| Know your role and shut up
Back in October I wrote "How to Become an MP." I described the developing contest between my current MP, The Heroic Dispenser of Hams, and his younger, slimmer, handsomer adversary, nicknamed Santie Claus. I explained that my MP was in big trouble this time around because Santie Claus was busy building his reputation as, well, a giver of gifts. Well, since last we tuned in the chap's been busy. At Christmas he appeared with a DJ and foot soldiers giving out, what else, Christmas presents. He stood there like a game show host, smiling with a mic in his hand. He introduced himself while his elves gave out presents galore. Unfortunately, I was in my car at the time or I'd report on exactly what kind of gifts. In any event, Elections looked like they would be fun back in October.
Valero GP: Pipeline to Profit / Dog Days at Idexx?
Happiness is multiple pipelines, read a bumper sticker circulating in Houston a few years ago. The average Texan might have found that a trifle obscure. But to any oilman it was obvious. Zigzags in the price of energy dont much affect pipelines which earn their money from the volume of oil and gas they handle, and with growing demand and insufficient infrastructure their operators have big growth in their future.
Take San Antonio-based $1.08 billion (market cap) Valero GP Holdings (Ticker: VEH), where insider James F. Clingman this week spent nearly $1 million of his own money buying 41,025 shares at an average price of $24.34. VEH, which went public last July, owns the 2% general partner interest, a 21.4% limited partner interest and the incentive distribution rights in Valero LP, one of Americas largest operators of independent terminals and petroleum liquids pipeline systems.
The right slice: We rate the best and worst frozen pizzas
Sometimes frozen pizza is the best you can muster on a busy night. Or maybe you or your spouse or your kids have a craving. Or maybe you need to feed a crowd quickly and the pizza delivery folks are just going to take too long, especially on Super Bowl Sunday. .
Hiccups or start of wider illness?
There's nothing like a bit of instability in the banking sector to make one question the durability of this great global equity rally we have all been revelling in. While overall stock markets seemed to have taken the news bravely that HSBC Holdings PLC and New Century Financial Co. are piling up bad home loans just a teensy bit quicker than anticipated, fasten your seat belts because things could get a lot more interesting from here. "It's kind of a watershed moment where the magnitude of the problems really is starting to come to the surface," said Brian Horey, general partner at Aurelian Partners LP in New York. "If you could fog a mirror, you could get a loan." .
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