I mentioned Chinese battery manufacturer Advanced Battery Technologies (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=ABAT"ABAT/a) back in May when I noticed their CEO buy a big block of shares. I don't typically get too heavy into Chinese companies due to the lack of reliable information we get about them, but I do like this one. They are into lithium-ion batteries that are used in computers, smart phones, etc. They also just introduced batteries for ZAP scooters. (a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ZAP-Receives-First-Shipment-iw-2911607575.html?x=0amp;.v=1"Press Release/a).br /br /Also saw an interesting a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109amp;sid=amaKePJpsGCk"tidbit from Bloomberg /atoday about Buffett and company making an investment in Chinese hybrid carmaker BYD. Its worth checking out. Also, Charlie Munger had this to say, “Battery technology is one of the most important subjects affecting the technological future of man." Amen to that.br /br /I'd like to buy ABAT under $4.00 if I can.br /br /br /br /pimg id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364641822994041714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 382px; CURSOR: ...

This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest.

• Andy Kessler (The Wall Street Journal): The Bernanke market, July 16, 2009, We won’t get real growth until Congress and Treasury get policy right.

• Irwin Stelzer (Times Online): American account: Barack Obama’s cures may just kill any recovery, July 12, 2009.

• Paul McCulley (Pimco - Global Central Bank Focus): What if?, So what should Washington do, if and when - and I stress “if and when”; I’m not making a forecast here! - private sector aggregate (nominal) demand growth looks like it’s going to languish in Japan style for the indefinite future? The answer: Take one cup of Krugman’s advice for Japan and two cups of Bernanke’s advice for Japan - responsibly

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Lessons for Apple in Mays, Madoff

by The Investment U Research Team

In many ways Steve Jobs return to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) was overshadowed by the demise of Billy Mays and the Bernie Madoff’s sentencing.

However, there are lessons for Apple in both of these men.

Billy Mays tragic loss should give iPhone and iPod creators pause to consider what would happen if the company did lose Steve Jobs. While Tim Cook has performed strongly by many analysts accounts, he does not bring true star leadership power that Jobs does.

Apple should start addressing this now. Even Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE: BRK.A) Warren Buffett has Charlie Munger, and I’m sure a host of recorded and written statements of contingency plans in the meantime.

The other lesson for Apple is from Bernie Madoff. The New York Times

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Here´s a note about a compelling stock story from legendary newsletter writer Richard Russell.

This from Russell:

I usually don’t spend a lot of time touting one stock. But there is one stock that fascinates me. It’s the Chinese stock, BYD. BYD is run by CEO Wang Chuanfu who, according to Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch. The company is only 14 years old and is already bringing in $4 billion in sales.

BYD is now the world’s leading manufacturer of batteries (they supply the batteries for Apple). BYD is now moving into the manufacturing of plug-in cars. I think in view of the company’s history and capabilities, that BYD will be successful and a coming huge factor in the auto business.

Warren Buffett and Richard Russell are buying BYD, maybe you should too…

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As we all take steps which lead us closer to our investment dreams, I believe there is no greater source of knowledge than from the master financial mogul himself, Warren Buffet. He alone is the reason investing became my life, and I feel it is very important to engrave his teachings to solidify your stock market fundamentals.

Last weekend at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, Warren Buffett and business partner Charlie Munger engaged in hours of open ended discussions.

People came from all around the world to hear the two billionaires’ thoughts about a wide variety of subjects regarding business, economics and investing.

Here are some of the interesting lessons Buffett and Munger gave on investing and personal finance:

Focus on whether investments will make money in the long run, even if that means putting up with some short-term losses (and criticism about ...

The solar industry is a fantastic place to rake in short-term gains. But stick around too long and you will wonder if it would have been cheaper to heat your house with dollar bills.

Ready to burn an extra $3,000 each year? As if energy prices were not creating enough havoc throughout this country, the Obama administration is getting ready to pounce on the idea of a cap-and-trade system.

There is a good chance their plans could cost each of us a few extra grand each year.

Call the extra figures that will trickle into our monthly energy bills an investment on the future. Or call the increased costs a “usage” fee that goes straight to Uncle Sam. Just don’t call it a tax, as we all know Obama is a tax-cutter.

It is too early to tell if Congress will be naïve or stupid enough to pass any sort of cap-and-trade legislation in

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Occasionally a bored business publication, goes to the zoo, rents a monkey and pits him or her against a mutual fund manager.  Lo and behold the monkey who doesn’t know a beta from a bunghole beats a significant majority of the active managers.  Barron’s should probably create a yearly Monkey Roundtable.

These Journalists must be pretty good monkey pickers and should probably start a MFoF (Monkey Fund of Funds) charging 2% and 20%.  We are the Third Chimpanzee and it seems as if evolution must have robbed us of our stock picking skills, but boy can we pick monkeys.

So what is going on?  Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett both hint at it in various writings and books, my favorite is Charlie’s Poor Charlie’s Almanack.  Warren calls it de-worsification, or the fact that many portfolios get worse as more components are added to them.  The theory

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By Dan Ferris, editor, Extreme Value Real investors almost never buy gold stocks. Mind you, I'm not talking about traders. I'm talking about investors. I'm talking about people who know the value of owning a great business for decades... people who have proven they can intelligently deploy capital and compound wealth at double-digit rates for a generation. Great investors like Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Peter Lynch usually laugh at the thought of buying equity in a gold mining business. Mining companies use enormous machines and armies of people to dig gigantic holes and pull tons of dirt and rocks out of them. They have relatively small amounts of cash on hand and lots of inventory, property, and equipment. They sell a commodity that can be produced by any of their competitors. There's no premium brand name in raw gold. All these ...

Usually I don't post reviews of books at my blog. I did only once for a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://stockweb.blogspot.com/2008/09/warren-buffett-biography-snowball.html" target="_blank"Warren Buffett Biography - The Snowball/a. If you go across internet you can find plenty of books about Warren's life, investing style or strategies. But there is a one book which is undoubtedly the most popular book nowadays.br /br /"The Four Filters Invention of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger" describes basic steps in decision taking for their investments. Buffett and Munger's four filters process was to capture all the important stakeholders in a multi-variable equation or formula. Imagine...Products, Enduring Customers, Managers, and Margin-of-Safety... all in one mixed "qual + quant" formula.br /br /Please see below short video with the book review...br /br /I have screened the cheapest price and you can find a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615241298?ie=UTF8amp;tag=stoceasteurot-20amp;linkCode=as2amp;camp=1789amp;creative=9325amp;creativeASIN=0615241298"the book on Amazon for $29,65/aimg src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=stoceasteurot-20amp;l=as2amp;o=1amp;a=0615241298" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! ...