21 February 2007 – The Aleph Blog

Helping Institutions and Ordinary People Invest Better by Focusing on Risk Control

Yield = Poison

Posted on 21 February 2007 by David Merkel

I have resisted writing this for some time, but there are certain points in the bond market where yield is poisonous.? I have a rule of thumb that says when spread relationships get too tight, give up yield to gain possible capital gains in the future.? That’s why I made the post at RealMoney late yesterday.? When everyone is grasping for yield, that is the time to avoid it, and aim for capital gains.? That is what I am doing now.

A Modest Proposal Concerning The Satellite Radio Merger

Posted on 21 February 200722 June 2017 by David Merkel

I have a simple solution for what the government should do regarding the Sirius and XM Satellite radio merger. Just have them give up one of the licenses, which the FCC will re-auction.

I can even guess who the likely buyer will be: Google. I can see it now: Google buys it to create the Google Satellite Data Network (using half the bandwidth), while creating satellite radio channels by aggregating terrestrial radio stations that use the web, plus podcast stations. What’s more, it will be free, though one will happily listen to Google’s creative ads. This is a deal where everyone can win, except perhaps the two that are merging. Such a deal!

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