As an investment strategy, equal weighting has two powerful attributes: it’s simple and it’s competitive. That’s a tough combination to beat. For some thoughts on why equal weighting does well, take a look at my article in the December issue of Financial Advisor: Model-Free Investing.

New filings for unemployment benefits dropped again last week, falling 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 364,000. That’s a relatively modest decline, but it’s encouraging because it follows last week’s big drop that pulled new weekly claims down to a 3-1/2 year low. The fact that the previous tumble didn’t reverse offers one more data point for thinking that the recent slide in jobless claims is the real deal. If so, the outlook for the labor market is somewhat brighter, which of course is the critical variable these days in reading the macro tea leaves for the U.S.

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ECB unleashes a wall of money
Financial Times | Dec 21
If the answer to the eurozone crisis was a “wall of money”, it was provided on Wednesday by the European Central Bank. More than 500 banks borrowed a total of €489bn in three-year loans – equivalent to about 5 per cent of eurozone gross domestic product and the largest amount provided in a single ECB liquidity operation.
A Central Bank Doing What It Should
NY Times | Dec 22
After long resisting the kind of financial force Washington used at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, European central bankers on Wednesday pumped nearly $640 billion into the Continent’s banking system. The move raised hopes that the money could alleviate the region’s credit squeeze.

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