A Good Thanksgiving For The Unknown Family- Now Back To Work

After a short (about 90 minute) drive, we had a great Thanksgiving at the house of the Unknown Sister-in-law. In addition to us, there were Unknown Wife's two sisters (both with spouses and two children), Unknown Grandparents, and our neighbor from when we lived in the MidWest who now lives about an hour away (we moved halfway across the country, and so did she). Good food, conversation, and fun was had by all. Here's hoping your Thanksgiving went as well. One of the more touching moments was when Unknown Son gave the blessing for the food and prayed for his cousin, who also has Neuroblastoma (he actually had it before Unknown Son and went into remission before U.S. was diagnosed, Then last year, the canvcer came back for his cousin).

Then last night, Unknown Wife and Kids took advantage of the opportunity to stay with Unknown Sister-In-Law and her family (we'd planned it earlier this week). So, I drove back, got an early night's sleep, and will work on research and classes until Saturday and their return (it's the end of the semester, so everything gets backed up).

In the meanwhile, here are a few links for your reading pleasure:

Abnormal Returns has done a very nice piece on the Five C's of Private Equity Buyouts. It discusses some of the factors that have led to the growth of PE as a major force in the market. They are

• Capital
• Credit
• Complexity
• Control
• Congress

Read the whole thing here, and a follow up piece here.

Jim Mahar at FinanceProfessor.com links to a piece by Brav, Graham, Harvey, and Michaely on payout (i.e. dividned and repurchase) policy. Anyone teaching advanced corporate finance should read it and give it to their class. It's another of Graham's great survey pieces, and shows what managers actually do (and what a surprise: sometimes it's different from what finance textbooks say they should do). And if you want to read more of Graham's research, click here. He also has a good survey piece that covers a broader range of topics in general corporate finance,

In addition, CXO Advisory Group discusses a piece by Lyandres, Sun and Zhang, titled "The New Issues Puzzle: Testing the Investment-Based Explanation". It argues that corporate investments patterns should be included when constructing benchmark returns (because issuing firms invest more than non-issuers). Once they do, much of the long-term underperformance for these firjms dissappears.

Finally, here's a quote by J.R.R. Tolkien to think about for the remainder of the day: "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Now back to work!