Ex15:26

My Take on This Very Risky Market

Larry,
I'm not sure if you shared anything new here. I would caution you though that your assumption that all life policies should be scrapped is poorly reasoned. I would agree with anyone that there are a tremendous amount of bad insurance companies that sell permanent insurance, however if the policy is a whole life policy it is the one investment that is build to survive your 8% failure scenario (assuming your insurance company has excellent financial strength).
I personally own 2 whole life policies, one with Northwestern Mutual and one with Guardian. Both continue to perform and neither possess anything but less thatn 1/2% of their surplus in either MBS or asset-backed securities. Of all the companies out ther these policies are the last assets that I would sell. In fact my agents and I constructed our plan with these types of scenarios in mind.
Would I suggest have more than 10% or 15% of my networth in permanent insurance? No way! Do you and my financial advisor wish that you would have had a significant amount of your cash in a policy like Northwestern that has actually returned a 5.8% return (net of all expenses - this is not the dividend rate, but the actual Cash RoR over the last 20 years with AAA credit risk)? The answer is "YES! you wish you owned it!"
If you plan on making blanket comments, at least make a concession in your generalization that two companies have outperformed and continue to do so.
While I've latched on to something very specific at the end of your document I take these comments very personally, because quite frankly the permanent insurance policies I own have outperformed most of the indicies for the 1, 3, & 5 years periods easily! By the way, did I mentioned that they are paid up policies now and therefore I own the death benefit and my cash value continues to grow without any premium payments. In other-words, my cash value continues to increase year after year and I pay nothing. My "investment will get better and better with little uncertainty. Perhaps you should mention these two great companies to your advisors so they might actually help their clients rather than guide them to destroy the one asset they may have in their portfolio that might be working. Again, I concede that most companies don't produce - that is why I am blessed that I listened to my Northwestern and Guardian agents!

Cheers.
Ex15:26

Options Trader: Wednesday Outlook

Tell our peace loving brothers in the middle east to tell their soverign wealth funds to stop going long oil (and our pension funds too)....
"We don't have a queue!".... No, you don't need one when you can bid up the px and drive it higher.

RBS Predicts Global Market Crash: What's In It for Them?

Ok, I have to ask....
What's your motive Grace? Why would you post for SA? You do this probably because it is your source of revenue or your passion, or both.

This guy may be talking his own book or may be genuinely warning his clients to get the heck out. I would suggest that it takes more guts to take a stand like this and warn your clients than sit in the office and cross your fingers and write a commentary that states that the US is not in an official recession. I for one disregard everything my firm's economist writes because it's as bullish as Abby Joseph Cohen in February of 2000. How refreshing that someone would come out and try to scare the wits out of everyone. If his boys make a few bucks who cares, GS trades against their clients and the street thinks that is a great thing!

1990 All Over Again?

Hey, I'm not saying that in 6 months we might have a rebound, I'm just going to make a bunch more money than the shepeople and the CNBC crowd that think every day, month, or 1/2 year is going parabolic up.

1990 All Over Again?

H-Bomb,
They characterized Noah the way you characterize folks that have a glass half full view of our economy. Just because they aren't nuts like GWB suggesting that the economy is getting better doesn't mean that they are proclaiming the end of the world. Why not make money when everything else is losing value (real estate, banks, equities) and everything else is costing a lot more (groceries and fuel)----oh, I'm sorry, enery didn't go up any when seasonally adjusted by the great folks in the government..... right, gas is up 100% Y-O-Y yet inflation is up only modestly at .2%.

Get short, you might be happier.