Is the buy-and-hold portfolio strategy dead? Morningstar has been discussing the question lately, and the answer is that, well, it’s complicated.
Author Archives: James Picerno
BERNANKE’S READING LIST
What’s on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s reading list these days? He was asked that question earlier this month during testimony to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the government’s investigative posse charged with finding the smoking guns that triggered the financial crisis of 2008 and its evil twin, the Great Recession. One recommendation from the nation’s central banker in chief: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
IT’S OFFICIAL: OBAMA PICKS GOOLSBEE AS ECO ADVISER
As expected, President Obama chose Austan Goolsbee as the new head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He is the replacement for the outgoing Christina Romer. Goolsbee, as AP reports today, “is already a central player on the Obama economic team, having served on the three-member economic council since the start of the administration. His relationship with Obama dates back to the 2008 presidential campaign, when he served as a senior economic policy adviser.”
THE NEW PUBLISHING SCHEDULE FOR THE BETA INVESTMENT REPORT
FYI for my newsletter subscribers…
Starting in September, The Beta Investment Report is published in multiple editions throughout each month. Previously, the newsletter was published in single monthly editions. Issues sent to subscribers so far this month:
9 September 2010 (Vol. 2 No. 9.5) “ETF, ETN & Index Fund News”
8 September 2010 (Vol. 2 No. 9.4) “Fund Focus: Foreign Gov’t Bonds
In Developed Markets”
3 September 2010 (Vol. 2 No. 9.3) “Rebalancing & Bonds”
2 September 2010 (Vol. 2 No. 9.2) “Economic Review”
1 September 2010 (Vol. 2 No. 9.1) “Risky Assets Take A Hit In August”
HOUSING & THE GREAT RECESSION
Steven Gjerstad (presidential fellow at Chapman University) and economics professor Vernon Smith (also at Chapman) connect the dots between the housing market and the business cycle in a recent study. Unfortunately, they don’t like what they see in the current climate. As they explain in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that summarizes their research, “If there is no recovery in housing expenditures, confirmed by a recovery in consumer durable goods expenditures, then there is no economic recovery.” And in case you were wondering, there’s no housing recovery to speak of at the moment.
JOBLESS CLAIMS DROP SHARPLY. CAN WE BELIEVE IT?
Seasonally adjusted jobless claims fell last week by 27,000—the biggest weekly drop in nearly two months and quite a bit more than the 2,000 retreat that economists generally were expecting. The news is a breath of fresh air for the business cycle, although it comes with some caveats. Nonetheless, the headline trend for the moment looks quite a bit better today: new filings for unemployment benefits dropped to 451,000 for the week through September 4, the lowest since early July.
EMERGING MARKETS POISED TO GRAB MORE GLOBAL GDP & MARKET CAP
It’s old news that emerging markets are expected to grow at rates in the years ahead that will make the developed world look stagnant. But the details still impress whenever new estimates are published.
IS OBAMA’S BUSINESS INVESTMENT TAX CREDIT TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?
President Obama is scheduled to announce a round of new tax breaks today for corporate America in a bid to stimulate the economy. The timing is no surprise. Worries persist that the already weak economic rebound is still faltering.
BOOKS NOTED ON THE CAPITAL SPECTATOR
Please note the new “Book Store” link at the top of the page. Any and all books discussed on these pages are listed here.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT ECONOMICS
Has economics failed?
Yes, judging by the criticism heaped upon the dismal science in recent years. Macroeconomists in particular, we’re told, were blind to the rising risks that eventually killed the economic expansion and unleashed the Great Recession—the deepest contraction since the Great Depression in the 1930s. In fact, economics is at once the problem and the solution, as Roger Backhouse argues in an intriguing new book: The Puzzle of Modern Economics: Science or Ideology?
