Friday, July 19, 2002

The Beat of REITs. What's a real estate investment trust, and why would you want to invest in one? [The Motley Fool] 8:25:32 AM

Five Ways of Valuing Options The verdict on the best method: current value - strike price. Simple, can't be manipulated, doesn't unfairly penalize anyone. Compared against several variants of Black-Scholes. 8:21:20 AM

The Economist.  The telcoms bust was 10x larger than the .com bust and will be seen as the biggest bubble in history. >>> The likely winners, it is already clear, are the former “Baby Bells” in America and the former monopoly incumbents in Europe. Because they own the “last mile” of the network that runs into homes and offices, these operators have a firm grip on their customers and solid revenues. Compared with their upstart competitors that proliferated after the liberalisation of telecoms markets during the 1990s, these firms are relative safe havens. Customers can switch long-distance carriers at the first whiff of trouble, but often have no choice of local provider. In theory, regulators should require local monopolies to allow competitors to provide services over their lines, but most local monopolies have successfully obstructed such “local-loop unbundling” using a variety of technical excuses. In a further sign that local operators are seen as a safe haven, Michael Powell, America's telecoms regulator, even signalled this week that he would consider allowing one of the Bells to buy WorldCom. <<<  Unless we can break the stranglehold of the baby bells on the local loop, all bets are off for the rebirth of the Internet. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 7:58:16 AM