The Lou Dobbs Rogue Fund!

[Note: looks like it may be a good investment after all!]

James Glassman has created The Dobbs Rogue Fund:

Researching an article on outsourcing a week ago, I came across a remarkable list on the website of CNN's Lou Dobbs. It was a sort of rogues' gallery, touted nightly on the show. "These are companies," says the Dobbs site, "either sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers."

Another word for "outsourcing," of course, is trade, and the reason we trade is, in fact, to buy things -- including labor -- at lower prices. As Gregory Mankiw, the Harvard economist who heads the Council of Economic Advisors, had the temerity to say, "That's a good thing."

[...]

Indeed, a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, found that two-thirds of the benefits of outsourcing flow to the United States.

Adam Smith understood this back in 1776.

[...]

So, it seems to me that, far from being a bunch of evildoers, the members of the Dobbs most-wanted list are companies that are helping the American economy. Not only that; but, scanning them, I realized they were terrific businesses.

Why not, then, compose a stock portfolio made up of the Dobbs rogues? We can call it the Adam Smith Fund or, better, the Dobbs Rogue Fund.

So what Mr. Glassman did was list the companies Mr. Dobbs had on his website as of February 16, 2004. They are:

#
3Com
3M

A
Accenture
Adaptec
Adobe Systems
Advanced Energy Industries
Aetna
A.G. Edwards
Agere Systems
Agilent Tech.
AIG
Alamo Rent A Car
Albertson's
Alliance Semiconductor
Allstate
Alpha Thought Global
Amazon.com
AMD
American Express
American Management Systems
American Standard
Amphenol Corp.
Analog Devices
Andrew Corp.
AOL
Applied Materials
A.T. Cross Company
AT&T
AT&T Wireless
A.T. Kearney
Avanade
Avery Dennison

B
Bank of America
Bank of New York
Bank One
BearingPoint
Bear Stearns
Bechtel
BellSouth
Best Buy
Black & Decker
BMC Software
Boeing
Brocade
Bumble Bee

C
Cadence Design Systems
Capital One
Carrier
Cendant
Cerner Corporation
Charles Schwab
ChevronTexaco
CIBER
Ciena
Cigna
Circuit City, Inc.
Cisco Systems
Citigroup
Coca-Cola
Comcast Holdings
Computer Associates
Computer Sciences Corporation
Continental Airlines
Convergys
Cooper Tire & Rubber
Cooper Tools
Countrywide Financial
COVAD Comm.
CSX
Cummins

D
Dell Computer
Delta Air Lines
Direct TV
Discover
Document Sciences Corp.
Dow Chemical
DuPont

E
Earthlink
Eastman Kodak
Eaton Corporation
EDS
Electroglas
Electronics for Imaging
Eli Lilly
EMC
Emerson Electric
En Pointe Technologies
Equifax
Ernst & Young
Evolving Systems
Expedia
ExxonMobil

F
Fair Isaac
Fedders Corporation
Fidelity Investments
Financial Techologies International
First American Title Ins.
First Data
Fluor
Ford Motor
Franklin Mint

G
Gateway
GE Capital
General Electric
GlobespanVirata
Goldman Sachs
Goodrich
Google
Greenpoint Mortgage
Guardian Life Insurance

H
The Hartford Financial Services Group
HealthAxis
Hewitt Associates
Hewlett-Packard
The Holmes Group
HSN
Humana

I
IBM
IndyMac Bancorp
Infogain
Innodata Isogen
Intel
Intl. Paper
Intuit
ITT Educational Services

J
Jabil Circuit
Jacobs Engineering
Jacuzzi
JDS Uniphase
Johnson Controls
Johnson & Johnson
JPMorgan Chase
Juniper Networks

K
KANA Software
Kaiser Permanente
Keane
KeyCorp
KLA-Tencor
Kwikset

L
Lawson Software
Lehman Brothers
Levi Strauss
Lexmark International
Lifescan
Lillian Vernon
Linksys
Lionbridge Technologies
LiveBridge
Lockheed Martin
Lowe's
Lucent

M
Maritz
Marshall Fields
Mattel
Maytag
McDATA Corporation
Medtronic
Mellon Bank
Merrill Corporation
Merrill Lynch
Metasolv
MetLife
Microsoft
Monsanto
Morgan Stanley
Motorola

N
Nabco
National City Corporation
National Life
National Semiconductor
NCR Corporation
neoIT
NETGEAR
Network Associates
Newell Rubbermaid
New York Life Insurance Co.
Northwest Airlines

O
Office Depot
Ohio Art
ON Semiconductor
Oracle
OshKosh B'Gosh
Otis Elevator Co.
Owens Corning

P
palmOne
Parker-Hannifin
Parsons E&C
Pearson Digital Learning
Pericom Semiconductor
Perot Systems
Pfizer
Pitney Bowes
Planar Systems
Portal Software
Pratt & Whitney
Primus Telecom
Procter & Gamble
ProQuest
Providian Financial
Prudential Insurance

Q
Qwest Comm.

R
Rainbow Technologies
Radio Shack
Raytheon Aircraft
RCG Information Technology
Regence Group
Rogers
Rohm & Haas
RR Donnelley & Sons
Russell Corporation

S
SAIC
Sanmina-SCI
SBC Comm.
SEI Investments
Siebel Systems
Sikorsky
SMC Networks
Solectron
Sovereign Bancorp
Sprint
Sprint PCS
Starkist Seafood
State Farm Insurance
State Street
StorageTek
SunTrust Banks
Supra Telecom
SurePrep
The Sutherland Group
Sykes Enterprises
Synygy

T
Target
Tecumseh
Telcordia
TeleTech
Tellabs
Texas Inst.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans
Time Warner
Toys "R" Us
Triquint Semiconductor
Tropical Sportswear
TRW Automotive
Tyco Electronics
Tyco Intl.

U
Union Pacific Railroad
Unisys
United Online
United Tech.

V
VA Software
Veritas
Verizon
VF Corporation

W
Wachovia Bank
Washington Group Intl.
Washington Mutual
WellChoice
Werner Co.
West Corporation
Weyerhaeuser
Whirlpool
Wolverine World Wide
Wyeth

Y
Yahoo!

I think Mr. Glassman's idea is quite interesting. So much so, that I intend on checking in on these companies' stocks at the end of every week and noting their progress. Of course, as Mr. Glassman says:

ike many other things Dobbs does these days, the list is unscientific. Viewers write in and the Dobbs staff "confirms" that the companies really do "export America." Not all the companies, including, for example, BumbleBee Tuna Holdings, LLP, are publicly traded. Others are subsidiaries of larger companies, and there's often double-counting. For example, A.T. Kearney is owned by EDS, which is separately listed; Carrier is owned by United Technologies, ditto. Avanade is a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, also rogues. GE Capital, obviously, is part of General Electric, which gets a separate mention. And so on.

He also says he wants to return to the list in a year to see how they do, his guess being that the Dobbs Rogue Fund "beat the market as a whole."

Unfortunately, Mr. Dobbs doesn't have a list of American companies that don't shift labor overseas. That would put some serious meat into the equation. His show does often showcase businesses that vow to keep their workforce and capital as US-centric as possible, but it would be difficult to compile the list. Still, I hope to spot trends in the Dobbs Rogue Fund and blog them.

Via Radley Balko.

Posted by Drizzten at February 18, 2004 04:52 PM