Rising stock prices often have a way of covering up significant woes. Many journalists and market prognosticators had all but buried the Eurozone debt crisis, declaring that bankrupt member nations had discovered a viable path forward. Not surprisingly, the facts are starting to trip up the rhetoric. Spain’s economy shrank 0.7% in the final quarter of [...] [...more]
The yield on a ten-year treasury bond is very close to recovering 2%. That may sound ridiculously low when placed in a historical context. On the other hand, funds like iShares 10-20 Year Treasury (TLH) have logged -2.1% returns year-to-date, precisely because the 10-year’s yield has gained 0.25% in 4 short weeks. On a day when [...] [...more]
There’s a tendency in the financial media to wrap-up calendar years with a focus on the “winners” and “losers.” Inevitably, a large number of unsophisticated investors will allocate money to the so-called best performers, while avoiding any commitment to the underachievers. Herein lies one of the biggest mistakes that ETF enthusiasts make. Specifically, they view success [...] [...more]
Over the last 20+ years, my opinions have aroused emotional reactions from readers and listeners alike. And the forum — national talk radio, podcast, newspaper, magazine, digital ink — has been far less critical than the topics themselves. For example, I was one of a handful of original ETF advocates in the mid-90s when few people [...] [...more]
