I’m not trying to be unfair to Vanguard, or other companies with airplane-hangar-sized call centers, but nowadays you tend to feel like a number. You feel like what’s more important to the big guys is telling you how many assets they have under management. It’s in the trillions. How does that help you? It doesn’t. It also doesn’t help when the phone rep you’re speaking with is either fresh out of college or is worth a fraction of what you’ve been able to save over a lifetime of work. There tends to be some value in working with someone who has actually made some money, don’t you think? It … [Read more...]
Why Vanguard is too Big: Part IV: Meet the Jabba the Hutt of Funds
When you spend hours on vanguard.com like I do, you realize how hard it is to get the information you’re looking for. Take for example the bloated Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. The thing is a behemoth, with so much money stuffed into it, it’s a wonder it can even move the needle. Jabba the Hutt comes to mind—you deserve better. Not to tool on Jabba, but take a look at what you’re really getting yourself into. Consider for a moment the title—Total Stock Market—where you think you’re buying a diversified fund. Not necessarily the case. How can it be when ten stocks account for over a … [Read more...]
Why Vanguard is too Big: Part III: BOND ALERT
In times like these, you can’t afford to fight other people’s social crusades. Vanguard has announced a new ESG bond fund. You need to know the pitfalls of ESG and avoid them. Vanguard has announced: We’re pleased to announce that Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB) is now available. This latest addition to our ESG (environmental, social, and governance) offerings was designed to complement our equity lineup of ETFs and mutual funds, satisfy evolving investor preferences, and enhance our low-cost approach. It’s time for Vanguard to get back to its roots. The venerable firm, … [Read more...]
Why Vanguard is too Big: Part II
Short-term noise is an investor’s worst enemy. As if it’s not hard enough to set an appropriate course, you have the constant barrage of information that can make you feel uneasy. Times are changing. That’s a fact. Take a look at the S&P 500 or Vanguard’s Index 500 or some other ETF. Today, seven stocks account for 26% of the index, while not one of them trades at less than 33x earnings. You have read here that the stock market has dropped by 33% three times already this century. Doesn’t it make sense that the chances of that happening again become more likely when only seven … [Read more...]
“They Stick a Q-Tip So Far Up Your Nose, You Can See it Through Your Eye”
“They stick a Q-tip up your nose so far, you can see it through your eye,” I thought, as a friend described what it was like to watch his daughter squirm in pain and holding her in place as the doctor performed a COVID-19 test. No thanks. But Rhode Island requires school children showing two signs of COVID-19, which we all have when we get a cold, must be sent home. They can return with either a doctor’s note saying in writing he doesn’t believe a test for COVID-19 is necessary, or take the traumatizing test and wait at home for the results. Both options stink, and are disruptive to say the … [Read more...]
If You’re Wondering Who Won Debate #1
If you’re wondering who won the first debate look no further than to those who’ve been displaced to a country home, or are stuck in the city. The recovery matters to them like never before, and they want the Trump economy back. Good news, it’s happening in a big way, and just in time. My father-in-law, Dick Young writes of America's current economic situation: Since America has begun reducing the severity of its COVID-19-shutdown, the country has seen an incredible economic rebound. The tax and regulatory reforms put in place before the shutdown set the stage for rapid recovery. Today, … [Read more...]
Vanguard Proving Why It’s Too Big, Yet Again
Just when you think Vanguard might see the light and get back to its roots, it shows once again why it has become too big and is just like any other money-sucking behemoth--like BlackRock. Vanguard has proven this with the introduction of its own ESG investments program. In my series “You Invest, They Win,” I prove that you are not necessarily front and center, as you most certainly should be when it comes to how your money is invested. This is especially true with the new, hot, investment flavor-of-the-month, ESG. What is an ESG? It’s a marketing tool hoping to get you to feel good about … [Read more...]
Once Desolate Country Towns Now Overrun by People Trying to Escape the City
Small towns across America are dealing with something they haven't seen in a long time, population increases. For decades the United States have been urbanizing, as young people left their home towns in search of better opportunities in the nation's cities. Now, a mix of COVID-19 and riots and looting have driven them from the cities. They fled with their families to small country towns, seaside summer homes, and cabins in the mountains. In the Boston Globe, Vermont locals explain how they feel about the new influx of former city-dwellers who have turned up, filling their schools, roads, … [Read more...]
October RAGE Gauge: Stocks Down Over 33% Thrice this Century
With stocks down more than 33% three times now this century, it’s clear that investors have a short-term memory problem—forgetting how bad they felt in March 2001/2008/2020—which is why my RAGE Gauge continues to signal my highest risk level. The new normal we’re living with is a manmade China virus and manmade chaos created by blue state government. Schools are a mess as lawyers lick their chops, ready to pounce with class-action suits, and parents seethe because they want their kids in the classroom where they belong. Anecdotally, at my son’s school, a positive test (kid feels fine) means … [Read more...]
You Invest They Win, AGAIN
Let’s file this one under You Invest They Win shall we? Unprecedented monetary policy intervention by the Fed has done what all unprecedented interventions by the government do, create winners and losers. In this case, the winner is BlackRock. The Fed picked the firm to handle its corporate bond buying program. Of course, BlackRock's share of the corporate bond market grew, and the big got bigger. As one investment professional told the Wall Street Journal “The unprecedented actions taken by the Fed during Covid-19 just accelerated the trend where the biggest products get … [Read more...]
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