The Trend: Recovery
The trend toward further recovery continues… although, uncertainty on the Korean peninsula and the final details of Ireland’s bailout help to keep equities flat over two days of trading. (Click here to read Bloomberg.com article)
Small Business Activity
It is this type of small business activity that will further drive the economy. The next two quarters wills a lot about the strength of the current recovery, in terms of hiring activity and consumer confidence over the holiday season. (Click here to read Bloomberg.com article)
China’s Growing Appetite
An interesting look at China’s influence in global deal making and the fear it stokes amongst purveyors of capitalism. The point at the end of the article “Show a Little Confidence” is poignant. I’ve said for a long-time that capitalism can be the tool that could erode communistic tendencies, within China itself. As… China adapts to the world, in order to spread its capital and make future investments, it learns…
Deficit Cuts
We will have to wait until the final report comes out, to know the full extent of the deficit-cutting commissions proposals. My hope is that they are extensive and implemented. Unfortunately, something tells me that Congress won’t execute on most of the recommendations. It will be spun into, “don’t cut this, cut th…at” or “don’t change that rule, change the other one”. To be continued… (Click here to read article)
Bill Gross and His November 2010 Investment Outlook
Bill Gross manages over $250 billion in assets, through the Pimco’s Total Return strategy… His investment firm PIMCO is responsible for overseeing about $750 billion in investor funds. His “Investment Outlook” for November 2010 is a very fitting piece, given today is electio…n day. His outlook for this month starts with his view on the current political process, with no flattering words for either party. However, his real focus is…
Feds Charge Berg With Fraud on Investments
This is why I welcome more oversight for my industry. This type of fraud does nothing but discourage investors, destroy confidence, and ultimately destroy the lives of those people who have been defrauded. This is also why it is important for investment advisors and portfolio managers to be transparent in their business operations and as forthcoming as possible in all our activities. It also points to the need for investors…
Lobbying Interests and Regulatory Reform
An interesting look into the intense lobbying of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by business to help shape the new financial regulatory rules enacted to help manage the largely unregulated derivatives market. Notably, this quote: “The law gives the CFTC jurisdiction over commodity, interest rate and some cred…it default swaps, the largest share of the derivatives markets. The financial stakes are high. U.S. commercial banks held derivatives with a notional…
Jobs Report – Bad? Good?
At first glance, today’s jobs report looks bleak. In total 95,000 workers lost their jobs in September. Governments cut about 159,000 jobs. While businesses added 64,000 jobs. Netting out to the 95,000 job loss number. However, this means we are heading in the right direction, albeit slowly. Less government jobs, m…eans governments are cutting spending and trying to address looming deficits. More private jobs, means business activity is maintaining momentum…
Credit Quality De-Mystified
A very good read on fixed income (bond) mutual fund credit qualities… a little hard to believe it took Morningstar this long to update and publish credit quality ratings in this manner. As the article points out, the previous system was based on simple averaging of credit qualities in the portfolio, assuming a linear relationship i n default rates. Well, default rates go up in a non-linear fashion, when credit…
Debt
Debt is a BIG issue. Its a big issue for the global economy. Its a big issue for our US domestic economy. It is a big issue for individual consumers… you could easily show a correlation between a countries debt and the personal debt of its citizens. Notice how it is the “developed” economies of the US, Japan, Australia and Europe with the highest concentrations of debt? (Click on link to…