.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Dear Mr. Berko: Earlier this year you wrote that Google which was selling at $530, was selling much too high and told us that it should sell for much less.

Dear R.S.: Buying an annuity is like buying a diamond. Both dazzle and sparkle on the surface, but the real truth is found beneath the surface. I’m not going to comment on that piece of trash Charming Charlie wants you to buy, but you need to visit with Roy Akers. He is in my Boca Raton office and if you ring him toll-free at (866) 344-0881, you’ll find Roy as easy to talk with as a good neighbor. Roy knows enough about variable annuities to write 17 books on the subject and he speaks with six to 10 callers a week answering questions so they with their advisers can make the best VA choices.

Buying a VA is also like buying a home, you gotta do a “walk-about,” test the plumbing, check the colors, carpets, drapes, view the neighborhood, meet a couple of neighbors, look for termites, make certain your cars fit in the garage, inspect the kitchen, ad infinitum. And VAs have just as many moving parts as that home.

Unfortunately, too many VA salespeople are downright, outright liars. They omit important details, gloss over contract terms and guarantees, exaggerate income and performance projections, lie about contract costs, and misrepresent the financial health of the insurance company, ad nauseam.

Selecting a VA requires a two-way conversation with lots of questions to make certain the VA is the best one for you. If you are like most knowledgeable investors, you’ll probably own that VA as long as you own your home, so it behooves you to get the best advice and a second opinion.

However, there’s a plague of con artists who hard-sell substandard annuities, guaranteed by weak insurers whose names you never heard before, that pay 10 percent to 15 percent commissions and require that you own their policy for 15 to 20 years before you can get your money back. Your phone call to Roy will cost you a cup of coffee the next time he or we are in Syracuse. We are owed at least a thousand cups of coffee over the years and I think it would be enormous fun to start collecting those. So have a cup ready when we next visit Syracuse.

Yep, I goofed on Google Inc. (GOOG-$654.24), which in the last 12 months is up by 28 percent. In fact, my son Adam sold his Yahoo Inc. stock at $28 last June because he reckons that GOOG is selling at a sharp discount to Yahoo. According to Adam, GOOG is trading at 30 times 2008 earnings while Yahoo is trading at 50 times the same metric. However, I get nervous for lots of folks when I see GOOG move 15 or 20 points in one day. But as my son told me: “Dad, you must understand that 100 shares of GOOG is equivalent to almost 2,200 shares of Yahoo. So a $20 move in the price of GOOG is equal to a $1 price movement in Yahoo.” Well, sometimes fathers can learn a lot from their children. Keep your 25 shares.

Sprint’s Gary Forsee is a real good guy; he’s just an ineffective and lousy CEO. His tenure at Bell South was marked by a significant drop in Bell South’s stock price and his tenure at Sprint Nextel Corp. (S-$14.80) had the same effect. Forsee knows his technology but pathetically lacks the communication and people skills to head a large corporation. Sprint’s $14.80 market price is nearly 20 percent less than its $18.20 book value. Per-share earnings this year are 85 cents and are expected to come between 95 cents and $1.10 in 2008, and its forward price-earnings ratio of 15 puts the shares at a 28 percent discount to AT&T and Verizon. I think S is a buy and believe the stock could trade in the low $20s within the next 18 months.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net.© Copley News Service