Entries for June 2012

One fact of little debate is the U.S. continues to spend at a rate far outpacing the amount of revenue it receives. The consequence of this level of spending is the U.S. government continues to take on a greater amount of debt each year. Further complicating this mismatch between revenue and expenditures is the level of "mandatory" expenditures is growing at a 7% rate according to the OMB. A recent report by Charles Schwab and Argus Research notes:Government outlays soared from 20.1% of GDP in t...  Read more...

It is understandable that investors have developed fatigue when it comes to investing in stocks. As the below chart shows, since 2000, investors have essentially made no money in stocks. Compounding this is the fact that the return necessary to recover from the equity market declines is more than double the losses that have been incurred.From The Blog of HORAN Capital AdvisorsOne outcome of the equity market volatility is investors have continued to allocate more of their investment dollars to f...  Read more...

Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Advisors and Bill Wilby, former manager of the Oppenheimer Global Fund discuss why the U.S. is the best place to invest in the coming years. For equity investments Bernstein's favorite asset class is small capitalization companies while Wilby is focusing on high quality large capitalization dividend payers.Source: WealthTrack  Read more...

A recent investment newsletter from PIMCO's Neel Kashkari, takes a look back at PIMCO's application of the "New Normal" comment for the global economy in the spring of 2009. "The New Normal called for long-term deleveraging that would lead to lower growth than society had been accustomed to." One outcome of this New Normal cycle has been an increase in market volatility.A result of this heightened volatility is the fact investors have become skeptical of the equity markets. PIMCO notes:"From May...  Read more...

I hope you will agree that anyone who travels to Scottsdale, AZ in June, where temperatures routinely flicker around 100 degrees, is dedicated to his work. There couldn’t be another reason. In Scottsdale a week ago for the annual M Financial marketing meeting, I was prepared for fresh thinking and insights from both outside speakers and many of our own people. Yet what I came away with was so much more that I felt elated in the special way that only occurs when something highly unusual – and qu...  Read more...