Two Investing Classics, Plus a Third Destined to Achieve That Status

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment."

These days, job hopping is practically a way of life. Gone is the idea of spending four decades at one company, ultimately retiring with a gold watch and a pension plan.

Retired Montreal psychology professor Don Crosbie Donderi is convinced extraterrestrial life exists. The educator, who spent 47 years at McGill University, including as associate dean of the faculty of graduate studies and research — applies his insights into psychology to a book: UFOs, ETs, and Alien Abductions, a Scientist looks at the Evidence. It will be published in May. Mr. Donderi spoke to the Post’s Jen Gerson on Monday.

In most businesses the IT team report directly into finance and your investment in technology is likely to be among your biggest capital expenditure. There is no doubt that the right IT investments can help drive new business initiatives, reduce costs and win new customers. But how should CFOs be assessing return on investment? As a CFO, it is critical that you understand your IT spend and how it corresponds to your earnings. So what are the things to look out for as a CFO- here are Synetec’s four sure signs that your IT may be costing instead of making you money:

EARLIER today, a friend sent me a note from Louis-Vincent Gave of GaveKal Research (sorry, no link) on how the ECB could preserve the euro without doing anything to offend German sensibilities. Mr Gave suggests that the central bank should stop buying assets and start selling “currency insurance.” It is an intriguing idea, so I have copied some excerpts to provide a flavor of the analysis.Mr Gave begins by arguing that convertability risk is inhibiting investment in the troubled countries:

Welcome to the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Carnival: find useful recent personal finance, investing and economics blog posts and articles.

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After nearly 20 years as Sunday business columnist at The Boston Globe, and another eight as proprietor of Economic Principals -- a site that covers the lives, times and ideas of economists -- I have seen my share of books offering investment advice. The most valuable, it seems to me, are those whose authors came up with a thesis about the markets early and then kept refining and updating their ideas during the incredible expansion of financial markets that has occurred since 1975. Three of these, whose first editions appeared in 1982, 1978 and 1973, respectively, are already classics.