Motley Fool Money - Motley Fool Money: 06.24.2011

Episode Date: June 24, 2011

Greece wrestles with a new bailout.  Oil prices tumble.  Facebook makes a new friend.  And Harry Potter gets his own business.   Our analysts discuss those stories and share some stocks on their radar.  Plus,  fomer Motley Fool managing editor Lou Ann Lofton talks about the investing brilliance of Warren Buffett and shares some insights from her new book, Warren Buffett Invests Like a Girl and Why You Should Too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply. Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. Thanks for being here. I'm your host, Chris Hill, and joining me in studio this week from Million Dollar Portfolio Ron Gross, from income investor James Early and from Motley Fool Asset Management, Bill Mann. Guys, good to see you.

Good to see you, Chris. How you doing? Facebook has a new member on the board of directors. Bookstores have a new reason to worry. And we've got an exciting new development in last week's story about Tang becoming a billion-dollar brand. Plus, as always, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar. But for the second week in a row, we begin overseas. Greece has secured a second bailout from the EU and IMF. Ron Gross, I'll start with you. It's 110 billion euro.

That's 156 billion U.S. Yeah, I figured I'd do the math for you. It is a five-year plan that includes austerity measures. First and foremost, what does this mean for Greece? Well, it was essential for Greece. They needed to kick this can down the road, and let's not pretend. That's what they're doing. It's not done yet.

I think the vote's going to be close in Parliament, but it will get done. There's a lot of things that the Greek people need to be aware of and do, lowering the minimal taxable income rate, the amount of taxable income you have to make that will be taxed. It's only down now to the equivalent of $11,500. You will be taxed if you make that in Greece. There's a special crisis levy they're putting on all taxpayers. They're spending cuts or privatization of state assets. A lot going on here.

I just hope they don't touch the eight-week vacation. You can retire when you're 62 in Greece. I think Greece is pretty easy to pick on. But at some point, the taxpayers are going to realize that the folly of the banks is being, you know, it's being bailed out on their backs. And so what's coming up next is, you know, the Greeks have to approve it, basically. basically, and that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, but, James? Yeah, I mean, the lesson, obviously to, to France and Germany is be careful who you co-sign for me, and they extended credit to these guys, and now they're, they're paying the price.

Crazy Aunt Mabel! One of Greece's safe his grace is just so tiny, but, but there's a great quote, in today's Financial Times from a history professor in Athens named Thanos Verimus. I don't know if that's right, but economic ethics are absent from the Greek mind. It's a blank spot. Basically, he's saying they don't typically pay their taxes. They don't think of it in terms of what's the right. They just kind of do what they can do.

And it's not as much of a put-down as it may seem. It's just sort of the mentality. And when you're born into that, when that's everything around you, that's typically how you act. So why get upset about higher taxes if you're just not going to pay them anyway? Seriously, there you go. You want to fix this problem? The Greeks need to put the Germans in charge of tax collection. That'll get it done.

Give them two weeks. What is, obviously, we've got the vote in Parliament next week. Beyond that, Bill, what is one thing that you're watching when you look at Greece and the EU in general? Well, to me, as Ron said, it's necessary that they kick the can down the road. there is a minuscule chance that Greece isn't ultimately going to default on their debt. So all this is kicking the can down the road with a lot more dollars at play now. It's worth pointing out that a prolonged and delayed default is at least better mathematically than an immediate big default right now.

Sure. I mean, I guess the time value of money, but the time value of $150 billion, I mean, or $110 billion, euros. I mean, that's a lot. I wish you could say a billion to me all day like that. Oil prices tanked this week after the International Energy Agency said it will release 60 million barrels of oil to help make up for the loss of supply from Libya. James Oil stocks were down on the news, so is this a longer-term challenge, or is this an opportunity for investors to pick up some oil stocks on the cheap? Chris, 60 million barrel sounds pretty good, almost like something to be excited about.

My car takes that much. That's what I'm getting to. The world already uses 80 to 85 million barrels every single day. So this isn't even, this is like six eighths of one day. I could say three quarters, but I'm going to say six eighths. Six eighths of one day's worth of oil. 27 countries participate. Six days is just as accurate as three quarters.

Which you can't see. James has an abacus right here. He's figuring that out. Exactly. So, yeah, it's not a huge thing. I don't think it warrants the price. And the economics still haven't changed. I think a couple weeks ago I said the purpose of open.

was to enrich basically these crazy despots. And the purpose of the strategic petroleum reserves was to counterbalance that craziness in a sense that if they pull something, do something strange. We have that buffer. But the buffer doesn't change the underlying economics, which are still very, very good for the oil producers. But it does change it a little bit because all of the pricing is at the margins. And so if you have a tiny bit of marginal supply over demand, I mean, you have a huge impact on the price. In the near term, at least. Yeah, 24 hours later, the markets are already kind of.

shrugging this off a bit. And it appears this certainly wasn't a supply issue. We have plenty of oil in the supply chain. It was more a price and an economic and even a political issue to lower gas prices in the near term. Interestingly enough, Saudi Arabia is going to have to follow through with their promise that they made earlier in the year to put forth an increase of 10 million barrels of oil a day. If they pull back on that, then this kind of negates the whole thing anyway. So we'll have to watch Saudi Arabia. Yeah. Plus it's one of confidence. I mean, basically, you know, these markets, I mean, commodity markets, are kind of like the banking system. They're one of confidence.

You drive a gas goes to Iran. You seem like the kind of here. My car does eat up a bit of gas. That's a yes. Okay. That's a yes. So, wait a minute. Bill, you just compared the oil market to the banking system in terms of confidence? I have no confidence in the banking system.

Well, how's that, yeah. Enough said? Oil comes from Libya. You can just rock me to sleep tonight, so thanks. Basically. Next question. Is Wall Street better than that? than Libya. Discuss.

Netflix CEO, Reid Hastings, is joining the board of directors at Facebook. Hastings is joining a board that includes Netscape co-founder Mark Andreson and Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham. Bill Mann shares a Netflix rose on the news. What do you make of Hastings joining the Facebook board? I think it's a really interesting move. I think two years from now, you know, it would be interesting to see what the Facebook business looks like. But right now, I think you're going to be seeing some more integration between Netflix and Facebook. If you think fundamentally, Facebook's business is all about people, their customers, putting information onto the site. They don't

push information out to people like Netflix does. Well, earlier in the year, Facebook sort of dipped their toe in the waters of online video. They had the experiment where they had one movie that members could rent. And the discussion at the time that we had here, and it was going on across the country, was, okay, is Facebook Facebook ultimately gunning for Netflix? Does Hastings joining the board meet, do you take that as a sign that they're not? You know, I don't really know. I mean, I think ultimately they have the opportunity to, but that's not really how Facebook

is built. Ron? It would appear that based on this, they are not gunning for them and that they'll be more of a collaborative effort. We know Netflix does have the desire to move into social media, and Facebook has the desire to increase their offerings. So it's like LeBron and Dwayne Wade, maybe. There you go.

Let me spot you up with a recent example of CEO joining the board, and that's Eric Schmidt, who's the CEO of Google for the past decade. In August 2006, he joined Apple's board of directors. And, of course, Apple put out the press release saying how excited they were to have them on the board and talking about how Google's focused on innovation, and he's going to be asset. And almost three years to the day later in August 2009, he resigned from the board. Goodbye. Exactly. I will quote exactly from the press release here from Apple where Steve Jobs says, unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses with Android and now Chrome OS,

Eric's effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts. interest. So, with that, as hindsight, two, three years from now, okay, so right now Netflix and Facebook, they're not facing off, but two or three years from now, what's more likely that we're going to see this scenario played out with Reed Hastings or that things are going to be just copacetic? See, I don't know that Netflix's business is built in some ways on contracts, that Facebook probably doesn't want to recreate. So I think probably this is a, you know, this is a, this

is a situation with a lot less of a risk of competition in their direct businesses than the other one. If you got to hire one member for your own personal board of directors, who are you going with? We'll just start with Ron Gross Incorporated. Ron Gross Incorporated. This is maybe not a household name to many of our listeners, but I think I would go to Jim Senegal, who is the CEO of Costco, who in my opinion is one of the finest CEOs in America.

America and one of the most honest and has the integrity and has the business acumeny. He has kind of everything you would want in the board member. Okay. And for James' early limited partnership? Yeah, if I'm CEO, I'm going with, I'm going to go with Lindsay Lohan. Think about it. It makes some sense because she's on probation, assuming that doesn't prevent her from serving on a board, she has no problem spending lots of money, so she would approve any egregious compensation packages.

You would have to have the board meetings in her apartment, however, because I believe she is on house arrest. Yeah, we'd make accommodations. And for Bill Mann Holdings? Lieutenant Commander Data. I mean, he knows everything. He's got skills. You know, he's not real, though. He's not real, though.

No, but for that matter, I'm not convinced Lindsay Lohan is real either. Coming up, most annual meetings are pretty routine, but we've found a couple that we would love to attend. Details next. This is Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Chris Hill here in the studio with Ron Gross, James Early, and Bill Mann. as we hit some of the big headlines of the week.

Guys, Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting was held this week, and while CEO Carol Bartz did get a vote of confidence from the board of directors, she was also challenged by investors during the Q&A session, one of them comparing her to a lame duck and calling on the board to replace her. Ron Gross, you watch this company? What do you think? Oh, Carol. Yeah, we own Yahoo and a million-dollar portfolio.

And this was an interesting meeting. She did her best. She did her best to spin it and to put a positive... hitting all the high points. Yeah, I mean, you know, the company has improved margins and return on capital, and there have been some positive things. Obviously, investors are mostly focused on the stock price, which has not been stellar, let's face it.

Specifically, people are pretty angry that Alibaba transferred its ownership of Alibay division to an entity owned by the CEO of Alibaba, and Yahoo wasn't involved in that, and perhaps Yahoo's shareholders are going to be... verbally screwed based on that. And she tried to calm that down. So, you know, there are a lot to criticize here. Yahoo is not firing on all cylinders. We like it from a valuation perspective, and we think it's undervalued, but things are not going perfectly. Bill, another annual meeting that's actually happening next week is Tokyo Electric Power. There's going to be some fun. You want to talk about real fireworks? I was going to say, how do you think that annual meeting is going

to compare to Yahoo's? Yeah, so one stat was probably important, is that they have already hired 150 riot police to surround the building where it's going to be. This is in Japan, too. In Japan, you know. Yeah, exactly. Where they, you know, where sometimes they protest by, you know, not eating. So to have riot police. Yeah, nothing says we're gearing up for a good time like hiring 150 riot police.

I mean, the Q&A is probably going to be the easy part. Getting into the building. Behind bulletproof glass. I'll take your questions now. Discover Financial Services' latest quarterly profit. more than doubled. The company beat expectations as delinquencies hit an all-time low. James Ehrlich, does this mean you are finally paying off your monthly discover bill? Chris, I have no debt, actually.

It doesn't surprise me at all. But this is like, you know, you've seen the pictures of the before and after the muscle products. There's this muscular guy. And before, he was fat, but he was also still muscular underneath. It's like some muscular guy just beefed up to take the before picture and then he slimmed down. It's kind of what they do a couple years ago. Discover Card took all these charges. They got all the bad stuff out of the way, so they look really good right now. And that's good. That's smart to their credit. The stock is of 70% year-over-year. More people are spending. They have more account growth, et cetera. But the main thing is it looks so good now because it didn't look so good before. Bill, what do you think? I mean, I think James pretty much nailed it. A lot of their growth is they've been pretty aggressive in trying to bring in new customers. And where I think that they did a very good job is that they brought in customers that have a pretty good credit rating. So they weren't offering cards to people like Ron. Right. How dare you. Yes. On Thursday, bestselling author J.K. Rowling announced her new website called Pottermore

will be the exclusive seller of the e-book editions of the Harry Potter series. Now, man, how disappointed do you think Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and the rest are that they will not be getting a cut of those e-book sales? You know, I'll bet they're disappointed, but at the same time, I bet they're also saying, thank goodness, this is not 2009 when she came up with this or 2006, you know, when, because the books themselves were such huge events and such huge money makers for them that, I mean, they've had the bang for their buck for the release. So I don't know that the e-books are as big of a thing, but I'm sure they're not ecstatic. Ron? It's interesting that Rowling was able to even retain the digital rights to this. That's to her benefit a great deal. And I've read

that they could be worth up to $160 million the rights alone, and that she'll probably do even better than that by selling them through her own platform. So, you know, she's a good businesswoman. Have you guys all read Harry? I've never read everyone. I've read everyone. Everyone.

I've read everyone, and I guarantee you we're going to be buying the e-book edition of them. Because it's not enough just to have the regular book. Yeah, that's right. I'm sure we're going to get the e-book version too. So now, according to Forbes, J.K. Rowling's net worth is $1 billion. It's pretty good.

Oprah Winfrey's net worth, $2.7 billion. So if they were stocks right now, which one would you invest in? Shares of Oprah or shares of J.K. Rolling. God, I don't go back with James and buy shares of Lindsay Lohan. What about a value stock? Still thinking about that. I am. It was a good call.

Given only two choices, though, I'm going to have to say J.K. Rolling. I mean, I think she's got a very defined. cash flow stream in front of her where Oprah, I mean, she, Oprah's obviously, I mean, she's fabulously successful, but she is at an inflection point. James? I'm going to say Oprah because she's more likely to be undervalued, given that she is in the twilight of her career, so people are discounting your future prospects excessively. She's 87 years old. I was going to say, Twilight of her career. She's quit the show. I mean, I don't know. Ron? I think Oprah is definitely the more powerful businesswoman, and I think she actually has the ability to

to take her career in many different areas, whereas Rowling probably has less, you know, maybe not just a one-trick pony, but Oprah can build an empire. That's a hell of a pony though. Yeah, I would bet on Oprah. It's a magical flying pony. And finally, last week we told you about Tang becoming the latest billion-dollar brand for Kraft Foods. Another powdered drink is back in the headlines thanks to the hottest new food at the San

Diego County Fair. I'm talking, of course, about deep-fried Kool-Aid. Charlie Bogosian, the creator, also sells deep-fried Klondike bars, thin-min cookies, avocados, frogs, legs, and more. Kool-Aid is selling about double the normal debut item. Charlie says, quote, because it tastes so darn good. You're trying this, aren't you, Bill? I mean, if you're at the San Diego County Fair, no?

Yeah, you know, I tried the deep-fried Oreos a couple of years ago, and it was mildly disappointing because all of those things, sound awesome to me. So what's your go-to? What's your desert island deep-fried food? See, this is going to sound ridiculous, but I'm still going chicken. I don't, you know, like you've got the deep-fried-old-school. Yeah, you got the deep-fried pickles and things like that.

Like, Southern fried chicken, are you kidding me? That's why it was first, because it's awesome. James, James, you have to fry something. I know you don't like to. I don't, yeah. I mean, I just, I mean, this deep-fried cool, cool, and this has got to be the invention of the Chinese. They deep-fried kelp in Japan. You can go that way.

keep American competitiveness now. I'm going to see, yeah, I like deep-fried vegetables. If I have to pick like a tempura, some type of cucumber or zucchini, not cucumber zucchini or something like that. Again, he's got deep-fried avocados. You could go that room. I would try that. Ron? I am absolutely going to deep-fried bacon. And a lot of it.

That's right. Claire? Steve Brito? If I had to go with something, I'm getting over a bit of a cold, so I had a frozen Snickers bar this morning, and it was just delightful. I would probably deep fry that and just A deep fried frozen stickers bar The funny part of that is frozen stickers bar

This morning I know I thought you were going to go with like This is how I roll Ron I thought you were going to go with like deep fried NyQuil All right Ron Gross James Hurley

Billman guys we'll see you later in the show Up next a conversation with author Luann Lofton about how Warren Buffett invests like a girl And why you should too Stay right here This is Motley Full Money.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. Want to invest like Warren Buffett? Well, it might be time to get in touch with your feminine side. Luann Lofton is the former managing editor at the Motley Fool and author of the new book, Warren Buffett invests like a girl and why you should too. It is now available on Amazon and in bookstores across America and she joins me in studio now. Luanne, welcome. Thanks, Chris. The rare in-studio guest here on Motley Full Money. Normally our guests want to be as far away from me as possible.

Oh, no, never. Now, title aside, because it's a great title, it's a cheeky title, but title aside, how does Warren Buffett invest like a girl and why should anyone? Well, I'll just say, Warren Buffett is able to control his emotions better than most men out there. I know that sounds a little controversial, but what we're really talking about in the book here is temperament. Is this idea of being able to control your emotions to not make mistakes, that gets you in trouble when it comes to investing. And studies show that women, I know this sounds controversial again,

women tend to be better able to control their emotions when it comes to investing than do men. That does sound a little controversial because it certainly goes against the basic gender stereotype of men and women. And I know you are such a stereotype. Now, one of the things that you do in the book is you lay out a series of investing principles. I want to spot you up with a few. have you elaborate on them. Let's start with trade less, make more. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, Buffett has long said that his favorite holding period is forever. And that's something that we should all adopt. I mean, look at the companies like, you know, Washington Post. He's held that since 1974.

He's held Geico also since the 70s. I mean, these are companies that are classic Buffett, classic Berkshire. When he's buying a stock, he's not just buying a ticker. This is the key thing to take away from this, is that he's investing in an actual company, and he appreciates that. Next, rain in overconfidence. All right. Now, here's where some of the emotion comes in for our male listeners out there. The word overconfidence really comes up again and again in the research about how men invest and how women invest. And what we find is that when it comes to investing, men, quite frankly, think they know more than they actually do. And this leads them to make some pretty silly mistakes.

It leads them to take too much risk. It leads them to trade more like we talked about earlier. and an interesting study I cite in the book, a Vanguard study showed that in the fall of 2008, men were more likely than women to panic and sell at the bottom of the market, which I think we all agree. That's not a smart thing to do. Yeah, I vividly remember the fall of 2008. It was an ugly time for investors. Next up, shun risk.

Well, again, we have to talk again about overconfidence here, and it can get people into trouble, and men especially. you can lead you to take on too much risk. And that really manifests itself in investing in things that you don't understand. You know, that's something that's very Buffett. He doesn't want to buy something that he doesn't truly understand. You look at the companies that that we associate with Buffett, Coca-Cola, Dairy Queen, you know, Fruit of the Loom, undies, Garanemals, which was very funny to me to see that out in Omaha, the little geranimal's. Out at the annual meeting? Yes, exactly. They had their little booth set up, selling their little clothes. But by doing this, by really focusing on making sure that you understand what it is you're investing in, you lower your risk. You're not as likely to trade in something you don't fully understand, to invest in something you don't fully understand. And you can't eliminate all risk from investing. So I'm certainly not saying that. But you should try to be more like Buffett and limit your risk as much as you can. You're listening to Motley Full Money.

Our guest this week is Luanne Lofton, author of the new book Warren Buffett, Invest Like a Girl, and Why You Should Too. another investing principle in the book that you write about, focus on the positives of pessimism. Right, exactly. I mean, I know this sounds counterintuitive, but by really embracing this idea of pessimism and realism when it comes to investing, you can do really well. I mean, one of Buffett's quotes that we all know and love is to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. And if you look back, like we talked about earlier, the fall of 2008, it was a really scary time. But Buffett was out there investing. He was buying shares of Bank of America, of Goldman Sachs. And I was also investing. I mean, that felt like a horrible time to be investing.

But actually, when times are darkest, when times are most pessimistic, that's when there are opportunities for you as an investor. And that's something the Buffett has shown again and again and again. Next investing principle is actually just a good general rule of thumb for all walks of life, ignore peer pressure. Yes, I like this one a lot because it's another one that kind of goes against the conventional wisdom here. And that's when you look at the studies done about men and how they interact with one another, there were some pretty interesting things that came out. I mean, it showed that groups of men tended to influence one another. I mean, when men were in the room with other men that they viewed as their peers, they tended to take more risk. And even when

taking that risk didn't help the outcome, they still took more risk. because they still were influenced by the people in the room. Women tended not to do this. And you look at a guy like Buffett sitting out in Omaha. He doesn't care what Wall Street's doing. He doesn't care what the rest of the world is doing. He does his own thing. He goes his own way.

And I would say that served him pretty well. Well, it certainly served him well about a dozen years ago when we saw the dot-com era. And Buffett was, you know, to my memory, the most prominent person in the investing world sitting on the sidelines when everyone else was. just getting wrapped up in the mania of dot-com stocks, Buffett was just sitting that one out. Yeah, and he really was questioned for that. He took a lot of flack for that. But what was wonderful about it was that he stayed true to his principles. He wasn't going to get caught up in tech and caught up in buying the latest kind of whiz-bang company just because that's what everybody else was doing. He really went his own way. And he was rewarded for it. He was ultimately right when

the market eventually collapsed in those companies. One more investing principle. Learn from mistakes. Wait a minute. Warren Buffett makes mistakes? I know. I feel good about this. Everyone makes mistakes. We're all human. We can't eliminate that. But, you know, Buffett, one thing I'd love about him is that you can read his annual letters. You know, they come out every year before the annual meeting, and they're for free. You can access them online at berkshireathaway.com. I would encourage anyone to read them. And he goes year after year and really looks at the mistakes he made over the past year and he analyzes them. I mean, one that sticks out that everyone loves to laugh about is his U.S. Airways mistake. You know, he invested in that company back in the late 80s.

And just from the get-go, it was an investment that went really bad for him. I mean, you know, you look at airlines, they're a commodity business. And he has been really honest about the fact that he just missed that. He just missed that in his analysis. And you have to be able, as an investor, to be honest with yourself. You're going to make mistakes. So analyze what happened and do your best to learn from it so that you don't repeat it in the future. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Our guest this week is Lou Ann Lofton, author of the new book, Warren Buffett, Invest Like a Girl, and Why You Should Too. What surprised you the most when you were working on this book? Well, I would have to say, going back to something I said earlier, it was that men tended to actually

be more emotional when it came to investing. I mean, that's something that, like we laughed about, I mean, that's not something you hear every day. But when you look at the role of testosterone, when it comes to our financial markets and the role of overconfidence, which basically can boil down to ego and to aggression, it was just surprising to me that it turned out that women were better able to hold firm in the fall of 2008 and not sell. They did not panic. They did not run screaming for the hills.

That was the men. I'm starting to feel like maybe we need a new index on Wall Street that's measuring like testosterone and estrogen. And that can be like another. screen. No, we absolutely. We need more women on Wall Street. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a woman. I'm saying that because it's smart business sense. Study after study shows that when you add more women to your board, your return on invested capital goes up, your return on assets, your return on sales. And if we had more women on Wall Street, they would actually serve as kind of a

counter to these effects of testosterone we talked about earlier. They would help tamp down some of the risk-taking and calm things out a little bit. Now, you went to the Berkshire-Hathaway annual meeting this year, you had the chance to meet Warren Buffett, ask him if he invest like a girl. What did he say? I did. Yeah, I asked him, you know, just point blank, do you think you invest like a girl? And he said, well, you'll have to read her book to see the criteria she used, but I'd say I probably plead guilty. And then he followed up with, I would say I invest like Ben Graham. So maybe your book should be called Ben Graham invest like a girl. Now, it's been kind of a rough year for Berkshire Hathaway. The stock, The stock is around a 52-week low.

One of the big questions, when you look at Berkshire Hathaway, involves succession planning, because as great as he is, Warren Buffett, is also in his early 80s. And so succession planning is one big question. What's the big question that you have when you look at Warren Buffett? When I look at Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett, I would say the biggest question I have really comes down to continued growth in the company. I mean, you know, Buffett has warned for years and years and years about the drag that size has on a company. And Berkshire's so big at this point. He's managed up until now to

smartly reinvest all that cash. He always, his companies generate so much of it. As of March 31st, I think he had $38 billion in cash on his balance sheet. And he's managed to make that work. But at some point, you start to ask a question, does it make sense to pay a dividend? Now, he really shot that down at the annual meeting quickly. Someone asked that. But he just said, no, no, no, So, you know, I'm still meeting the financial measures I've put in place for how smart it is for me to keep all the money versus give it back to the shareholders as a dividend. But I don't know. You just have to wonder how much longer he can really keep that up. You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Lou Ann Lofton about her new book. Warren Buffett invest like a girl and why you should too. How have men reacted to this book? I mean, there's obviously a website that you've got for the book. I'm sure you're hearing from people online. What's been the reaction? Oh, it's been really funny. I mean, on the one hand, you'll get some men who say to me, oh, yeah, my wife is definitely the smarter person when it comes to money in our relationship,

and, you know, she's giving me a lot of great ideas and we do it together. Or I've worked in this industry, and I can tell you that you're right, women don't panic as much. They don't call me as frequently and ask what's going on with their accounts. However, there have been the men who've been a little defensive. No. And, yes, I've had some pretty derogatory comments on some of the articles we've put out there. I'm asking myself, are we in the 1950s again? Is this really going on? So to them, I would say, hey, you know, you're not ready to embrace your inner girl. You're not ready to invest more like

Warren Buffett. I don't know why you would, you know, why you would take that stance. But I would suggest to them to just buy the book for their wife, buy the book for their daughter. And in three to five years, when they are beating the pants off of you, when it comes to investing, you can sneak back into the back room, pick up my book from the bookshelf, and go in the corner, read it quietly, we won't tell anybody. The secret is safe with us. All right, time to wrap up with a round of buy-seller hold. Let's start with the fact that you're a big fan of the New Orleans Saints.

Buy-seller hold, the NFL season, starting on time. I have to be optimistic here and say bye, because, yes, I live in New Orleans. I love me some saints. And the thought of Sundays in the fall in New Orleans, the Hootat Nation, we would be broken-hearted if there was no NFL season. Come on, Drew. on this. You can get it done. Your book is available in hardcover and electronic form. Buy seller hold, the Kindle. I think buy. You know, I love the Kindle. I have one. Mine is like the first generation, so it looks hilarious and antiquated compared to the sleek ones now, but I don't

care. I love it. I just think that's the future. I think you have to go with it. Amazon has done everything right when it comes to how they've put that together. It's just so easy. Every book's available. Tons of books for free. That's a great thing I learned. A lot of classic books that you can download for free on there. So, bye. And finally, like you, he's an author. Unlike you, he's also a singer and the mayor of Margaritaville, Buy Seller Hold, Jimmy Buffett. Oh, that's a tough one. Really? Well, I'll go by. I can't say I'm the biggest fan ever, but he, you know, gets into people's hearts somehow, and I'm sure he's a very nice man. And it's very, it's very funny for me on Facebook. I see friends of mine

are going to Buffett concerts and this is such a geek. I'm like always thinking, Warren Buffett's doing a concert? It takes me a minute to realize that's just, oh, that other Buffett. To me, he's the less famous Buffett. But again, I'm a big nerd. The book is Warren Buffett

Invest Like a Girl and Why You Should Too. It is the number one investing book on Amazon. Go out and get it. Lou Ann Lofton. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Chris. Hey, if you want to take Motley Fool Money and our daily market foolery podcast on the go with you, just get our new Motley Fool app. It's free. You can download it at app.fool.com. That's app. dot fool.com. You get the Motley Fool podcast and hundreds of articles from the Motley Fool's editorial team.

Coming up, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks on our radar. This is Motley Fool Money. As always, people on the program may have interest in stocks they talk about, and The Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy ourselves stocks based solely on what you hear. I'm Chris Hillen, back in the studio with me, Ron Gross, James Early, and Bill Mann. Guys, last week we talked about Tang, how it is now doing a billion dollars in sales for Kraft Foods, and we asked our listeners to send us the weirdest flavor they've come across.

I got some great emails. Cody in Qatar sent us a photo of mango-flavored tang. I thought you're saying Cody. Jacqueline Ray in Dubai emailed us about lemon pepper tang, and she included an ad that's on YouTube that runs in the Middle East for lemon pepper tang. I'm not sold on that flavor profile. Well, her husband is because she included in the email, On the downside, all this wild tang talk has inspired my husband to have a tang sampling party,

tamarind, lemon pepper, and sour sauce. app. Ooh, gosh, I wish we were over at the race. But by far, by far, the best response of all our listeners was from longtime listener, Jeremiah Easley, who sent us two 72-ounce containers. Barrels. It might as well be. Two-72-ounce containers of tang, and a very nice note said, guys, enjoy your tang drink.

Great show. I listen every week. So we made some up. We've got it here in the studio. So to our listeners, guys. Cheers. Jeremiah, thank you. This is my first time trying to tang.

That's the whole reason. It's got a lovely bouquet. It smells orangy. I'm about to taste it. It's a delightful orange. It tastes exactly like what it is, orange-flavored water. I'm really interested to see if James just falls over from eating something.

The first non-natural thing is sugar content for me. It's actually more mild than I thought. It's a very thick-looking drink, but it's delicate, too. And how's the bouquet? As are you. Busy, but never precaution. Exactly. Steve Brino? I mean, I know you're a little under the weather. Is this the magic elixir? Feeling better already?

This is a good stuff, actually, yes. Thank you so much to everyone who emailed us when I think of all the hundreds upon hundreds of stories we've ever talked about here on Motley Fool. I love the fact that it was the Tang story that got our listeners very passionate, motivated. Let's do a story on gold next week. Exactly. Yes. Next week we're going to be doing. Tiffany's. We'll be doing an in-depth look at the luxury car. market. All right, time to move on to the stocks on our radar. Bill Mann, we'll start with you. You know, sometimes stocks are really good theater. And I think the best theater that's going on right now is in China, where a company called Harbin Electric has had, was a short report

was written about it, and it knocked the stock down to six. And then immediately, they launched a go-private offering to take it off the market at $24. And the stock is sitting somewhere in between at $14, where in a couple of weeks, one way or another, it won't be there. And what is the ticker symbol? H.R.B.N. James Early, your stock this week. Let me just say that Bill Mann and Ron are powering through their tang. They're both almost done. I'm going with Heinz, which just raises dividends 6.7%. This is an I-I recommendation, so I like it, obviously. 3.4% yield before the raise. Not super cheap, but it's a great long-term company with a strong brand. Maybe it's no tang, but it is still a solid offer. What is your favorite

item in the Heinz portfolio of food offerings. You know, I've pretty much eaten none of it, but, you know, I've had ketchup in the past, so I'll say that, yeah. I'm vaguely aware of the concept of ketchup. And the ticker symbol? HNZ. Ron Gross, your stock this week. I'm going to go back to a company I own personally, and I talked about maybe over a year ago or so. It's a company called L.S. Stourette, ticker symbol, SCX.

It's a microcap stock, a maker of a variety of tools. So, 5,000 different types of tools. Stocks recently pulled back from 15 to 10. It's profitable, strong balance sheet, selling at 0.5 to its tangible book value, three times it's cash flow, and it pays a dividend. Looks pretty cheap to me. Did you have a favorite tool? You are my favorite tool.

That's not right. I'm struggling a little bit with the disconnect that it's a microcap company, and yet they They make 5,000 tools? They don't sell one of each. They apparently don't sell all of them. About 200 million in sales, annual sales. But shouldn't they, I don't know, shouldn't they tighten up their focus a little bit? $50 million company, $200 million in revenue.

Are you on their board of directors? I am not. All right. Ron Gross. James Early. Bill Mann. Guys, thanks for being here. Thank you, Chris.

Seth Jason will be back in a couple of weeks. Allegedly he's in France and allegedly he is running a marathon. So we have listeners all over the world. Certainly we have... Incess running costume? Horrifying. We certainly have listeners in the Middle East drinking tang. So any of our listeners in France, be on the lookout for a guy about six foot three, starting to lose his hair.

He's all gristle. All gristle. He weighs about 120 pounds soaking wet and in some really short shorts. So if you see Seth, snap a photo, email us, Radio at Fool.com. And by the way, we're not sure he's in France. So go ahead and send us your pictures of anyone who actually. Anyone even sort of looks like that. All right, guys.

Thanks for being here. Thanks to our special guest this week, Luann Lofton, author of the new book, Warren Buffett Invest Like a Girl and Why You Should Too. That's it for this edition of Motley Full Money. Our engineer is Steve Brodo. Our producer is Matt Greer. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening.

We'll see you next week.