In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche
To be fair, there are some signs Lending Club is starting to make money. According to its financials, Lending Club had $64.6 million in cash and short-term investments when it went public. Yet on March 31, 2015, Lending Club had $874.13 million in cash and short-term investments. That shows us that it is capable of generating a lot of cash in a very short period of time, but can it keep that up?
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The loss of Costco Canada is already hurting American Express, where revenue fell slightly between December 2014 and March 2015. AmEx reported a TTM revenue of $34.04 billion on March 31, down from $34.29 billion on December 31. The loss of Costco Canada hit American Express hard because the club store giant is huge in Canada, as anybody who visits the country knows.
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What is even more worrisome is that the number of bank repossessions, or REOS, increased by 49% between February and March 2015, RealtyTrac reported. The bank repossession rate hit a 17-month high and rose to a rate that was 25% higher than for March 2014. These statistics indicate that the foreclosure crisis has returned with a vengeance, folks.
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My take on the situation is this. Both eBay and PayPal are value investments; they’re great brands and well-run companies that generate a lot of cash. Both companies also operate in a sector that has a lot of room for growth. Yet they are also undervalued by the market, probably because they operate in an unsexy sector, namely, basic e-commerce.
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We need to ask ourselves what sort of future companies like Uber have. If they cannot comply with a few basic regulations and make money, then their business model is not viable. Perhaps it is time we scrapped this ridesharing concept or took it back to the drawing board.
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This could indicate that traditional banking might no longer be a viable business because of the alternatives available. Things could soon get worse because PayPal is about to get spun off from eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and transformed into an independent financial services company that will compete directly with banks.
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My take is that Ford would be a very good buy and hold play right now. It has a strong brand, great dividends and a good return on equity.
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My prediction is that Buffett will make a bid for Tribune Publishing sometime this year. It seems like too tempting a bargain for him to pass up, and it operates in an industry he is passionate about: newspapers.
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Walmart is no longer on the cutting edge of retail; it cannot even compete with bottom-feeding dollar stores. The Behemoth from Bentonville still makes a lot of money; it just cannot attract any new customers. What is going on here?
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Operating a bank would also allow Kroger to interphase directly with apps like Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Venmo and avoid the fees charged by the financial services industry. That alone might be enough to entice Kroger into banking.
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