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.
@Sven,
On the contrary, this makes a lot of sense.
Trump appointed a compromised, subservient IRS commisioner.
He leveraged this appointment to:
1) impede his IRS tax audits and the subsequent release of his tax returns
2) utilize IRS tax audits …
I sold DODIX and then bought a stable value fund late last year.
Plan to get back into DOXIX (replaced DODIX in 401k) soon.
Dodge & Cox is a good firm.
Why do people think foreign looks best over the next ten years? Valuations? I've heard that for years now.
Seems to me there are a lot of headwinds from inflation, and collateral damage from the war in Europe. Neither of those has a predictable end…
Old_Joe,
I've also watched PBS Newshour for many years.
One of the episodes (shortly after Jan. 6 insurrection?) was the source of David Brooks's statement.
@Anna, from an article in todays NY Times:
"At a news conference on Tuesday, Damian Williams, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, called on “any person, entity or political campaign that has received stolen customer mo…
Excerpts from Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American (12/15) regarding the Trump NFTs.
"Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and Republican who now monitors right-wing extremism, tweeted: 'All I can say is that those of us who ha…
@sven
I think it is possible for a hacker to impersonate your phone SIM card and break the two factor authentication.
I use LastPass but not for financial sites.
Does anyone knw any more about LastPass hack? second time this year but company s…
Wow, I would not have guessed there would be so much drama regarding account aggregation!
This wasn't a controversial investing topic like active vs. passive or domestic vs. foreign. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
OK, we seem to be saying that an aggregator such as Yodlee just adds another window of opportunity for a hacker. But couldn't a hacker do pretty much the same thing at any on-line bank, mutual fund or broker? After all, all of those place have our c…
The Primecap funds have certainly endured a few years of bad luck -- POAGX in particular was perfectly positioned to crater when covid struck as it had outsized stakes in things like airlines and cruise lines. Yet the fund is idiosyncratic, that's …
Excerpt from The Long View podcast episode (published 12/14/2021) featuring Mr. Bengen.
Benz: How about the reverse of that where you believe that equity valuations are notably scary? Would it be advisable to potentially take the equity weighting w…
[snip]
Hell LastPass recently got hacked, in effect LastPass is the equivalent of an account aggregator but much worse since it has a lot more confidential stuff than just financial accounts.
That's why I'm wary of cloud-based password managers.
I…
If an account aggregator is breached and your account incurs losses as a result,
the broker may not reimburse you for these losses.
Fidelity Customer Protection Guarantee
"Also not covered is any activity by an employer/plan administrator, financ…
Primecap is an admirable fund firm.
They've generated excellent long-term returns managing several Vanguard mutual funds.
POAGX is a tad too aggressive for me.
I prefer VPMAX and VPCCX instead but they are closed to most new investors.
Sam Bankman-Fried made nearly $40M in political contributions for the 2022 election cycle.
So, will recipients return what remains of these tainted funds?
Link
I've briefly used the account aggregation feature at Fidelity or Vanguard years ago.
It's nice to view "one pane of glass" but the increased security risk wasn't worth it for me.
As yogi mentioned, account credentials must be provided to the data ag…
I performed a Portfolio X-Ray yesterday.
US Stocks___41.98%
Non-US Stocks___23.12%
Bonds___0.00%
Cash___34.83%
Other?___0.06%
I sold my intermediate core-plus bond fund late last year due to concerns about rising rates.
My ultra-short term bond f…
For all practical purposes, there were no real consequences for federal debt as a result of the S&P downgrade.
However, it was extremely foolish to engage in political gamesmanship and risk the U.S. debt rating.
Felix Zulauf was a former long-time member of Barron's Roundtable.
From my recollection, Mr. Zulauf was always bearish in the Roundtable sessions.
I don't know how accurate his prognostications have been.
In an unprecedented move, S&P downgraded long-term federal debt from AAA to AA+
in 2011 when politicians were squabbling over the debt ceiling.
It's statement said in part:
"We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that th…
@AndyJ,
Thanks for the webcast info!
Felix Zulauf is a former long-time member of Barron's Roundtable.
IIRC, Mr. Zulauf was always bearish in the Roundtable sessions.
He states his predictions in the current issue of Barron's.
No surprise - he's ra…
According to Mr. Hyman...
The economy is slowing, inflation is coming down, and the Fed has done a good part of its work.
Housing is showing the most weakness. Trucking survey (highest correlation with GDP of any single sector) is near recessionary…
I was happy with Washington Mutual (WaMu) for a number of years.
They had many branches close to my home, their personnel were friendly, and customer service was great.
Under Kerry Killinger in the 90s, WaMu expanded from 84 branches in 1991 to 248…
Both guests provided interesting insights.
Kraus's thoughts on credit cycles and potential future downgrades/defaults.
Sonders's view of "rolling recessions."
I've started watching Bloomberg Real Yield a few months ago thanks to a recommendation here.
Katie Greifeld seems to always be filling in for Jonathan Ferro.
I think I've seen only one episode hosted by Mr. Ferro.
Just an observation...
Old_Joe made some very good points about posting political commentary in the Off-Topic section.
Politics can be extremely divisive - I've witnessed major kerfuffles on other investment boards.
Graust,
You may want to consider VTMSX in taxable accounts.
Not a truly passive fund because it's managed with tax efficiency in mind.
The fund's principal investment strategy is listed below.
"The Fund purchases stocks included in the S&P Sma…
[snip]
How will small caps perform next year?
No one really know for sure and that ought to depend on how severe the recession will be.
I surely don't know how small-caps will perform next year.
Small-caps generally don't do well in severe recess…
IWM based on R2000 is not a good SC index. Almost 1/3 rd of its companies have no earnings. Russell also has a bad annual rebalancing policy for all of its indexes - the date is preannounced and all is done on a single day, so there is lot of front-…
Barron's current issue also has a feature article about small-cap bargains which I can't access online.
Whaddya know, my small-cap fund (VTMSX) became an even bigger bargain today!
[snip]
Someone predicted that the only he would run for president is to hope the law will not persecute a presidential candidate. How can any person be qualified as a candidate with these serious charges? Let hope the justice will be serve.
I'v…
The noose indeed appears to be tightening...
The following excerpts are from Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American" dated 12/03.
"Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the Washington, D.C., District Court recently rejected Trump’s claims of exec…
