Closed-end fund IRL This chapter on CEFs of the ICI Factbook shows that CEFs are a rather tiny segment of funds - there were 494 CEFs with total AUM of $279 billion only as of
12/2020. They are the oldest form of funds that have existed since late
1800s but are rather complex in structure and never caught on with the masses. About 38% are equity CEFs and 62% bond CEFs. Mutual funds (OEFs) came along in late
1920s and ETFs in early
1990s.
https://www.icifactbook.org/21_fb_ch5.htmlIreland IRL is quite concentrated, not leveraged, has a high ER of
1.96% (0.65% for management is OK but
1.3
1% "other" is high considering that there is no leverage), has high distribution due to managed-distribution policy (many CEFs do) but its large discount has persisted. One has to know more about Ireland, N Ireland, UK and EU to be exposed to IRL. Strong dollar also cuts into the return for the US investors.
Barron's Yogi,
Your $5 news stand price seemed way too low. So I checked. You are correct. Just $5 an issue for the paper edition. What bargain! For me it has paid for itself many times over during the past year. (To be perfectly accurate here, I subscribe to the Kindle edition of Barron’s at around $
12.50 monthly. As far as I can tell - it is pretty much the same as the print edition.)
And - nice to hear
@Sven subscribes …
Powell or Brainard Will Struggle to Align Hikes With Hiring Goal
Powell or Brainard Will Struggle to Align Hikes With Hiring Goal Here's a different take. The op ed writers agree that the decision is political. But they feel that the political calculation comes down to bipartisanship (Powell (R)) vs. greater regulation that would factor in climate change (Brainard (D)).
They also note that aside from Jimmy Carter, every incoming president since Truman but one reappointed the sitting chair for at least one term.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/opinion/federal-reserve-biden-powell-brainard.html
Closed-end fund IRL As long as you're comfortable with the fact that 33% of the fund's portfolio is in these two stocks--CRH,19.41%, and Flutter Entertainment,13.82%--then it could be an interesting play.
Delete. +1. And thank you. :) . I'm going to bookmark that link!
QE, Wealth Concentration, And Political Risk For those who can access SeekingAlpha, Lyn Alden Schwartzer has added another stimulating discussion. Really, such a good paper. I hope you find it interesting and useful.
SA Article
Powell or Brainard Will Struggle to Align Hikes With Hiring Goal Perhaps some portion of the population that "retired" during the pandemic will stay retired long term. And, perhaps some younger people who were previously in dual worker households and who opted out of the labor force during the pandemic will remain at home long term thereby causing the the number of single worker households to increase. I suspect both of those changes in the composition of the workforce may be happening. Those issues will factor into the Fed's decision about when to start raising interest rates. That decision will also need to wrestle with the Fed's maximum employment mandate:
Complicating the decision-making and posing a challenge for communications is the much-hailed revamping of the central bank’s strategy in August and September 2020.
Chair Powell, Governor Brainard and colleagues agreed then it would “be appropriate” to keep borrowing costs ultra-low until maximum employment was reached, which they redefined as a “broad-based and inclusive goal.”
One problem: The Fed’s policy framework doesn’t address how officials should balance risks between inflation and employment, an omission drawing criticism from economists such as Harvard University’s Jason Furman, who led former President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Powell or Brainard Will Struggle
Social Security Claiming Strategies - Claim Early & Invest
Inflation "But the Journal also noted a less publicized element of this story: Many companies, it turns out, are taking advantage of the situation to push through price increases that are over and above what would be warranted by their own higher costs. The result: Two-thirds of big companies are now enjoying higher profit margins than before the pandemic."
"Stocks have also delivered demonstrably better returns than gold, which has a reputation—undeserved, in my opinion—of providing inflation protection. That’s why, even if you think inflation will keep going, I still wouldn’t recommend any drastic change to your portfolio. The stocks you already own may do the job quite well."Link
Inflation John Authers looks at inflation through the lens of the labor market.
"We can put the question of whether the latest dose of inflation is transitory to sleep; it isn’t, and many find it offensive to say so. But the question of how serious elevated price inflation will be and how long it will last is much more interesting, and much harder to answer."Link
Inflation
World Stock Funds-Are they a viable alternative? Thanks for bringing MIEX to our attention. I did my due diligence on it and was excited to buy it when I found that Schwab unfortunately doesn’t offer it. Starting to review SCIEX now instead. A bit more volatile but almost same performance over a 10 year period.
SEC Chairman Gensler A conversation with current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
Video
