Are you riled up? Yearning to learn from a master? Eager for some solid stock picks? Is cabin fever starting to mess with your mind? Read on and see what's in Dr. Fool's medicine chest.
Weekly Walk of Shame: Dick Durbin
As majority whip, Sen. Dick Durbin is like a border collie serving as vice principal. He keeps the Democratic troops in line, as if wielding a whip.
Fool writer Tim Beyers thinks Durbin has extended his whip too far by seeking a congressional hearing about tech companies' operating policies in Internet-restricting countries. Durbin has asked 26 companies -- including Hewlett-Packard
"Durbin's trying to shame the U.S. tech elite into becoming an instrument of foreign policy, and that's wrong," wrote Tim. The tech companies "ought to force Durbin and his colleagues to address Chinese trade policy with the President, the State Department, and -- horrors! -- the Chinese."
Tim's also got problems with believing that Google should set the standards in China. "The Big G seemed to be just fine with censorship right up to the point it was [cyber]attacked," he wrote.
Why Does Buffett Focus on 4 Things?
Investors are always trying to learn from Berkshire Hathaway's
"Instead of worrying about the short term, he and partner Charlie Munger focus year after year and decade after decade on four simple goals," wrote Fool editor and writer Rex Moore.
The first goal is "maintaining Berkshire's Gibraltar-like financial position, which features huge amounts of excess liquidity, near-term obligations that are modest, and dozens of sources of earnings and cash."
Rex leaves readers with this summation of "Buffett's gift to us, and our lesson today: Bad times will come and go with surprising frequency over our investing lifetimes, but if we stay focused on sound financial factors and buy when the buying's good, we can gain financial independence."
7 Solid Stocks for Skeptical Investors
Maybe your portfolio is doing quite well today. But Fool editor and writer Dan Caplinger reminded us that: "Having profits on paper is nice, but if you never see any of the fruits of a stock's success, then the only thing that matters is how much you paid to buy your shares, and how much you get when you sell. The ups and downs in the stock's price in the interim don't mean a thing."
Dan's got a suggestion if you want more than paper gains: investing in stocks with significant dividends. He presents a compelling case using the numbers on stocks including Limited Brands
"[W]hen you add dividends to the picture, suddenly the total returns involved look a lot more attractive," Dan wrote. "No matter what price the market puts on a particular stock at any given moment, the money companies pay out in dividends is real. Once you get it, no one can take it away from you."
Berkshire Hathaway and eBay are Motley Fool Stock Advisor picks. Kimberly-Clark is an Income Investor recommendation. Motley Fool Options has recommended a bull call spread position on eBay. The Fool owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which is also a Motley Fool Inside Value pick.
Fool online editor Kris Eddy doesn't own shares of any stocks mentioned in this article. Try any of our investing newsletters free for 30 days. The Fool's disclosure policy is skeptical, but never cynical.
