The dog days of summer grind on as markets hunt for direction. While we await that trend, enjoy our morning train reads:
• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Most Financial Research (Advisor Perspectives)
• From $6,000 to $67 billion: Warren Buffett’s wealth through the ages (Marketwatch) but see 70% of Rich Families Lose Their Wealth by the Second Generation (Time)
• Should You Own Foreign Stocks? (Rick Ferri) see also Why you may need more international stock (Fidelity)
• Mario Gabelli: Stock-Picking Treasure or Relic? (WSJ)
• Start Soul Searching, CalPERS CIO Tells Private Equity (CIO)
With 5,597 comments, the “Inside Amazon” story is the most commented-on story in N.Y. Times history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
Well suuuure. New York Times, Paper of Record, Pulitzers, editorials supporting Social Justice. OF COURSE their lazy 47%ers have time to sit around all day and comment.
Here at Big Picture the commentors have LIVES! OK? We’re not sitting around waiting for the New York Times to come out and trash some pro-business policies. No wonder they don’t make any money online! The NYT subscriber base doesn’t like Mitt Romney and the Centrists that are the REAL power in this once-great nation.
New York Times… big frickin’ deal. I’d cancel my subscription if I had one. Not that any of those commentors really do, but are using some university or mobile special to log on.
Don’t knock the 47%ers. We an waste time commenting on blogs just as well.
My problem with the NYTimes article is that the NYTimes has shot its credibility. At any given time they have a bunch of favored sources and anything these sources say the NYTimes takes it as gospel. Judith Miller anyone? How about that recent hit piece claiming that DoJ was ready to prosecute Hilary Clinton? Unlike the MIller BS, the NYTimes has already stared backpedaling on that story even as they deny that they printed garbage.
To be honest, I miss that old site F–kedCompany.com. It was the bitching site for all the malcontents and whiners at soon to be f–ked high tech startups at the turn of the century, but it was also full of hilarious leaked documents. At least it was transparent, and any company showing up on F–kedCompany.com was usually in bankruptcy in short order. With the NYTimes, I can only guess. Who whined to the Times? What corroborating evidence did they provide? What hobby horse were the relevant NYTimes reporter and editor riding?
Germany agrees to Greek Bailout.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/world/europe/angela-merkel-german-parliament-greek-bailout.html
But everybody said Greece would break up the Euro zone and the Euro zone is bad and wrong and I sold!
I think Rick Ferri leaves out two important factors with regards to international investing:
1. People tend to have a home country/continent bias for investing for a wide variety of reasons, including some regulatory structure ones. As a result, there can be some significant pricing differences for similar company profiles (e.g. Europe vs US large cap stocks today ). I view this as “anti-insanity” diversification where periodically a stock market goes nuts (Japan 1989, US 1999) out of step with the rest of the world. Diversifying and rebalancing across borders allows for the gains to be taken and re-invested in under-valued markets.
2. There are different regulatory environments in different countries and so revenue alone doesn’t dictate short or long-term profit potential in different markets. As a result, companies that look very similar on the face (e.g. car companies) can actually have very different operating environments and cultures based on countries of origin.
One risk that I rarely see mentioned is what occurs during a major international conflagration (e.g. WW I and II, Iron Curtain takeover of countries) where there could be an extended suspension of large stock markets to international investors. I have never seen an actual analysis of what occurred to international investors during those periods.
very true. in the US car companies are virulently anti union. in Germany and Japan, and South Korea, not so much.
unless they are adding new plants in the US. where all of the sudden they are as anti union as any other is.
but oddly enough even with all of that, they pay their workers the same as the US companies do.
so its not about cost, but a US only cultural thing
Many of the unions and companies in the US still follow the 1930s model of us vs. them with winners and losers. Many of the companies and unions in Europe try to work together in a modern model towards a common goal of a healthy company with good employment conditions.
some do. but not the auto workers
Couple in Florida to get 15 years for having sex on the Beach
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/05/couple-found-guilty-of-having-sex-on-a-florida-beach/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_3_na
Bring the Bush/Rubio policies nationally.
“Start Soul Searching” is far too vague a headline.
It is left very unclear whether the PE managers are to look deep inside their souls or simply search to see if they actually have one.
Do Rubio and Cruz support the New GOP party plank about no birthright citizenship?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/18/donald-trump-and-scott-walker-want-to-repeal-birthright-citizenship-its-nearly-impossible/
When does the Rubio Birther movement start?
A bit embarrassed to admit I find this Trump stuff really interesting. While the idea of him getting the nomination still seem implausible, how does it come apart? Seems he can say almost anything and the Rep base doesn’t seem to care much about policy specifics and donors won’t get spooked b/c he has none. The idea that someone might spend a billion dollars of their own money to become president is is certainly disturbing . . but also kinda interesting, as he has pointed out.
Will most of the other candidates drop out in a stop-Trump move?. Do we / does he have the attention span to keep this going for over a year? Is this a black swan event?
Please keep in mind that many of the people who really like Trump probably don’t realize that Medicare is a government program.
Yea . . I’ve occasionally wondered why so many countries have such terrible leaders like Putin and Sisi in Egypt and we’re seeing it here, the willingness to get it all up to make the trains run on time.
The Fed on QE Retrospective
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/18/st-louis-fed-official-no-evidence-qe-boosted-economy.html
defeat form the jaws of victory or how not to succeed
http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/08/texas-lost-when-it-thought-it-had-won-the-cost-1-million/
does a smaller government with lower taxes and less regulation always have higher growth?
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/08/the-alec-rankings-does-smaller-government-mean-higher-growth.html
no. why do you ask?
Is modern living responsible for rise in dementia cases?
By Karen Graham
Aug 16, 2015
A wide-ranging study of patients in 21 western countries has led researchers to suggest modern living, with its rising levels of pollution and increased use of insecticides, may be behind why people are developing dementia at increasing rates.
An interesting and thought-provoking study by researchers from Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom used World Health Organization (WHO) data from 1989 to 2010 on total neurological deaths (TND) to compare U.S. dementia rates with over twenty western countries.
The researchers found that not only had dementia deaths risen sharply in the U.S., but there were comparable rises, though not quite as dramatic, in the other western countries in the study. The results lead to an interesting conclusion that points to more industrialized nations’ rising pollution levels and increased use of potent agricultural insecticides.
….
http://www.digitaljournal.com/science/is-modern-living-responsible-for-rise-in-dementia-cases/article/441231
The article linked on Barry’s Bloomberg page, “How to rewire your ageing brain” concludes saying, “Dementia will affect one in three of us over the age of 65.” Whoa! Let’s define our terms.
Here the Alzheimer’s Association now says one in ten older Americans will suffer from Alzhemier’s:
https://www.alz.org/facts/downloads/facts_figures_2015.pdf
Dementia? Well, it seems to me that everyone is a little bit demented. Which gets me to my point about the article you offer: We find what you look for. So, I wonder about this. But, interesting post and worth a read. Thx.
Alzheimer’s is categorized as a sub-genre of dementia. I do think that the 1 in 3 potential dementia suffers over 65 number might be too high based on other readings.
Barry’s article offers good advice for everyone. Eat well, live well, get proper amount of good sleep, stay active both physically and mentally and you will do as well as you can within your genetic limits in terms of starving off age related diseases.
From the alzheimers assn.:
*One in nine people age 65 and older (11 percent)
has Alzheimer’s disease.
*About one-third of people age 85 and older
(32 percent) have Alzheimer’s disease.