Former Reagan OMB Director, David Stockman makes some good points, but we don't agree with all of his solutions. … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2012
What We’re Reading 9-7-12
Ultra Easy Monetary Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences, William R. White, Dallas Fed The dog and the Frisbee, Andrew G Haldane, Bank of England Methods of Policy Accommodation at the Interest-Rate Lower Bound, Michael Woodford, Kansas City Fed Redistributive Monetary Policy, Markus K. Brunnermeier and Yuliy Sannikov, Princeton University … [Read more...]
Good is Good but Bad is Better
Lately the market has been reacting to economic data releases with the outlook that good is good, but bad is better. Bad news has been rewarded by investors pushing the market to its highest valuations since before the recent recession. This reaction is predicated on the hints of future monetary stimulus from Federal Reserve officials, and new measures recently outlined by the ECB. This week generated much negative economic data, including a major fall in the manufacturing employment diffusion index from the BLS. The index fell to 36.4, signaling that the majority of manufacturing companies … [Read more...]
It’s Not My Money
The way that groupthink hurts the average pension recipient is appalling. The ones making the investment decisions for the bus driver, schoolteacher, and janitor are supposed to be fiduciaries. As such, it’s their responsibility to make sure the pensions that were promised are not gambled away in the markets through vehicles like hedge funds. But when it comes time to make a decision on whether or not to invest in a hedge fund, committee members have reams of reports and presentations to fall back on. They can also point to other pension funds that invested right along with them to prove they … [Read more...]