ladders11

Will Water ETFs Be 'Blue Gold'?

Water could be a major issue, but that doesn't guarantee investor returns.

These ETFs feature many chemical companies as water treatment is a chemical process. Input costs cannot be ignored. Furthermore, water is, as the post above states, largely a public good. I don't see any guarantee that water companies will achieve pricing power or be able to control input costs. Meanwhile, several major companies involved in water are debt-laden and shedding assets (including VE & GE).

Also the ETFs have expense ratios pushing 1.0%, and they're filled with companies less than half-engaged with water treatment and filtration - most simply aren't doing business in China. And frankly, GE is the dominant player in the water industry yet they're too big to be included in the funds.

Sorry, Not Everything Can Be Hedged

Dr. Shiller is making a legitimate normative statement that the ability to hedge certain exposures would limit risk for many people in certain situations, thereby liberating ordinary individuals from some market risks, and enabling life decisions to be based on non-financial factors. The very concept of a 30-year mortgage exposes an individual or family to significant market risk. If you are 100% certain that you will never need to move, this risk is acceptable. But if your income situation then changes, and moving becomes more likely than not, it may be prudent to limit market risk.

Markets follow people and people follow markets. With sufficient liquidity, the market for a local house price ETF would resemble the market for a local house. Consider the Manhattan real estate market: investors abound, and they aren't doing much more than speculating on the price of buildings. Call it "gambling" if you must. But if you are simply employed in Manhattan, and wishing to live near work, you currently have no means to accomplish this end without delving into this investor's world. With an efficient ETF available to short Manhattan RE, you may lower market risk sufficient to enable you to live near work.

The real estate bubble caused unnecessary friction, e.g. living in New Jersey and commuting to save rent money, or moving to Atlanta where homes are still affordable. This bubble couldn't have occurred without investors who had no interest in occupying the buildings they owned. New York real estate is a "gambling" market - but also a real market. If your family lives there and that's where you want to live, you're required to gamble on prices, and in fact, a functional hedging market would enable you to offset your gamble and minimize the risks.

Meanwhile, options are a good thing where I live. This article throws some unnecessary insults towards Dr. Shiller, who has an extensive track record of significant work in economics and finance, and fails to back them up. But the tragedy of this article is the suggestion that certain markets should be illegal. I don't see evidence that David Merkel has thought through these questions systematically.

Rolling Stone's poison-penned Matt Taibbi lays waste to Goldman Sachs (GS), again. Here's the intro: "From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again..."

I'm not so sure about RS.

Buy Hemispherix Before Ampligen's FDA Approval

David, HEB is a sick joke. Sorry. Anyone who buys this stock will lose money.

Hemispherx Biopharma: Hot and Likely to Get Hotter

You could drive a truck through the holes in this story.

This is Not a Bull Market: Stocks Are Not Up, and They’re Headed Even Lower

@dividendmachine: I agree. Companies with pricing power, non-dollar cash flows, and consistent dividends, in safe industries.

I own JNJ PEP MMM ABB CHL among others.

This is Not a Bull Market: Stocks Are Not Up, and They’re Headed Even Lower

Your chart cuts off mid-2008. Misleading.

Instead of taxing sugary soda, why not just tax high fructose corn syrup? Except that considering the current, massive subsidies to the U.S. sugar industry, you'd then have self-canceling public policy.

Self-canceling public policy is right. A soda tax is stupid. What a stupid idea.

Hard to believe at first glance, but Ford (F) CEO Alan Mulally would like to see a gas tax that guarantees a price floor of $4/gallon - which he figures will prod small-car sales. Welcome to government-run energy policy.

F basically wants consistency: they don't want to ramp-up small car design and production only to see consumers shift back into trucks and suvs. They were caught making suvs when gas spiked, and now they don't want to be caught making compacts when gas is cheap.

The Obama bear: Stocks are now down 20% since inauguration day. "It speaks to the carnage that’s in the economy and the lack of confidence in the measures that have been announced."

The market tanked when GWB took over too. I'm not partisan - just observing the facts.

Eight Companies That Are Hiking Dividends

VE is down 80%. That makes the yield higher - please note that most foreign companies don't pay quarterly dividends - VE pays annually. I would be surprised if they were to raise their dividend here.


On Mar 03 12:34 PM Sober Realist wrote:

> How about VE - the highest dividend I've ever seen. Any insight on
> this one?

State Street Foreign Bond ETF Too Risky for My Taste

None of the "corrected" links work now either.

State Street get it together please. It shouldn't be so hard to create and post a fact sheet about your fund.

Small Caps Stand to Gain when Hedge Funds Jump Back In

What about VBR? Small cap value has a better return over the last 100 years. I'm not sure about the methodology: price to book and *forward* p/e ratio? Does this make sense?

Similar charts anyhow.

The End of the Dollar and All Fiat Currencies

I've been reading junk like this for years. I like to read different perspectives, but when gold is the subject, I just like to skim: Ron Paul, The Pope, Alexander Hamilton, "Don't trust Canada". Whenever there's an article about gold, there's these five paragraph posts with all of these theories. Inevitably, there are comments about who is/isn't a "true" American, and multiple comments like "you have ALOT to learn".

Hate to say it folks, but I agree with the person who suggests buying a diverisifed portfolio of assets. That is all. Go ahead and tell me to read/study history, suggest that I'll surely be standing in the breadlines with the masses, threaten that I'll be enslaved... when "all this paper" becomes worthless. If you're right, you're right; meanwhile, I'll continue to act like a reasonable adult.

'Hope and Hold' ETF Portfolios Somewhat Worse for Wear

Sorry that I clicked your link to what you allege to be your proof of ability ("Wisdom of Avoiding the Big Loss.") - great call on the dividend funds Gary too bad they're overweight financials. You and the MSN guy both have no clue but at least he can write coherently.