Investment portfolios worth a closer look (may contain governments)

THE Obama administration already receives personal contributions from executives of Microsoft, along with their families. The Microsoft-Abramoff story was startling enough to demonstrate the dangers of political influence and Microsoft is now approaching Democrats, even going one-on-one with the next president. They prepare themselves for 'Change'.

It's rather fascinating to see how Microsoft swings. It puts its money right where this investment is likely to bear the most fruit. Several years ago it invested mostly in Republicans (they were in power) and suddenly Microsoft puts a significant majority of its money in the Democrats' basket.

As for Microsoft's political tendencies, they have not always leaned Democrat as the below chart shows. In 2002, 60 percent of Microsoft money went to Republicans, compared to just 40 percent for Democrats.

In other financial news, Microsoft's co-founder is losing a lot of money.

Paul Allen’s big investment in Charter looks tenuous

The likelihood of financial distress, such as bankruptcy, at Charter Communications Inc. in the next year has increased from 20 percent to 75 percent, a Citigroup analyst said.

Billionaire Paul Allen, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder and owner of the Portland Trail Blazers, is one of the largest owners of the St. Louis-based cable TV company, owning more than 28 million shares of stock.

Citi analyst David Hamburger also downgraded Charter from buy to sell and reduced the price target from $1 to 5 cents.

So the price target was suddenly cut by 95%. It is impossible to trust what companies say about their financial welfare and we wrote about that yesterday in reference to Microsoft, which is poised to fire many employees. ⬆

"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."

--Albert Einstein