by Barron Maestro on April 27, 2012
In the first part of a four-part investigation, PBS Frontline focuses on the business with enormous global reach and influence: banking. The topic “Money, Power and Wall Street” is certainly more important than anything being discussed in the presidential campaign. The excesses and aggressive risk-taking of the financial industrial complex dwarf all other influences on the economy. The banking madness was sickeningly exposed during the financial crisis and stock market crash over 3 years ago.
As the first episode states, the recession destroyed $11 trillion of American’s net worth. 8.5 million workers lost their jobs. “Wall Street got bailed out and Main Street didn’t,” is the refrain justifying the Occupy Wall Street protests.
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by Barron Maestro on April 4, 2012
Julie Creswell of The N.Y. Times writes about the challenges facing pension funds in a low return world. Apparently the managers of these funds are increasingly turning to alternatives including high fee hedge funds.
Creswell contrasts the $26.3 billion Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System with Georgia’s $14.4 billion municipal retirement system. The Pennsylvania pension fund has bet the house on riskier alternatives with 46% of its assets in 400 private equity, venture capital and real estate funds. Georgia’s state law prohibits alternative investments.
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by Barron Maestro on March 30, 2012
Lou Dobbs interviewed a veteran Wall Street observer from days gone by, Harvey Eisen, regarding his views on the future direction of stock prices. Eisen gained minor fame as a regular on Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street Week. Its probably been around 20 years since I’ve seen him, but he still looks about the same. Eisen is currently the Chairman of Bedford Oak Advisors.
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by Barron Maestro on March 1, 2012
Larry Swedroe, author of Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them
, has written an enlightening and in-depth article entitled, “On Magical Thinking and Investing,” at IndexUniverse.com.
Swedroe is an advocate of investing in index funds and is a principal and the director of research of Buckingham Asset Management and BAM Advisor Services. He has written 10 other highly regarded books on investing.
Swedroe lays out his case as to why investors engage in self-destructive behavior, or as he puts it, “why do the majority of investors keep playing a loser’s game?”
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by Barron Maestro on October 12, 2011
Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Doom and Boom Report, was interviewed by Joe Kernan on CNBC yesterday and provided his views on liquidity, the dollar and the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Faber said he is looking for continued volatility although it wouldn’t necessarily be to the downside. He was fairly certain the U. S. dollar would continue to be a good long trade.
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by Barron Maestro on August 19, 2011
The Economist has exposed the hedge fund complex as a major disappointment for their investors. Even with the market down they’ve been struggling to match the index averages during this miserable period.
A recent standout to the downside has been John Paulson, hailed a genius for profiting immensely from the real estate downturn in 2008. As of August 5th, his Advantage Plus fund was down 31% for the year and its probably gotten worse since then. Paulson was reportedly a big holder of Hewlett Packard (HPQ), an extremely poor performer year-to-date and a huge loser today.
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Larry Swedroe Bemoans Investor’s “Magical Thinking”
by Barron Maestro on March 1, 2012
Swedroe is an advocate of investing in index funds and is a principal and the director of research of Buckingham Asset Management and BAM Advisor Services. He has written 10 other highly regarded books on investing.
Swedroe lays out his case as to why investors engage in self-destructive behavior, or as he puts it, “why do the majority of investors keep playing a loser’s game?”
Click To Continue →
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