Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Volume 3 Issue 1: Two-Cent Economics

Raison d'etre

While it may appear like a new year would entail new beginnings, I must say that the beginning of a new volume, a new layout, a new section, a new name for this newsletter and the new year occurring at around the same time is purely a coincidence. 

Choosing to start new volumes at the beginning of the year was intentional to ease record-keeping as well as laying down goals and milestones. In addition, The Main Streeter is a work in progress. The title has changed from Economics @ Home to The Main Streeter for good reasons.

First, I have decided to enlarge the scope of this newsletter to incorporate an educational component on investing in the stock market (and some minor mentions of other investing vehicles). Thus, continuing with the name Economics @ Home would naturally seem inappropriately narrow.

Second, this newsletter has and will always cater for laymen (and laywomen) like you and me. In an era where too much information is available, The Main Streeter strives to bring down to Earth the seemingly impossible concepts that very often so-called experts overcharge to explain to us. 

Economics and investing should be simple. In fact, they should be common sense. However, by some evil twist of fate, we are very often misled into believing that the more complicated a prediction model is, the better it is. The goal of The Main Streeter is to counteract this myth. 

Why The Main Streeter? The Main Street symbolizes the interests of the working class and small-business owners who put in their heart and soul into earning an honest living. The Main Street is very often used in contrast to Wall Street, which symbolizes the cut-throat predatory bankers who live and eat on said street. 

The Main Streeter is a newsletter that is made for common folk such as ourselves. That is why it is written in an accessible jargon with the aim of breaking down seemingly incomprehensible investing and economic concepts for the consumption of all Mainstreeters. 

That is why in the past, I have used the mission statement, "Making common sense, common". My goal is to share my thoughts and experiences, however limited they may be, in these two fields in hope that some of you find them applicable and helpful in your investing practice as well as your daily lives.

The newsletter will be posted in two sections for each issue. The first section will be entitled "Intelligent Investing", which is named in tribute to the father of intelligent investing, Benjamin Graham. In this section, we will discuss relevant investment ideas which are essential to value investing and occasionally include stock analysis for educational purposes. As a disclaimer, all company analyses that appear in this newsletter are derived from facts gathered from various sources and the contributors' personal opinions. It is NOT an invitation to deal in securities, and especially not a recommendation for buying or selling any stock. The contributor(s) do not guarantee the accuracy of the facts being presented. The accuracy of such facts are only as reliable as the sources that they are obtained from. Please consult your investment advisers before acting on any information provided by the analyses here.

The second section is entitled Two-Cent Economics, which is pretty much self-explanatory. This will be a continuation from Economics @ Home. Here, I will still try to shed some light onto everyday issues through applying economic concepts and analytical tools, very often trying to contribute two cents worth, if possible. 

So, here we are, looking forward to a great year ahead with the remade, upgraded and up-scaled version of the newsletter, now called The Main Streeter. 


1 comment: