Archive for July, 2007
Press this button and your wealth will double over the next ten years. Your neighbor’s wealth will triple over those same ten years.
If you were given a button to press and told that if you pressed that button what is written above would happen, would you press it? A surprising number of people would not press the button because they suffer from the economics of envy.
The economics of envy is an economic theory that is based on the idea that people would rather suffer than see their neighbor reap a bigger reward than them.
Think about that for a minute. Because their neighbor would gain a larger reward they would rather no one receive a reward. The people who subscribe to this system of economics would rather see a world where everyone is equal (equal results) rather than a world where some achieve greatness and others only fail (equal opportunity).
Before you fall into the trap let me point something out to you. The above hypothetical button is results based, it never mentions how much work you, our your neighbor, has to put forth to achieve the doubling or tripling of wealth. I would also never push that button but, not because I do not want to see my neighbor prosper. No, I would not push that hypothetical button because it is based on the idea of results and not opportunity.
If you are a smart business person you would likely still say no and not because of envy. You would say no because for this button to work one of two things would be in control of your income.
- What ever you make some mysterious entity makes sure your neighbor always makes more.
- What ever your neighbor makes becomes a mysterious glass ceiling that you can never rise above.
See, no matter what, pushing the button takes the power out of your hands. What true capitalist would want that? Now, if you could be the neighbor who always makes more would you tell your neighbor to press the button?
The point of this article is to show that the economics of envy are a farce. The idea that performing an action (pushing the button) should somehow benefit your neighbor more than it benefits you is profoundly wrong. If you are doing the work than you should derive the benefit. It’s not a case of the button pusher being envious of the greater reward his neighbor receives it is a case of the button pusher not wanting to perform a task and get less of a reward than someone who does nothing.
SZSN Expands To Become 3rd Largest Agricultural Seed Provider!
Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd (SZSN)
$0.24
SZSN is expanding. Recent acquisitions put it in the top 3 Seed
providers in China. It is also expanding its distribution chains to 500
new regional agencies. Big news expected! Get on SZSN first thing Friday
morning.
The TCS Series is available in three models and other pedal assemblies
can be designed to meet specific application requirements.
This one was interesting not because of the tip but because of all the garbled and random words that followed it in the email! It’s one thing to get a en email stock tip that talks about a stock, it is something else when the majority of the text of the message is random buzz words and a joke about socks.
Why is it that so many of these stock scam email I receive are all for stocks that only have a five day history on Yahoo Finance? I can’t even pull any historical data on this stock from the easy access sites.
I had to go over to the CNN financial site to get a long term look at this stock. Looking back this company hit a high of $31.50 in mid 2005. The stock then fell to the low single digits and made a brief comeback near $12.18 in early 2006. they are currently trading in the $0.25 range.
So, what are they doing now?
News Headlines
Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd. Invests Land in Real Estate Development Project with Expectation of USD 1.4 Million Profit
LAIZHOU, China, July 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: SZSN - News; “SZSN” or “Parent Corporation”) which is incorporated in the State of Delaware, announced that its subsidiary operating company in China, Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd. (”Zhouyuan” or “the Company”), entered into an agreement with Jixi Xingcheng Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. (”Xingcheng”), that they will jointly develop the Zhouyuan Building project with an investment of about RMB 50 million (or USD 6.4 million).
Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Plans to Seek 500 Regional Agencies to Meet Demands for New Breeds in China
LAIZHOU, China, July 6 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd. (”SZSN” or “Parent Corporation”) which is incorporated in the State of Delaware, announced that it has acquired the business operations of Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd. (”Zhouyuan” or “the Company”) since February 2007, which is incorporated in the People’s Republic of China, and is engaged in the business of developing and distributing agricultural seeds in China. Zhouyuan was organized in 2001 under the laws of the People’s Republic of China. Its primary product is corn seed, including both corn intended for forage and corn with a high starch content for use in industrial food production. In addition, it currently markets varieties of wheat seeds and cabbage seeds.
You might be wondering what brought the stock down from its high of $31.50.
If you look at the five year chart you will see that this stock is not exactly stable. It has a long history of rapid rises, rapid falls and low value plateaus. The most recent low has been going on since mid-February and it may be time for another rise.
In 2006 our sales revenue fell by 34% from the level achieved in 2005, which was
itself insufficient to produce a gross profit. To sustain operations, we pared down the only discretionary spending that we had - our selling expenses. This decision enabled us to achieve cash flow slightly above break-even, but had the inevitable result of reducing our already dwindling revenue. The net result was that we realized a net loss before minority interest of $590,868 in 2006, compared to a net loss before minority interest of $433,756 in 2005.
SHANDONG ZHOUYUAN SEED & NURSERY CO., LTD. - SZSN Annual Report (Small Business Issuers) (10KSB) PART II
Conclusion
It may be time for this one to rise again. The stock has already climbed to $0.30 per share in early morning trading on Friday 13, 2007. Will it go higher? Their recent land deal indicates that the rough patch they were going through may now be over. The company has also gone through a change in regards to its directors. China is still considered an emerging market. It’s up to you to decide if you want to take a risk on this one.
Update
Can you believe I received a second email about this today?
SZSN Goes Through The Roof! UP 37.5%
Shandong Zhouyuan Seed and Nursery Co., Ltd (SZSN)
$0.33 UP 37.5%
Brokers are grabbing up SZSN like crazy after two news releases this
week. Huge expansion plus multi-million dollar development projects are
pushing share prices through the roof. Act fast and get on SZSN first
thing Monday!
Someone must really be pushing this one.
Why am I suddenly reminded of the old Jerry Reed song She Got The Goldmine (I Got The Shaft) when looking at the recent stock prices for at&t and Apple Inc?
At close of business Monday July 2, 2007 (the first full trading day after the iPhone release) Apple stock closed at $121.26 and at&t stock closed at $41.49. That was as low as Apple was going to go and as high as at&t has made it.
Disclaimer: at&t did declare a dividend of $0.355 per share on July 6, 2007 and stocks are known to drop after a dividend is declared.
Stock Prices at Close post-iPhone
| Date |
Apple stock |
at&t stock |
| 29-Jun-07 |
$122.04 |
$41.14 |
| 2-Jul-07 |
$121.26 |
$41.49 |
| 3-Jul-07 |
$127.17 |
$41.14 |
| 4-Jul-07 |
no data |
$40.60 |
| 5-Jul-07 |
$132.75 |
$40.66 |
| 6-Jul-07 |
$132.30 |
$40.66 |
| 9-Jul-07 |
$130.33 |
$40.49 |
| 10-Jul-07 |
$132.35 |
$39.50 |
* prices are for adjusted close at end of day. The price may have been higher or lower during daily trading.
As we learned in the past when Engadget posted (false) negative news about Apple and the iPhone a news story can have a short term impact on the stock price. We saw this play out again on Tuesday July 10, 2007 when rumors of an iPhone Nano surfaced. Apple stock flew up to a high of $134.50 on that news and did not fall back for about two hours!
Stock Tip
With at&t gaining no real market benefit from the iPhone I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the stock may have hit its year end target early. I sold a good amount of at&t stock when it hit $36 because I thought it would not hit $40 until the end of the year and I wanted to move my money into a stock with better bang for my buck. When I sold those stocks Apple was just shy of $90 per share. Every two and one-half shares of at&t stock I sold I converted into one share of Apple stock. With Apple gaining about $45 per share since then I have made out like a bandit!
It’s not too late for you. There is still some money to be made from Apple stock but you will likely not see the record gains of the past six months repeated in the near future. It might get as high as $150 per share by year end but I’ll probably sell it if it hits $140 and begins to flatline there.
As for at&t stock? I’m setting a year end target of $44 for that one. Yes, I’m sticking with the Apple stock.
Another day, another amazing stock offer in my email. This one is for Vision Airships Inc.
VPSN WILL MOVE LIKE A COMET AND ITS ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER! Watch this SUPERNOVA closely MONDAY!
VISION AIRSHIPS INC
Symbol: VPSN
Price: $0.021
BANGKOK, THAILAND, July 2007
Advertising Agencies Ready to Ink Deals!
The company wishes to announce that it is in final negotiations for representation with some of the world’s largest advertising agencies to market and reserve the blimps for there clients.
VPSN THE RISING STAR, IS SET FOR SUPERNOVA STATUS ON MONDAY!
Where’s my broker’s number? I need to call him right now so I can sink my money into this one!
I received this email on Monday July 9, 2007. At that time the stock was trading in the $0.20 per share range. It did not stay there for long.
I can’t tell if anyone made money off of this scam. Looking at the chart there were a few trades on July 5, 2007 for under $0.15 per share down to a low of $0.05. Monday morning the stock opened at $0.20 per share but quickly dropped to under a nickel a share. There was a high volume of trading but it all took place while the stock was near a nickel per share.
A large amount of trading did take place and someone might have been able to make a cent or two per share but they would have had to have sold thousands of shares to make it worth their time.
What news hit on Monday to prompt this stock scam? Vision Airships Global Expansion
BANGKOK, THAILAND–(MARKET WIRE)–Jul 9, 2007 — Vision Airships Inc. (Other OTC:VPSN.PK - News) — The company wishes to announce that it has finalized arrangements for funding for its global expansion.
“To be able to secure such favorable financing terms for our expansion plans is extremely exciting for us,” says Somsak Injan, president of Vision Airships. “It goes to show you that others, especially those in the financial community, see the value in what we are creating,” he added.
“This will allow Vision to meet its short and long term goals of providing a viable alternative advertising medium around the world. This will certainly allow us to expand swiftly into other parts of the world,” he continued.
This news was hot on the heals of this one: Advertising Agencies Ready to Ink Deals
BANGKOK, THAILAND–(MARKET WIRE)–Jul 2, 2007 — Vision Airships, Inc. (Other OTC:VPSN.PK - News). The company wishes to announce that it is in final negotiations for representation with some of the world’s largest advertising agencies to market and reserve the blimps for there clients.
I did not know blimps were back in style. Either way this stock is just full of hot air.
Stock Tip
Avoid this one. Blimps may rise but this stock is no blimp.
With recent reports of hackers crawling through the innards of the iPhone markets are aghast at the prospect of what this means. So, what does it mean?
It means that Apple wins and at&t loses.
at&t missed out on one very important thing when they plunked those millions of dollars down to gain exclusivity on the iPhone. They missed out on the hacker aspect.
Hackers
The hacker aspect is very simple. In this new world of technology that we live in consumers do not like it when they buy a device and find it locked. It does not matter if it is a DVD player with its region encoding or a cell phone with a carrier lock. Consumers feel, and rightly so, that if they pay the money they own the product.
If a device uses mp3 files for ringtones why must the consumer pay $0.99 to put that sound on their phone? If the phone is just a small computer why can they not record their own ringtone and add it to their phone for free?
Think of your computer. Say you purchase a PC from Dell and it comes with Windows Vista pre-installed. You have paid for the computer and the software, if you now choose to remove Windows Vista and put Linux on there neither Dell nor Microsoft can stop you.
When you buy that PC Dell can not force you into only using at&t as your broadband provider so why can Apple force you into using at&t as your wireless carrier? You already paid full price for the iPhone (and then some) so why the lockdown?
There is no technological reason for the lockdown so it must just be a software “feature” that you are paying for. In this day and age the consumer who wants an iPhone may not want to switch carriers. Not all consumers are tech savvy enough to hack their iPhone but those who are (or know someone who is) will likely go this route.
Understand this; the hackers who are hacking the iPhone are not doing this to steal service, no, that is not their goal. Their goal is to unlock the device so that it works the way they want it to and so that they can take a SIM card from their phone and put it in the iPhone.
Apple can put out patches and the like but even those things can be worked around. Besides, every Apple iPhone sold is money in Apples stock price; do they really care if you use the iPhone with at&t? I don’t think they care privately though they may care publicly (at least until the European release contracts are signed).
Conclusion
In the end the iPhone is going to be a big boon for Apple and only for Apple. Apple stores have been selling far more iPhones than at&t stores. That alone tells me that Apple has been making far more money than at&t right off the bat. As someone who knows a thing or two about how the wholesale system works an iPhone sold at the Apple store means Apple gets all the money while an iPhone purchased at an at&t store means Apple only gets the wholesale price, which may be in the 50% of retail range. (iPhone parts are near 50% of the cost of the unit.)
Stock Tip
If you are watching the two stocks involved here I suggest you go for the Apple stock. Even though it costs over three times what at&t stock costs at&t stands to gain nothing when the European contracts are signed later this year. Apple stands to gain a bundle!
A few weeks ago I asked the question, “Apple vs. AT&T: who wins the stock battle?” Early information points in an unexpected direction.
On close of business Friday June 29, 2007 Apple closed at $122.04 and at&t closed at $41.50. The iPhone launch had been set for after the markets closed on Friday. Could this have been designed to give both companies two days to fix problems? Apple products are known for one thing aside from being sexy:
Either it just works or it doesn’t
The core beauty of Apple products is not the outward sexiness and marketing spin. It is the way they just work. This often bites people in the back side because when an Apple product fails to work the problem often lies beyond the power of the consumer to fix.
Over the weekend there were numerous reports about the iPhone. Some people loved it others thought it was over-hyped. What you probably want to know most is what the market thought of the iPhone.
At close of business Monday evening Apple stock closed at $121.26 and at&t stock closed at $41.85. What’s that you say? the launch of the iPhone made Apple stock go down?
Apple lost $0.78 per share over the iPhone launch weekend while at&t stock gained $0.35 per share
How can this be? Everything Apple puts on the market is golden! Sort of, just like the Sony PS3 some products are released before their time is right. The iPhone may just be one of those products. As sleek and sexy as this device is it has problems and the same functionality can be had elsewhere for less money. Couple this with the fact that the iPhone HAS to sync to a computer running iTunes to work makes it even worse. Why can it not run iTunes on itself and use the Edge network or Wi-Fi?
Engadget has an excellent in-depth review of the iPhone and I suggest you read it. There is also an interesting forum post on some lackluster first impressions of the iPhone.
I also noticed that the Apple fanboys were quick to blame at&t for all of the problems with getting the iPhone up and running. Some of these problems may be due to the large number of people purchasing iPhones but, a lot of buyers were trying to scam by buying iPhones for eBay resales… An idea that failed due to Apple’s large manufacturing run!
Most of the problems involved people moving from one carrier to another and taking their number with them. That means the problem could be at&t’s or it could be caused by the old carrier dragging their feet.
Should you buy an iPhone? I would say NO. Even if you do want one I highly suggest you wait until the bugs are fixed in the current batch before buying one.
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