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Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • China’s Record Drought: What effect on world trade and environment?
    Barron's cover story this week is on global water crisis. The US has its own water crisis in Colorado River areas - Lake Mead and Lake Powell are below 30% capacity. Agriculture, semi chips and other production along the River path are affected.
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/water-shortage-drought-investing-51661467637?mod=hp_HERO
  • Powell's Jackson Hole Speech
    I’m not buying it. Markets are still expensive perhaps. Maybe more downside next week. But I’m still optimistic 1-3 years out. Did a little after-hours buying with what little cash I stash in the Roth.
    Powell seems to think, from his remarks, he’s another Paul Volcker and that today’s situation remotely resembles that of the 80s. But Volcker’s 80s followed a decade or more of rising inflation - brought on largely by the ‘baby boomers” joining the job force and buying their first homes, new cars, etc. Than, there was that little budget busting “peace keeping” mission in Vietnam.
    Geez - Less than 2 years ago Powell and his Fed were trying to stoke higher inflation (when they weren’t busy trading the markets for their own personal gain). Now Humble Jerome intends to help the little fella by throwing him out of work. Having no income is a dandy way to “cool demand.” Yes Sir!
  • Vanguard Funds Vs Vanguard Index Funds
    Basic Math
    William Sharpe’s arithmetic of active management is admirably direct: “After costs, the return on the actively managed dollar will be less than the average passively managed dollar,” wrote the good professor in 1991. “These assertions will hold for any time period. Moreover, they depend only on the laws of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Nothing else is required.”
    But Many Vanguard managed fund quietly out perform many Vanguard ETFs
  • Powell's Jackson Hole Speech
    My expectation is that inflation will remain higher than expected for longer than expected.
    The Fed may need to be more aggressive than many anticipate.
    I was watching Bloomberg Surveillance, who historically does a much better job than alternatives when discussing/analyzing Fed moves and rates in general. They interviewed a number of Fed Presidents, and I got the same impression as you described...higher and longer. A few were much more conversant and clear than Powell.
  • WSJ: Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings
    Thanks, @old_joe. Re converting office space into residential property, here is one video from CNBC -
    Other YouTube videos and articles on this topic turned up on google search.
    I am still struggling to find out which financial assets can do OK in the new world order, assuming the post-Covid world order is different from pre-Covid world order (i.e., increase in structural inflation)?
    For lack of better ideas, I bought some PRWCX and SPY today at market close. I disclose this only because in the past few weeks I mentioned in this forum on Aug 12 that I sold some equities (I also sold more equities the following Monday, Aug 15). So, today's buy is just trying to get back to previous equity allocation %age. I am under-weight equities relative to PRWCX, based on Giroux's note to shareholders.
  • Powell's Jackson Hole Speech
    Makes sense to me, @Old_Joe and @Observant1.
    I see a big variable, a big issue with the way gummint manipulates and re-defines the sadistics it uses, over the years. Decades, in fact. Ever since I can remember, in fact. So, what are those sadistics actually telling us? It's anyone's flaming guess. When anyone working even part-time is considered employed, but what they need is a full-time thing. Full-time students making pin-money? "Employed." Students employed P/T to try to pay for university? "Employed." What about the ones who bring home the bacon, the bulk of a family's income? Whether female or male? I know, I know: there's a question in the surveys asking whether anyone working P/T would prefer to be working F/T. Our household was selected at random many years ago to answer the employment survey by punching buttons on the phone.
    ...But then you have all of the distinctions, cut-outs, rearrangements of the sadistics. Look at those numbers, don't look at THOSE OTHER numbers. Like a Chinese menu. Choose 1 from Column A and 2 from Column B, then call me in the morning. Acccchhh. "Lies, damnable lies, then in its own category: SADISTICS.
  • China’s Record Drought: What effect on world trade and environment?
    I've not seen extensive detailed coverage of this situation, but it seems evident that in addition to being a major disaster within China it will also affect world supply-chain commerce. Moreover, it does not bode well for China's efforts to help reduce climate-change emissions.
    Following are excerpts from a lengthy report in the New York Times, heavily edited for brevity:
    HONG KONG — Car assembly plants and electronics factories in southwestern China have closed for lack of power. Owners of electric cars are waiting overnight at charging stations to recharge their vehicles. Rivers are so low there that ships can no longer carry supplies.
    A record-setting drought and an 11-week heat wave are causing broad disruption in a region that depends on dams for more than three-quarters of its electricity generation. The factory shutdowns and logistical delays are hindering China’s efforts to revive its economy. The extreme heat is adding to frustration by snarling power supplies, threatening crops and setting off wildfires. Reduced electricity from hydroelectric dams has prompted China to burn more coal, a large contributor to air pollution and to greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Many cities have been forced to impose rolling blackouts or limit energy use.
    The heat wave has scorched China for more than two months, stretching from Sichuan in the southwest to the country’s eastern coast and sending the mercury above 104 degrees on many days. In Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis in the southwest with around 20 million people, the temperature soared to 113 degrees last week, the first time such a high reading had been recorded in a Chinese city outside the western desert region of Xinjiang.
    The drought has dried up dozens of rivers and reservoirs in the region and cut Sichuan’s hydropower generation capacity by half, hurting industrial production. Volkswagen closed its 6,000-employee factory in Chengdu for the past week and a half, and Toyota temporarily suspended operations at its assembly plant. Foxconn, the giant Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, and CATL, the world’s largest maker of electric car batteries, have both curtailed production at factories in the vicinity.
    In Ezhou, a city in central China near Wuhan, the Yangtze River is now at its lowest level for this time of year since record-keeping began there in 1865. The falling water levels in major rivers that serve the region’s main transport hubs have also led to delays elsewhere in the supply chain. The Yangtze River has receded so much that many oceangoing ships can no longer reach upstream ports. That is forcing China to divert large numbers of trucks to carry their cargo. A single ship can require 500 or more trucks to move its cargo.
    The extreme weather sweeping across China also has potential implications for the world’s efforts to halt climate change. Beijing has sought to offset at least part of the lost hydropower from the drought by ramping up the use of coal-fired power plants. China’s domestic mining of coal has been at or near record levels, and customs data shows that its imports of coal from Russia reached a new high last month.
  • Please, what's the difference?
    Interesting news TODAY, https://www.barrons.com/articles/sec-beijing-audit-china-companies-51661519976?mod=bol-social-tw
    ".....U.S. and China signed a Statement of Protocol, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday, a first step toward allowing American officials to review audit documents of Chinese businesses.
    As part of the agreement, inspectors from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will be able to investigate the audit paperwork of U.S.-listed Chinese and Hong Kong companies. The officials hadn’t been willing to travel to China and Hong Kong unless such an agreement was in place for such a framework.
    The “inspectors must be on the ground by mid-September if their work has any chance to be successfully completed by the end of this year, ” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler....."
  • The bottom are likely in
    Thank you for the detailed breakdown on the bond’s allocation. 8.1% treasury notes appear to be new. Is that his cash position now?
    Going into May-June, he had over 10% in cash and bought stocks.
  • OIL
    Oil may hovering near 75-100s next few months because of still high inflation and volatility,
    Maybe good to place iron-condor -
  • Please, what's the difference?
    Since it seems Level 1 ADRs do not have to file any company financial information with the SEC, is it possible for some of the existing Chinese ADRs to avoid delisting by trading as level 1 ADRs? Sort of grand fathering!
  • PRWCX Semi Annual Report Dated 6/30/22
    Here's the link for the 6/30/22 semi annual report for TRP Capital Appreciation Fund, PRWCX/TRAIX. As usual a very good read.
    https://prospectus-express.broadridge.com/summary.asp?doctype=semi&clientid=trowepll&fundid=77954M105
  • The bottom are likely in
    @Crash
    "I believe David Giroux invests in this BL fund for his bond allocation."
    Per PRWCX/TRAIX Semi Annual Report dated 6/30/22.
    1.6% of fund assets held in TRP Floating Rate Fund, Institutional share class.
    13.3% of assets held directly in bank loans.
    6.9% of assets held in corporate bonds.
    8.1% of assets held in U.S. Treasury Notes
    Here's the link for the 6/30/22 semi annual report that just hit my inbox. As always, a good read.
    https://prospectus-express.broadridge.com/summary.asp?doctype=semi&clientid=trowepll&fundid=77954M105
  • WSJ: Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings
    Reading these comments remind me why I was smart to take the 403(b) option with my state university back in 2010. If I'm going to make/lose money or take on risk, *I* want to be the one responsible, not some politically-tied/appointed 'board' of 'experts.'
  • WSJ: Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings
    @Derf- Most importantly, Me, myself, and I. Also all other SF employees other than teachers and police.
    @hank- I'll have to get back to you on that one. That may have been a misprint... maybe it was actually 12% funded. That would sound more like us.
  • WSJ: Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings
    @Old_Joe,
    Please have them send that excess 12% to Michigan. Underfunded here.
    (Need any water out there? Might be able to work a trade.)
  • WSJ: Pension Funds Are Selling Their Office Buildings
    Speaking of pension funds, I just read the other day that the SF retirement fund is 112% funded. Unbelievable! We finally are doing something right.
  • The bottom are likely in
    +1. yes. It's just a good thing I don't need the money. I can re-invest it. That mitigates the loss. I don't want to be out of bonds, totally.