Google is a buy-to-hold!

There are stocks to trade and stocks to buy-and-hold

Google is a buy-and-hold!

Here are two different articles about Google’s fourth-quarter results announced at 4:15 p.m. 1-31-06.

The New York Times correctly points out the dramatic movement of Google’s stock. But if a $45 stock drops $4.50 or 10%, the move hardly evokes comment. If a $450 stock drops $45, surely, something earth shattering has happened. Piper Jaffray’s Safa Rashtchy attributes this movement to “momentum players.” I think when a zero is added to a stock price, the stock holders get nervous. Berkshire Hathaway holders BRKA have experienced a three month ride from $86,000 to $91,000 with the stock closing 1-31-06 at $89,490. Search the web or listen to CNBC for comments on the movement of BRKA and the results will yield little. Why? Investors don’t trade BRKA in any volume that matters. How do investors use their BRKA shares? They borrow against them. (Remember: Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google’s founders, pay tribute to Warren Buffett and the Berkshire Hathaway model.) Brin and Page want investors to make Google a buy-and-hold investment like BRKA. So what should you do? Buy-and-hold! Let me say that again. Buy-and-hold! Even ten shares of BRKA at $89,490 each are worth $894,900. Could Google reach such heights? Microsoft opened at $28 on Thursday, March 13, 1986. Its split factor is 288:1. 100 shares purchased for $2,800 on 3/13/1986 with a buy-and-hold strategy would be 28,800 shares worth $810,720 on 1/31/06. One MSFT share unsplit ($28.15 times 288) closed 1-31-06 at $8,107 up $475 a share from $7,632 on 1/26/06.

The Business Week takes a different tack emphasizing “single source” revenue concerns. What a shame, Google’s net income rose 82%, to $372 million. “Revenue diversity,” hmm, maybe Google should go into the airline business. United will be coming out of bankruptcy soon. What about the auto industry? If my dad in the 1960s’s had just used the buy-and-hold strategy to buy BRKA and, say, accumulated 1000 shares, at today’s $89,490 a share for a total of 89,490,000, my sister and I would be very happy and keep mom and dad’s picture in a real silver frame. Revenue diversity, why?

Hurricanes Do Save Lives

How many lives have been saved by hurricanes

Sept. 28, 2005, 10:55PM Evacuation Lessons come at high cost :107 lives

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3374468

I have followed Hurricane Rita since it brushed my Key West floating home. The Houston Chronicle women and men have done a great job. The article is well researched and well written. Here is one suggestion: include how many people die each day on greater Houston highways, how many die in nursing homes, how many die from crimes, how many die from suicide , and how many from other accidents. So if the total is greater than the toll during the evacuation, then less people died than is the "normal" death toll. We Floridians pad the toll of hurricanes. If someone drives into a canal during the storm or in the next few days, the death is a hurricane death. If someone falls off their roof clearing tree limbs, their death is a hurricane death. Then, of course, we have the people who run generators in attached garages, enclosed porches, attached sheds and even inside houses or apartments and die from carbon monoxide. Are these deaths hurricane deaths? Did drug overdoses decline during the hurricane? New Orleans, the former murder capital (per capita), has lost its title. So how about looking at the positive side, too. A life shaking event shakes lives. Some people are alive that would have been "normal" deaths because of the hurricane.

More Florida Emergency Sites

Lee County Web Site

Lee County, Florida, includes Ft. Myers, Cape Coral, Sanibel Island, and other areas. Hurricane Charlie hit Lee County in 2004. Lee has an excellent web site.

http://www.lee-county.com/default.htm

Click on All Hazards Guide and explore.

Go back to the opening page and click on Maps tab at the top.

Click on the following maps: Coastal High Hazard, Evacuation routes, Hurricane Shelter Map, Hurricane Tracking, and Storm Surge.

CDC Site for Emergency Preparedness & Response for Hurricane Health & Safety

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/index.asp

State of Florida Procedure for Evacuations Documents

http://www.floridadisaster.org/dem/DOCUMENTS/evac_sop.htm

The downloadable files offer detailed information.

Procedure for Regional Evacuations Updated June 1st , 2000
[Storm Watch 2000] [Hurricane Planning] [State Emergency Operations Center]
Regional Evacuation Procedure	MS Word File
Tropical Storm / Hurricane Annex	MS Word File
Attachment 1 - Methodology for Calculating Potential Arrival Times of Tropical Storm Winds	MS Word File
Attachment 2 - Criteria for Decision Making	MS Word File
Attachment 3 - Regional Evacuation Planning Area Maps	West Region North Central Region Northeast Region East Central Region Tampa Region Southwest Region Southeast
Attachment 4 - Statewide Evacuation Routes	Panhandle Northeast Central South
Wildfire Annex	MS Word File
Radiological Annex	MS Word File

State Emergency Response Team of Florida

Explore

http://www.floridadisaster.org/

Then go to

FLORIDA COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT WEB SITES

http://www.floridadisaster.org/fl_county_em.asp

Check out the following county web sites: Broward (Ft. Lauderdale), Charlotte (Punta Gorda hit by Hurricane Charlie in 2004), Miami-Dade, Monroe (the Keys), and Volusia (Daytona Beach) See 2004 Hurricane Season After Action Report (pdf file).

How to Prepare for Disasters

Disaster Plans

Check out whar San Frnacisco is doing. Every state, city, town, and county in the United States should have plans like these.

http://www.72hours.org

After you explore the boxes, click on City Emergency Plan or go to

http://www.sfgov.org/site/oes_index.asp?id=27514

Explore Home, About Us, Programs & Forums

How Do I ... get invloved? See NERT on the left, ...prepare an emergency plan

Related Links See SFNERT