to use the word "bottom" at least 4 times....

mfl59 said...

Bunkerman what do you think of your hero Bill Gross' statement that equities are dead money for a generation?

Bunkerman said...

I think he's wrong. They were dead money the last generation after the swings. Won't be this one.

Bunkerman said...

This season is like 1933 or 1974 - from the past equity looked terrible; but those were supr times to buy & be long for the future

Bunkerman said...

the best two times to be long equity in the century.

Frosty said...

"so he will bend over to please them"...someone humble in front of word leaders vs begging for table craps in the pond...do we know who the punk is.

I think so.

Spin-em said...

Looooooooooooooooool

STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERIIIIIIIIIIKE ONE!!!

Bud said...

shutup bob



lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Bunkerman said...

I suspect the world leaders privately think the US elected a mouth, not a brain.

They'll be happy until they need some backbone.

mfl59 said...

Bud may I suggest Bob Rotella's book "Golf is not a Game of Perfect"....much better than spending your time at a county club giving your money to a pro in disguise....

Frosty said...

Bunky you own CAB...just printed 10...you trading around the core a lil.

Bunkerman said...

Thanks frosty - got me to look at Obama Fund.

Flipped a bit more CAB - down to core now (had done some at 9)

Flipped some FL, too - to core level.

mfl59 said...

for a long term investor you sure do trade a lot Bunkerman...John Bogle would not approve...

Bunkerman said...

some of these Obama stocks are moving as predicted by 1974 analogy.

Bunkerman said...

Am making a lifetime of costs for the "Green Book" of 35 year charts.

Bunkerman said...

oh .. the Obama Fund is a speculation and I have some ST loss carryforwards from C and WB debacles.

Fido Fund - "loyal" does not trade.

And I wrote that to get my 10x profit objective, that I'd have to trade around the cores.

Bud said...

core ?? huh ?? what the F does that even mean


i guess if you buy a stock and go down 25% in it ......and hold on .......must be 'core'......sounds like the obama fund strategy to me


long term long only investing indeed.....or...as i call it


buy and bend over

Bud said...

good thing beefers came back in and turned this market around for the Bman


oh wait.......the Bman prolly thinks the 'real buyers' bought spx 666


pffffffffffffffffffffffffft






PS......obama fund ?? for a couple months a better name was the 'long and wrong fund'

Bunkerman said...

"core" means the amounts I can hold and be a bit under 100% long.

Full means the approximate amounts I can hold at 150% long.

Bunkerman said...

You sure are binomial, Bud

;)

mfl59 said...

I think what Bud means to say, Bunkerman, is that you should read
"Investissez comme un requin"...

Bud said...

hmmmmm............ Bman trying to go all harvard and mit on me



binomial ?? no clue what that means

i do remeber binomial theorem from my iowa state days

Frosty said...

double jump king me, oh borther LOL...checker players chirp like the pigeons they are...they do dance to the tune of the 3-D chess players, just toss them some table scraps Bunky.

Bunkerman said...

yes, that was a fancy way of saying you are a 1 or a 0

black or white

A or B

no shades or sublty.

Bunkerman said...

Ben firing full salvos ->

Fed's Kohn says Fed's current commitments could expand balance sheet by another "couple of trillion" - Reuters

Bunkerman said...

beefer bears getting 16" shells up the butt now as they hide bent over with heads in the sand.

:)))

Bunkerman said...

Fed's Bernanke says TALF-eligible securities likely to expand - DJ

Boomers.

That probably means commercial mortgages securities.

Frosty said...

commercial RE, interesting Bunky...how good you feel about that comment...is it possible that they can get in front of the next shoe to drop, that would be a first, track record not good.

Bunkerman said...

maybe "binary" would have been a better word.

binomial suggests a more complex process combining 1 and 0 events.

Bunkerman said...

I feel rather good about that thought.

I think they know that the healthy parts of the commerical real estate market needs a refinancing takeout .. so will find a way to do it.

I need to buy real estate in the Krypto Fund with the new skim.

Bud said...

Bman you take a quick look at le figaro website every morning ??


their editorial page must be goin aga over the moon-cricket

Bunkerman said...

Yes, I look at Le Figaro and Le Monde every morning. I do't loook at the editorials - jus the front page news.

They love Obama, no doubt.

Bunkerman said...

flipped some HMIN to cut back to "core"

And ANF. And HUN

Bunkerman said...

and some CMI. MOS. MF

Bunkerman said...

I guess I'm "L'il beefer" today

Spin-em said...

attaboy bunk

Spin-em said...

Thanks Bunk...have a fantabulous weekend bunker boyz!!!!

Frosty said...

Bunky, well done sir...schooling your son in the art of skim management indeed...skark, golf leasons...ppfffttt...he should at least double coat wax GOLD MIST this weekend.

Good weekend, chill those bunktinis.

:).... Mrs B, your the best.

Bunkerman said...

yes, getting the gin, vodka, lillet and lemons out.

have a good weekend all.

mfl59 said...

Bud good luck this weekend son....I know you have your sand lesson tomorrow....

well done Bunky...Kudlow, Kass, and Cramer all on your side...

mfl59 said...

go get em spike!

Bud said...

holy smokes

what a last hour in the tank!!!!!!!.............a buck a hole ?? F that......5 bux a hole........and lets press


' L'aquarium de requin est un feu !!!!! '



PS.....is GS goin to 200??

mfl59 said...

Lawrence Summers, director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, earned millions working at a hedge fund and speaking to banks such as Citigroup Inc. that later received taxpayer bailout money.

Hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. paid Summers more than $5 million in salary other compensation in the past 16 months, according to a financial disclosure form released by the White House yesterday. Summers served as a managing director at the New York-based firm. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, also earned more than $2.7 million in speaking fees.


And people think they are going to regulate beefers? pffftttt