Good morning
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Note 2: I have noticed that some of my linked stock charts appear to change during the course of the day. Apologies – it’s not my doing. I’ll be doing the old-school download-then-upload going forward.
The headlines:
- TODAY IS IPHONE 5 DAY!!
Link: And Merry Apple/iPhone Mubarak/Maczeltoff to everyone.
So the announcement comes later today. Given that the iPhone counts for about 70% of Apple’s profits, the share price is experiencing a warm bubble of excitement:
Analysts are saying “10 million units sold by end of September” – which will be impressive given that the unit is unlikely to hit actual stores before next week.
It seems that the only real constraint here is manufacturing capacity. One would hope that supply-side constraint is an issue that would have been addressed way back when the iPhone 4 and the first iPad were slowly slowly making their way into our homes. But apparently not.
Here’s the google search sneak preview result:
There are other photos that look way cooler. But they’re also way too photoshopped to be real.
- UBS whistleblower gets a $104 million award from IRS.
Link: now this could get dramatic…
Bradley Birkenfeld. The “disgraced” ex-UBS banker that has given the IRS all the info on all the rich Americans that he helped to evade tax.
Now I applaud Mr Bradley for his extraordinarily-rational decision-making. After all, under Federal law, you’re entitled to a certain measure of the proceeds for whistle-blowing. And if you can force UBS to pay fines and disclose many many accounts back in Switzerland, earning a $104 million payout, in return for a short-period of time in jail (3 years), during a double-dip recession?! That’s extraordinarily good!
And in prison, I’m sure he got to spend most of his time chilling, reading, watching TV and building muscle. Emerging well-rested, buff, and rich… And also, well, now he can run for office. In his own words:
“I delivered and documented this entire scandal, the largest in U.S. history. I’m the most famous whistle-blower in the history of the world. It’s a question of doing the right thing and that’s what I did”.
Yes. You’re a saint, Mr Berkenfield. That’s why you went to prison. A tax martyr.
But that aside, I can’t help but think that he’s made some very wealthy enemies. And the wealthy tend to think that they’re God and can do what they like and get away with it. When you add that to “I AM THE MOST FAMOUS WHISTLE-BLOWER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD” – it looks like an open invitation…
- South Africa’s Current Account Deficit.
Link: nothing like a mining crisis to really get people excited.
Slump in manufacturing. Slump in exports. All equal current account deficit widening.
And that has to be caused somewhere by the mining strikes. Be it the Implats story in Rustenberg or the Lonmin story in Marikana or any of them. SA exports minerals – and the precious minerals must make up an enormous portion of that. Obviously, there will be impact.
Meanwhile this. Which is a clip of Julius Malema embarrassing himself, singing “Kiss the Boer” at a rally, and then maintaining that he changed the words of the song to be words of reconciliation so that everything can be mended “by the act of kissing”. Luckily, he has involved himself in the mining story and is promoting the nationalisation of mines. This will turn out well.
- Facebook share price improves as Marky Z speaks out.
Link: “disappointing”.
MZ says that they’ll be doing good things with mobile. Well as long as he says so…
That’s all for now.
Have a good day.
