Monthly Round Up

Here are a few notable updates from entries published earlier:

September 6 -- "Is Apple Evil?"

Apple continues to post blockbuster results across all of its product lines taking full advantage of back-to-school MAC sales and higher demand for the iPhone following the price cut. The stock is on a tear -- having more than doubled this year. This is great news for shareholders but it is still "buyers beware" on the consumer side. Like most "must have" fashion items, price, service and reliability should be secondary considerations if you shop at the Apple store. link

September 19 -- "L.L. Bean -- Guaranteed Good Karma"

I saluted L.L. Bean for its unconditional consumer guarantee. Return any item, at any time and for any reason. Now, just ahead of the holidays, the company announced free shipping with no minimum order. More good karma coming your way.
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October 4 -- "If I were on the Comp Committee"

Using the example of Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide, I offered a solution to the problem of executives exercising stock options and reaping unwarranted profit ahead of bad news. The concept is to use a 3 year period to determine the exercise sale price for any exercised option. If the stock goes up, the executive shares the upside. But if the stock goes down, the executive is unable to profit ahead of the bad news. Right now, executives can buy and sell options instantaneously, locking-in their profit. This just doesn't seem right. The SEC has not adopted this rule but it is in fact conducting an informal investigation into Mozilo's stock sales. link

October 8 -- "Wired and Wonderful"

I offered an alternative to how cell phones could be marketed to take the sting out of consumer purchases -- separate the sale of phones from the sale of service contracts. The esteemed WSJ columnist Walter S. Mossberg offered up the same opinion in the October 22 edition of The Journal Report on Technology. Thank you Walter for echoing my point of view. link