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.
Hi @DanHardy
You noted: "and lower costs to the consumer."
Do you mean the health care consumer?
Everything that requires humans! If people are not off work due to illness productivity increases.
You should be begging to pay MORE for your healt…
I think Paul Krugman would say that these higher premiums are a good thing. They keep insurance companies in the plan, increase GDP, allow the hiring of workers, allow for higher paid workers who then spend money, increase the health of the workers…
jeez, just read up a few inches
>> Maybe ACA is going to kill us all. In any case, it is reckoned with as it unfolds, by and large, not down the road, invisibly. I thought (somehow) that was your point.
>> (And do you have better ideas…
Wait, you are citing a 2.5yo article from a Kristol rightwing mag? Seriously?
Talk about not knowing things.
Read the CBO's latest report if 2.5 years is too old for you.
As for debt, what matters is percentage of GDP, not total, and there are legitimate arguments about that percentage, and of course about taxation and spending.
But we've been through that already here. It's not like a household with credit cards…
What future obligations for ACA? What are you talking about? No one's kicking it down the road so far as I can see from reading.
I see you don't know about the future costs of Obamacare. I'm not going to go into it considering all the informatio…
@Old_Joe said Most of my life I actually thought that by and large the people of this country were a bit special
@DanHardy said
Every major power thought they were special ... until they were not.
Here is an essay ( opinion) from five years ago tha…
I was fortunate to have a rare seat at "Hamilton" about a year ago. The two political antagonists settled their long-standing dispute with a duel on the banks of the Hudson, where one of them died. And I've long known that our leaders are/were not s…
The USSR has absolutely nothing to do with my comments.
It answers your question, not your comments.
" Can you imagine the United States having been founded by people of the present calibre of leadership, integrity and intellect?"
You'll have to come up with a better source of propaganda than the "United Church of God". (Which "god" was that, again?)
Your wish fulfilled.
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fate-Empires-Search-Survival/dp/B…
We were a bit special, at least at the beginning. Can you imagine the United States having been founded by people of the present calibre of leadership, integrity and intellect?
They can't even govern, much less bring a nation into being.
Yes, it wa…
Did someone say "Circus"?
As in "this place is a circus and the clowns are in charge".
Most of my life I actually thought that by and large the people of this country were a bit special. What a joke. And Musk thinks it's a great idea to export all…
The Good News ... While 3Q2016 reported earnings are projected to again be in decline 4Q2016 year-over-year reported earnings are project to increase by about 8% or so.
From a valuation point of view my valuation study is showing that stocks are cu…
a greater fool process in place
That's it.
While I think we will have low rates for about 5+ years, all bets are off after that.
The cause of the inflation after that? My guess is that gov't spending will come home to roost as investors lose …
MJG: “The failure that I perceive is not a national failure. It is the failure of the individual and/or the individual family unit…. The problem would quickly desolve if we just practiced the saving discipline that many of us displayed until roughly…
Many of the remaining jobs now require additional schooling. For ex, housekeepers in a hospital in the state I lived in used to be trained on the job. Now they have to be certified by taking a 9 month comm. college course. The job I had was on the …
Sometimes as early as the 1840s, William Henry Harrison said something that approached " the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". The industrial revolution had already started and it was hoped that major poverty would be eliminated. The data …
Why stop at human capital? Why not include:
Legal capital
Social capital
Infrastructure capital
Environmental capital
Health care capital
Educational capital
Nutritional capital
Financial Markets & systems capital
I agree with the sentiment - though IMHO it is better to try to give a hand up (however one feels that is best done) than to simply be thankful for one's own situation.
Can't a person do both. Maybe be thankful first than give a hand up?
Defined pensions are a thing of the past. Only about 5% of workers have them and 50% of those work for gov't.
Speaking of fuzzy statistics, this number sounds way off. Pensions are declining, but not nearly that fast. As of 2011, 18% of privat…
SS doesn't figure prominently into my retirement planning much since who knows how much I'll get (or what's in the SS fund!) when I reach that age ... as such, whatever I might get when I do retire will be an 'extra' and be appreciated at the time. …
If the figure above is representative of US general population, we are in trouble unless the they have a healthy social security and generous pension.
Defined pensions are a thing of the past. Only about 5% of workers have them and 50% of those…
It may be a bad time.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/debut-of-sp-real-estate-category-means-hot-interest-for-this-sector-etf-2016-09-19
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/xlre?mod=MW_story_hoverquote
Right, it should go without saying that with all short-term investing, volatility sure as heck equates to risk, without question. Game of chance and all that.
I think we can conclude that tautologically, empirically, antidisestablishmentarianism and…
In this Buffett discussion; the whole quote is needed.
The point is that Buffett is saying nothing more then he has always said. Invest for the long term in a widely-diversified stock portfolio. And when you consider inflation, it is easy to unde…
Tautological, and in any case as total-market / undiversifiable risk is not really what's under discussion.
Only objective risk fits the discussion and beta provides that. Objective risk is the probability of an occurrence and beta provides that…
So ... is that the chief point you are trying to make? I think not. And if it is, well, what if one does NOT tend to sell?
Finally, here is the misleading subhed:
Volatility is a superb measure of how risky a fund is.
It sounds like this is wha…
I'm thinking (pondering) that this is the beginning of something bigger to come.
Is the fear of a rate increase the catalyst for this move or are there another reasons?
Dry powder at the ready. Fed and elections are going to reek havoc on the markets and have to be ready to scoop up some nice high quality companies at discounts.
There was a time when people their economic dots with the election of the president. I…
Once I adhered to very firm percentages for various portfolio areas. I learned that this (1) was resulting in an extraordinarily high number of fund exchanges and (2) was leading me to sell rising assets way too soon and forgo a lot of upside. Fo…
Glad to hear it. I just bought a RAM 2500 8 towing, 12 city & 17 highway mpg.
If things ever settle down in the Middle East (doubtful) that area could benefit from the new technology and infrastructure rebuilding.
What if this is true?
htt…
