Stephen Greer is an entrepreneur and author of Starting From Scrap: An Entrepreneurial Success Story, which details his experiences in the business of scrap-metal recycling in Asia. I interviewed him for this week's Motley Fool Money radio show,and we wrapped up our conversation with a round of buy/sell/hold.
Chris Hill: Copper prices are high. Buy, sell, or hold the future of the penny.
Stephen Greer: The future of the penny. I'll sell that.
Hill: Really? You're just getting rid of them?
Greer: I'm hanging on to them for souvenirs.
Hill: Buy, sell, or hold Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) future in China?
Greer: I'm actually a seller of that, and the reason I will comment outside of that sphere is, I just think that the comment I would like to make to people who are interested in China is that you have to be fairly apolitical as a businessperson there, and I think that they sort of elevated the debate into a political debate, and now it's a very sensitive issue and a very sensitive company over there, and I think that they'll find some great challenges and headwinds related to that.
Hill: There was some noise about this a few months ago. Buy, sell or hold the likelihood that Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) will go private.
Greer: I will say "hold," because I really don't know the answer to that one.
Hill: As a general rule of thumb, what do you make of those situations, as an investor, as an entrepreneur, when you see a company like Dell, where there are rumors that -- and we have seen this with Playboy (NYSE: PLA) as well, Hugh Hefner's move to take the company private. Do you generally view that as a positive thing? Or do you generally view that as, "A company's in trouble?"
Greer: Management wanting to own the equity, I would always view as a positive. What are they seeing, what is management seeing, that the other investors aren't seeing?
Hill: And finally, this definitely is not scrap metal. Buy, sell, or hold gold?
Greer: I'm not a gold bug. I find it very interesting. I've always said no to it as an investment, but I have enormous concerns about America's debts and how the financial world is going to play out, and I know that gold has traditionally been a hedge for that, and it's certainly working in that direction. But again, to me it's ornamental jewelry, and I don't really understand how it all works.
