Chancer

Global Markets in Review: Is the Risk Trade Back On?

Real unemployment is more like 17.5% to 20%. The government understates by half.

I believe they also understate inflation, which in my opinion is increasing now. Food package sizes are being reduced while the same price is charged for the previous larger package.

Utility prices are increasing. Services increase prices or reduce services while charging the old price. Medicare premiums are increasing 14.5% in January; but Social Security is not, because the Feds claim there is no inflation. So, what is the Medicare increase?


On Nov 08 03:43 PM nobby73 wrote:

> Remember, people have to have actively sought work, as an architect,
> in the previous four weeks to qualify as an unemployed architect.
> If people are aware there is simply no work in this field, they will
> either have not looked or will have sought other work.
>
> As the U6 measure has underemployment at 17%+, it stand to reason
> architects are either not seeking work or engaged in other part time
> jobs.

ETFs: The End of Traditional Mutual Funds?

Statistics show that private pension funds, which can invest anywhere, perform twice as good as 401k's which usually only allow investments in one fund family or the (usually worse) offerings of an insurance company adminstrator. Over the long haul, this is harming retirement investments.

However, for individual IRA's and those rolled over from 401k's mutual funds are easier investments than ETFs which probably require you to hold your IRA in a broker's account (at least for now).

This mess is what happens when you have politicians and IRS bureaucrats making up the rules for retirement investing.

And the public wants to give health care to the government, beacuse they have done a great job at everything else. The post office is closing on Saturdays. The government will make your GM hybrid car. Will you get a car that does not run on Saturday?


On Apr 03 06:03 PM Lightway wrote:

> Awesome, I was hoping you would start covering some dividend ETF's.
> I use them to round out my income portfolio, mostly when allocating
> out my bond exposure. I'm really happy with many of the bond ETF
> choices out there, especially their low fees and good income returns.
>
>
> My previous hesitancy with using ETFs was the transaction fee per
> share purchase, which makes them costly if you are investing long
> over time, but using Folio has eliminated that entirely. ETFs used
> to be viewed as renegade day trading vehicles, but they are getting
> alot of respect recently as long term income generators.
>
> I am echoing the sentiments of many of the readers here who are down
> on mutual funds versus ETFs. I am still holding on to some Pimco
> bond funds, and a couple of equity funds, but I'll be cashing out
> my equity funds at the peak of the next bubble and exchanging them
> for ETFs.
>
>
> Mad Hedge Fund Trader,
>
> I hope that our 401K starts giving us some ETF options. I am really
> unhappy with many of the choices we are offered. Ours is administered
> by Fidelty, which seems to be falling behind the times with their
> offerings. It seems more geared towards Modern Portfolio Theory,
> which worked well in 1998, and I still use it (only for 401K since
> that's all we have to choose from), but I'd like to see what I call
> "Modern Portfolio Theory PLUS" type offerings in 401K, which gives
> exposure to asset classes outside of stocks and bonds.