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Cnbc Has A Winner

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Jul 16 2007 12:00am EDT

CNBC Has A Winner

Mary Sue Williams has won the CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. Congratulations, Mary Sue. But don't expect $1 million. Instead, you'll get $100,000 up front, plus $36,000 per year for the next 25 years.

Mary Sue won the contest by managing to get a 29% gain over the space of two weeks. Which is about 75,000% per year. The present value of Mary Sue's actual prize, discounted at 75,000%, is, roughly, $100,000 – one-tenth of the million dollars she's nominally winning.

Then again, given how idiotic the whole challenge was from the start, I'm glad that the prize is going to someone who seems likely to use it well. At least some good is coming out of this meretricious debacle.

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