"In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad
subject matter area) who didn't read all the time - none, zero. You'd
be amazed at how much Warren reads - at how much I read. My
children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs
sticking out."  - Charlie Munger


Stingy Links
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/articles/articlearchive.shtml

Consider the drawbacks of your assets being jointly owned
https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20080515/RCESTNICK15
"The term "joint ownership" is used to loosely describe one of
two common legal relationships: Tenants in common, or joint
tenancy with right of survivorship (JTWROS). Tenants in common owners
each hold separate ownership interests that can generally be
sold or transferred without the consent of the other owners. But
JTWROS is more common. In the case of JTWROS, the survivorship
feature means that when an individual dies, the deceased person's
interest is automatically distributed to the remaining joint
tenants. Think of this as a "winner takes all" game. The asset will
pass to the surviving owners outside of the deceased's estate.
The result? Probate fees are avoided."

Dead end for free trade
https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20080517/RCOVER17
"The long-ago promise of the Canada-U.S. free-trade deal was
about dismantling barriers - tariff and otherwise - along the
world's longest undefended border. But those benefits are being slowly
eroded as companies absorb ever greater costs - anything and
everything to keep trade moving. Just-in-time inventory management
has evolved into just-in-case. Companies are stockpiling
inventory in both countries to cope with the increasingly
unpredictable border, wiping out many of the efficiencies of integrated
supply chains, according to recent studies by the Conference Board
of Canada as well as the Canadian and U.S. Chambers of Commerce.
Stockpiling isn't the only coping mechanism seeping into
everyday business. Disturbingly, businesses are reverting to behaviour
that was common before free trade, a trend that is eroding the
benefits of Canada's open access to the U.S. market, the
Conference Board concluded."

Berkshire's No. 2 man helps from the background
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D90MRCM80.htm
"The two men who run Berkshire Hathaway Inc. have an arrangement:
Warren Buffett is the face of the company and Charlie Munger
stays mainly in the shadows. That works well for the two
billionaires, who together have developed one of the most successful
investment records ever. But while Munger downplays his own
contributions -- he is known for repeating "I have nothing to add" after
Buffett's expansive comments at the Berkshire shareholder
meetings -- his role is key to much of the company's success."

2008 Wesco notes
http://seekingalpha.com/article/76538-2008-wesco-shareholder-meeting-detailed-notes
"Most assets are priced to a level where it is hard to get
excited. It is hard to get 4% yield on a nice apartment, and it
doesn't include replacing the carpets. Bonds of strong corporations
are 4% yield. Corporate equities are paying 2% pa, growing 4% per
year. Such a world isn't the one that made all of you able to
come to the meeting. Last generation has been in hog heaven - some
bumps, but it had easiest time getting ahead. In the eighteen
years that preceded hog heaven, the purchasing power of Yale's
endowment went down 60%. They were getting real investment return
of 0%, negative. It is not at all impossible that brilliant
investors like Yale get bad results in the future."

Decades lost
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/columnists/al_rosen/article.jsp?content=20080511_198712_198712
"As Canada moves toward adopting International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the accounting standard for public
companies, it is preparing to turn its back on decades of progress
shoring up financial reporting in this country. Any regular reader
of this column will know that Canada.s current mix of loose
accounting and deficient securities enforcement is wholly
unacceptable for investors. The introduction of IFRS in its current form
will only make the situation that much worse."

Fixes for bad timing
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2008/06/discovering_value.html
"Investing too early is one of the more common sins of value
investors. Watching as that well-researched idea you loved a few
months ago falls 20% to 30% can be painful and nerve-racking. Bruce
Berkowitz, of the highly successful Fairholme fund, calls it
"premature accumulation." Getting your timing wrong is inevitable
-- especially in today's market, in which stock prices continue
to plumb new depths in a wide variety of industries."

Beer may not be recession-proof
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/15/news/companies/miller_beer.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008051512
"Miller CEO says cash-strapped beer drinkers are trading down to
economy beers due to a slumping economy."

Malthus, the false prophet
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11374623
"Given the fear that a new era of chronic shortages may have
begun, it is perhaps understandable that the name of Thomas Malthus
is in the air. Yet if his views were indeed now correct, that
would defy the experience of the past two centuries."

Not so fast
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11355750
"Research by the London Business School looked at 17 countries
over 108 years. The countries with the slowest-growing economies
(as measured by GDP growth over five-year periods) returned 8% a
year; the markets in the fastest-growing economies, by contrast,
returned just 5% a year. When a broader group of 53 economies,
including many emerging markets, were examined, the tortoises
beat the hares by a wider margin - 12% to 6-7%."

Has equity always earned a premium?
http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1127
"Past performance is no guarantee, but history tells us that the
equity risk premium has been persistent. This column shows that
British investors enjoyed relatively high returns in the
nineteenth century, though today.s UK market differs greatly from its
formative ancestor."

Overplaying their hand
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/12/magazines/fortune/sloan_arbs.fortune/index.htm
"There are different kinds of investors in the world. One kind is
a long-term patient type who runs mutual funds for the average
Joe. A second is a risk arbitrageur - known on Wall Street as an
"arb" - who speculates on pending deals. When a proposed
takeover surfaces and the target's stock price runs up, Mr. Patience
tends to sell to the arbs, happy to take his profit and letting
the arbs bear the risk of whether the deal gets done and at what
price. Recently, however, two of the biggest and best-known
mutual fund investors - Gordon Crawford of Capital Research Global
Investors and Bill Miller of the Legg Mason Value Trust (LMVRX)
blurred the distinction between the investment and arb worlds,
and their shareholders paid the price."


S&P/TSX60 Value Screens
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/strategy.shtml 

High Dividend Yield Stocks                 P/E P/B P/S P/C P/D Yield*
========================================== === === === === === ======
Biovail (BVF)                               4   5   3   5   5    5
Bank of Montreal (BMO)                      4   4   5   1   5    5
National Bank of Canada (NA)                3   4   5   5   5    5
CIBC (CM)                                   2   4   5   5   5    5
Royal Bank (RY)                             4   3   4   5   5    5
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)                   4   3   4   1   5    5
Telus (T)                                   5   4   4   5   5    5
BCE (BCE)                                   5   3   4   5   5    5
TransCanada (TRP)                           3   4   3   4   5    5
Toronto Dominion Bank (TD)                  4   3   3   2   4    4
More Info: http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/strategy/dogs.shtml 

Value Ratio Stocks                         P/E P/B P/S P/C P/D  VR
========================================== === === === === === =====
Biovail (BVF)                               4   5   3   5   5   1.0
Thomson (TOC)                               5   4   2   2   4   1.9
Bank of Montreal (BMO)                      4   4   5   1   5   2.2
BCE (BCE)                                   5   3   4   5   5   2.2
Telus (T)                                   5   4   4   5   5   3.0
Royal Bank (RY)                             4   3   4   5   5   3.1
National Bank of Canada (NA)                3   4   5   5   5   3.3
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)                   4   3   4   1   5   3.3
Toronto Dominion Bank (TD)                  4   3   3   2   4   3.6
TransCanada (TRP)                           3   4   3   4   5   3.9
More Info: http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/strategy/valueratio.shtml 

Graham Stocks                              P/E P/B P/D   G$   dG$(%)
========================================== === === === ====== ======
ACE Aviation (ACE.B)                        5   5   0   85.01 292.68
MDS Inc. (MDS)                              5   5   0   47.13 143.70
Thomson (TOC)                               5   4   4   55.77  48.79
Magna Cl.A (MG.A)                           3   5   3  100.16  28.47
Nova (NCX)                                  5   4   2   35.97  23.92
Biovail (BVF)                               4   5   5   14.12  10.43
Canadian Tire (CTC.A)                       5   5   3   66.21  10.14
Sun Life (SLF)                              4   5   4   49.79   4.58
Petro Canada (PCA)                          5   4   2   60.49   4.38
Weston George (WN)                          4   5   4   52.96   3.83
BCE (BCE)                                   5   3   5   39.99   3.02
Inmet Mining (IMN)                          5   3   1   75.45   3.00
Bank of Montreal (BMO)                      4   4   5   50.27   0.60
More Info: http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/strategy/graham.shtml 

*Notes: http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/strategy/notes.shtml 

Switch to the HTML version if the tables aren't formatted properly.
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/cgi-bin/email.cgi 


Books for Stingy Investors

Contrarian Investor's 13
by Benj Gallander

Benj, a fellow Canadian MoneySaver contributing editor, publishes
the successful Contra The Heard investment newsletter with his
partner Ben. You can find out all about his investment
philosophy by reading his well-written book the Contrarian Investor's 13.
If you're a fan of beaten-down companies that many investors
have simply given up on then Benj's book will tickle your fancy.
Be sure to grab a copy soon because Canadian print runs tend to
be small and procrastinators might be out of luck.
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143015923/


Stock Research From Dan Hallett & Associates

The Rothery Report
http://www.rotheryreport.com/ 

The Rothery Report provides research on select deep-value stocks in
North America. Discover overlooked and undervalued stocks in quarterly
investment reports which provide detailed analysis of Canadian and
U.S. stocks.  Weekly email news and additional updates keep
subscribers informed about new opportunities and developments.

Rothery Report Performance (03/31/2001 to 03/31/2008)
  Average Capital Gain    Average Holding Period
          40.9%                   2.4 Years

Learn More
http://www.rotheryreport.com/store/store.shtml

Subscribe Today
http://www.rotheryreport.com/store/order.shtml 



If you'd like to suggest The Stingy News to a friend, please point them to:
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/cgi-bin/email.cgi

Please visit the StingyInvestor website at
http://www.stingyinvestor.com
To (un)subscribe please use our email centre at
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/cgi-bin/email.cgi
Email comments or questions to
info@stingyinvestor.com
Refer to legal & conflict of interest disclaimers at
http://www.stingyinvestor.com/SI/legal.shtml 
Privacy Policy 
http://www.ndir.com/SI/legal/privacy.shtml 
We do not rent or sell our email list to third parties.

ISSN 1499-2795 Copyright Dan Hallett and Associates Inc., 2008.
All rights reserved. The securities mentioned in this report are not
appropriate for all investors. Consult your professional investment
advisor before making any investment decision.  While all reasonable
effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information and data
contained herein, accuracy can not be guaranteed. Past performance is
not a good predictor of future performance.  Results are not
guaranteed and we assume no liability whatsoever for any material
losses that may occur.  No compensation for suggesting particular
securities or financial advisors is solicited or accepted.  The
information in this newsletter, and in its related website, is not
intended to be, nor does it constitute, financial advice or
recommendations.  Investing in stocks can be risky and may result in
substantial losses.  A Dan Hallett and Associates Inc.(DH&A)
publication.  DH&A is registered as Investment Counsel in the province
of Ontario. DH&A, or related-parties may have an interest in the
securities mentioned.