About the publisher:
I hope there is no SpaceX IPO for the future of humanity in space (“How Elon Musk Could Solve His Tesla-Twitter Puzzle,” cover story, May 11). A SpaceX IPO would now destroy the open-minded engineering culture that executives Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell have cultivated. No public company of the 21st century could function the way SpaceX does today – look at the difference between SpaceX’s execution of Dragon and Boeing’s not-yet-successful Starliner.
I know Barron’s is about finance. But in this case, we drop the attempts at “financial engineering” and let SpaceX succeed or fail based on the vision of its founder and the talent of its engineers.
John Fisher, At Barrons.com
Gold: The Ultimate Money?
About the publisher:
Randall W. Forsyth notes that central banks added a record 1,136 tons of gold last year (“Gold Could Be a Winner if Debt Crisis Gets Ugly,” Up & Down Wall Street, May 12). I want to point out how striking this is. The World Gold Council has tracked central bank gold purchases and sales since the 1950s. Last year’s total wasn’t just a record; It was hundreds of tons more than any other year during this period. Apparently much of the world is looking for a unit of account other than the dollar.
Before President Richard Nixon made gold non-convertible in 1971, the metal was the ultimate money. The question is: what is the anomaly: the millennia that gold was money, or the 52 years that it wasn’t money?
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Gene Sweet, Chicago
Understood! Here we go!
About the publisher:
In my opinion, Nintendo is a long-term, sustainable franchise, and the new Switch console coupled with a hit movie only excites me more (“The New Zelda Is Good for Nintendo Stock. The Real Boost Is Still to Come,” May 11) .
Nintendo is finally taking advantage of its legendary characters and innovating so that new generations will grow up loving those characters/video games/theme parks/metaverses? just as much, if not more, than when I was growing up.
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I agree with the tremendous upside potential of American Depositary Shares, and looking at the historical chart from 2003 shows how big releases (Wii, Switch) create significant value.
To put it in perspective, the stock is down 33% since the end of 2020 (as of May 15), and Nintendo is now taking an innovative turn and taking the necessary risks to get out of its characters and the Nintendo world to capitalize. The uptrend seems close both on the horizon and in the long term. As Mario would say, “Okey-dokey! Here we go!”
Alec Bicknese, new York
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Low Expectations
About the publisher:
New regulations coming into force soon will continue the banking system’s march toward utilities (“What Awaits the Banks When the Dust Settles After Failure,” May 12). The decline in current FinTech stocks like PayPal shows the commercialization of the banking industry. There’s not much that’s new in credit and payments, aside from the shells the industry is trying to put on them. Banking will consolidate and survive, but don’t expect too much excitement in this group.
Tom Simenic, At Barrons.com
I quote Hannaway
About the publisher:
What an interesting article on Rayna Lesser Hannaway’s experience and approach to investing (“Small-Cap Stocks Have Been Crushed. 3 With Big Potential,” Interview, May 12). The portfolio manager and analyst at Polen Capital had several quotable lines on her investment philosophy, but this one about the importance of management stuck in my mind.
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“Many management teams at the small-cap companies I cover had big visions, but they didn’t have the skills to execute on that vision. They had neither the necessary financial basis nor the necessary budgetary discipline.”
As my high school coach said, knowledge without discipline is useless.
Albert Pech, At Barrons.com
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social security fix
About the publisher:
Burton G. Malkiel proposed several solutions to get Social Security finances in order (“The Right Way to Fix Social Security: Quickly,” Other Voices, May 12).
It was noted that the current contentious political climate could pose an obstacle to a solution. A voluntary solution could break that barrier: Many wealthy Americans have no immediate need for their monthly Social Security checks, but are reluctant to refuse payments outright because they’ve paid the tax and are entitled to a refund. Under certain conditions, however, they can also accept partial payments.
Instead of rejecting their entire Social Security checks, the wealthy could accept a payment every two or three months instead of every month. They would receive a promise that uncollected checks would go straight to trust funds to help the poor and disabled. The ability to resume monthly checks at any time would provide additional security.
In addition, the government could offer an income tax deduction for unaccepted payments. This could be a win-win situation for the social security agency and the beneficiary.
A voluntary plan to strengthen social security trust funds could stand a better chance of bipartisan support and be a successful solution for social security administrations and their customers, rich and poor.
Richard Strax, Houston
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