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.
Support MFO
Donate through PayPal
LewisBraham
Hi Hank,
Your satire came across very well. Don't worry about the user name.
Best,
Lewis
@Rono It's not stupidity. It's just that you can't win West Virginia with a real Democrat: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/could-manchin-actually-leave-the-democratic-party/
In the same issue: "These Pros Aren’t Worried About Inflation and Stagflation. Where to Invest Next." https://barrons.com/articles/these-pros-arent-worried-about-inflation-and-stagflation-where-to-invest-next-51634953101?mod=read_next
But Milken is …
One interesting ETF is XSOE Wisdom tree "ex-state owned industries" that focuses on companies not contaminated by state control, figuring they will preform better.
Let's say you have two CEOs in China. One runs a company that is state controlled and…
It's rare for a rate hike on the front end to be too large from the Fed. But rates can surge more in the middle maturity and long maturity part of the yield curve as they are market driven, not set by the Fed. Volcker was probably the last Fed guy t…
Reason: Taxes need to go up to replace the outdated parts of our water system infrastructure, but many people don't want their taxes to go up. Better that some drink toxic water is the prevailing viewpoint. It's a familiar problem.
A lot depends I think on how fast rates rise and how much. A gradual increase probably won't hurt bonds much. A rapid increase would. In a scenario where 10-year corporates yield 3% and new issues suddenly yield 6% because of an inflation or default…
Given that bond yields are so low currently, I would recommend buying these funds only directly from Vanguard or perhaps Firstrade. Otherwise, transaction costs at other brokers can significantly eat into your returns in this case.
Humor me and acknowledge that taxes are a fundamental building block of civilization and pay for services that you and/or your friends and loved-ones personally need and have used.
Wouldn't it be more honest if people who boasted of not paying taxes also boasted of the consequences such as saying "I've stiffed soldiers, police officers, firemen, teachers, etc. of their salaries since 2012 and I found a way to keep stiffing the…
“I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
A broader discussion of regressive and progressive taxes might be useful. Sales taxes on necessary goods--and necessary is a debatable term obviously--are regressive…
Note the language in the original story that the survey of economists was done by "the Initiative on Global Markets Forum (the University of Chicago Booth School of Business." These are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford economists surveyed by a…
One question I have: If governments issue Treasury Bonds, municipal bonds and other sovereign bonds to finance their operations and public programs, and these bonds are purchased by wealthy investors seeking interest, how can that be considered "soc…
You might find this interesting: https://money.usnews.com/financial-advisors/articles/q-a-blackrocks-jeff-rosenberg-on-systematic-fixed-income-investing
There is also a belief that there is no way to fairly tax people to pay down the deficit-spending without destroying America. I can think of a few ways based on who benefited the most from previous government/taxpayer-funded bailouts:
Isn't it funny how when it's government spending to bailout the banks and securities markets, it's saving America but when it's government spending to build/repair roads, bridges, and Internet infrastructure, and to provide healthcare and housing fo…
By that logic, it seems like this fund will be run by the younger junior members of the analytical team, which seem to have more of a geographic rather than industry focus: Juliette Douglas, Ben Gardiner, Spencer Hackett, Phil Naylor and Connor Whip…
What on earth is it? It’s the financial communities latest innovation in their ongoing efforts to separate you from your wealth, without ever having you notice (Cf “Where are the customer’s yachts?” and “portfolio manager” in The Devil’s Financial D…
Succession planning is always tricky, but especially so at boutique firms where the manager's name is on the door. But more disclosure well in advance of retirement generally helps.
To me, it's hard to tell in this case what's real and what's just rhetoric--from WSJ, which has its own very capitalist slant, and from China, which has a socialist image to maintain. But assuming Xi's rhetoric has teeth, the real play here is not t…
PRIJX, LVAZX, BEMAX, the new Dodge & Cox fund DODEX, and a number of ETFs run by DFA, DFAE, Avantis, AVEM, and Research Afilliates, PXH, are also value oriented.
True, but I tend to favor the humor that, like good journalism, comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable, the kind that speaks truth to power, not kicks people who are already down. Making fun of a king or dictator appeals to me more than…
The underperformance unfortunately goes beyond 2015-16. Prior to this year in which the fund is winning, Sequoia has underperformed its Morningstar Large-Cap Growth fund category peers for seven straight calendar years. Admittedly, one could argue i…
One thing I question is the assumption that an ETF can’t close to investors. They have in the past I believe but for bad non-capacity issues, like liquidity issues with the underlying securities. After closing, the ETF would effectively become a clo…
Bill knows a few things about the subject of trash:
https://dealbreaker.com/2018/06/famed-bad-breakup-artist-bill-gross-is-allegedly-painting-his-disgusting-masterpiece
https://dealbreaker.com/2021/07/sue-gross-selling-house
The fundamental problem is whether those predicting inflation are right or not. If they're right, bonds in funds like VWINX and many normally defensive funds are a problem when interest rates go up because of inflation. But I think it is by no mean…
I am often most interested in reading the three-star reviews, which seem more likely to be written by a neutral party to me. If I see too many five star reviews written all around the same time period, using similar glowing language it's a definite …
Well, where would the military-industrial complex be without our useless wars? That $500 billion a year we spent went into some folks' pockets. If 9-11 had been treated as a crime committed by individual terrorists instead of an act of war committed…
