Insider buying and selling. Stock purchases and dispositions by people "in the know" as an indicator of where prices are headed. Good info? Maybe - maybe not. Far too many factors influence the validity of this indicator. Is an insider selling stock because s/he thinks it's overvalued or is s/he disposing of shares because an [...]
Poking fun at politicians is, well, fun. And why shouldn't it be? Many elected officials cling to their ideological biases - shamefully blinding themselves to the real-world and anything that may disprove their theories or derail their agendas. It seems it's been a long time - far too long - since we've heard "I'm wrong" [...]
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office ("CBO") now estimates our Nation's fiscal 2010 deficit at over $1.3 trillion. A whopping sum to be sure. As President Obama takes to the airwaves tonight to mark the end of combat operations in Iraq it's an interesting time to look at the cost of military action. The CBO estimates [...]
We humans are a curious bunch. Occasionally we say one thing but do another. Almost as often this gets us into trouble. We sing the economic blues yet restaurant parking lots are packed. We cry over crushing debts yet vote for spend-happy politicians. We claim to be long-term, risk averse investors yet we chase performance. [...]
Investors who place their trust in an investment professional face numerous worries. "Style creep" is one of them. If an investor buys a real estate fund are they going to be happy if they find Google as a top holding? Troubling this may be but more so we believe is "philosophy creep" or as one [...]
Last week McDonald's came to market with a $450 million primary offering of 10 year debt securities yielding 3.5%. A similar Treasury backed by the taxing authority and full faith and credit of the US government yields roughly 3.0%. Why does McDonald's get such favorable terms? Strong Demand - Savers averse to equity market risk [...]
Like many disciplines the investment world is full of lingo. Some of it has meaning, most of it can be explained simplistically and 100% of it is hogwash to make folks feel and sound smarter than they actually are! (He who cannot laugh at himself...) One such item of investment-speak is the "reversion to the [...]
At the time of this post the House is debating HR 5077 - a bill that, if passed, provides for the permanent increase of AMT exemptions and indexes them for inflation. For tax year 2010 the exemption amount for individual filers would jump to $75,000. Joint filers would see their exemption jump to $100,000. Stay [...]
The Simpsons in its earliest years offered the type of TV we associate with All in the Family - social commentary in a comedic wrapper. The "Deep Space Homer" episode originally airing 2/24/94 didn't fail to disappoint. The premise - humorous in and of itself - was a despondent NASA desperately searching for higher ratings [...]
Today Treasury auctioned $37 billion in 5 yr securities at a 3.06 bid-to-cover resulting in a yield of 1.79%. Yesterday AT&T came to market with a $2.5 billion 5 yr offering with a 2.5% coupon representing a scant 77 bps above the comparative Treasury. The tea leaves tell a variety of interesting stories. We'll save [...]