Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Since this thread is apparently open for politics here goes.
As distressing as the inflation in the US is, it is far worse in Europe and many other countries. That cannot be blamed on Biden. This is a worldwide phenomena. I tend to believe the one …
@LewisBraham
Thanks so much for the link to the new republic article. I am slowly digesting it and I wonder why I haven't heard much about this way out of the dilemma.
It does remind me that although we think the quality of contempory thought in…
If you want an example of how well "experts" do with predictions look at the 2022 results from the Barron's roundtable experts from January 2022 to the end of the year.
Almost all of them lost money, big money.
I have no personal experience with Paxlobid, thank goodness. However all my over 65 infected relatives have gotten it and hated it, even for five days. The taste is so bad it would be a great weight loss tool.
I don't think the current recommen…
@sven
Millions of people ( at least half of them lower income GOP voters I suspect) live from SS check to SS check. I think like most Americans currently, they are not paying attention to the debate or potential consequences, and if asked would res…
I havent seen any data yet, but it is concerning that of my multitude of relatives across the country, one husband and wife both got it, although they only go to grocery stores masked.
She had symptoms for several weeks and is still down a t bit. T…
@LarryB
I looked at the gold funds and think for retirement accounts. pick the one with the lowest ER and decent liquidity.
In taxable accounts Gold is taxed at long term capital gains rates of 28% as a collectible ( ST is income tax rate)
Howeve…
The most recent data from Henry A Choy a UCLA biologist. He sends out irregular summaries of Covid. I can't remember where I heard of him or if you can email him and get on his mailing list but worth trying as he has very good data and references
h…
This is a huge problems for individuals, but the Biogen Alzheimer's drug will be a much bigger dollar problem for society.
Here we have a very marginal drug that slows brain decline ( does not stop it or reverse it) very very modestly, kills 2 to 3…
Let us hope the Feds (under Trump) extracted stock or some warrants etc when they pumped all that money into Moderna. As Trump is apparently such a shrewd I am sure he negotiated the US taxpayers a great deal
Yea I saw that but it is odd that a guy is writes so eloquently about how overpriced the market is, especially large caps, would buy Google and Amazon and Qualcom.
I did a little digging to find out how he runs the fund but haven't dug into the pro…
@derf
I was at the VA until 1997. There are some very good VAs especially in the South where many Vets move when they retire.
Since 1997 the VA budget has increased dramatically from all the post 9/11 vets flooding into the system.
The problem…
@LB
You sound a lot like Karl Marx, not that he wasn't a genius!
The other issue is how rigged the system is ( Now I sound like TFG...UGH) in favor of big corporations and the uber wealthy. "Corporate Welfare" doesn't begin to cover the control th…
Bloomberg has a great piece by Matt Levine pointing out that the debt ceiling applies only to the principal of the bonds not the interest. So it would be easy to get around the limit by selling bonds with high interest for a premium, which is entir…
@Observant1
Several political blogs questioned why Santos's opponents campaign or the national Dems couldn't find stuff that the NYT easily uncovered. I looked into it a bit and found the research paper the Democrats wrote on Santos. ( If anyone i…
Sure a plaintiff can go after anything but these lawyers work on contingency so are likely to take cases they have a chance of winning. I think it would be very unusual to see a judgement of millions of dollars from an auto accident, unless it was …
Anytime. I am paranoid and have a policy since I got married. As soon as you have any assets ( and anyone with a house qualifies, given most real estate markets now) you could be a target. Doesn't happen very often; I cannot say I have ever heard o…
Very important points. I have heard of folks already being a bit leery of Florida and especially Miami Muni bonds, for example, and utilities in states like California. PGE is a good example.
It is hard to predict the impact of global warming …
One suggestion often overlooked is additional "umbrella insurance" for your homeowners and auto policy. $5,000,000 coverage is fairly cheap and will cover a judgement for an automobile accident or something at your house.
The data on "fixing the dirtiest" is fascinating. I also heard today that the author (a Forbes employee) of a book about the meat industry "Raw Deal " calculates that if "plant based meat" and beyond meat etc reached 15% the same penetration of…
Ah the eternal debate, almost as eternal as Sox vs Yankees
I think there are far more academic stories on this issue than the ones he refers to.
The plan suggested
"Another alternative is to rebalance only when your portfolio’s losing assets a…
@LewisBraham
for future reference
https://www.usdebtclock.org/# ( has a separate clock for each state)
Also lists Medicare and Social security deficit, but I am unsure where those numbers come from.
While this is a bit off topic, the debt bu…
@crash
My fav is Lagavulin, but I will choke down McCallan if I have to.
Unfortunately, since Covid I have had to, as I can't find Lagavulin 16 anywhere
@Staycalm
Useful philosophical musings, but I have rarely seen concern for fairness in any policy making. There are many examples on both the right and the left. Lefties point to the tax structure etc but my favorite still has is the outrageous …
Thanks to OJ, I bought a small amount of ASML, but now wonder if it has gone too far too fast. The money pouring into new fabs will flood the chip market. I assume the fab companies have already put their ASML orders in and they are reflected in sto…
I seems to me, although I haven’t looked at the 50 year chart that the major advantage this portfolio has is avoiding the two “lost decades”
“The key thing about AANA is that in 50 years it has never had a lost decade. Whether the 1970s or the 200…
Thanks for charts YBB and catch22
I have not had the patience to read the entire 55 page House resolution that apparently has to be passed Monday for the HR to open, but as I understand it, it is the source of the power and obstruction that the rad…
I think 2023 will be very trying and full of ups and mostly downs, due to persistent inflation.
Consequently, I am not increasing equity exposure, except maybe to Deep Value funds like PVCMX where I can count on the manger not being fully invested.…
@derf Thanks for npr post. While technically a "default", forgetting to cut the checks is somewhat different than refusing to pass legislation that allows the Government to borrow the money needed to continuing to function. Note however that even…
Goldman Sachs has a long detailed analysis of the thinking behind GCEBX
https://www.gsam.com/content/dam/gsam/pdfs/us/en/fund-resources/other-reporting/GS_Clean_Energy_Income_Fund_Overview.pdf?sa=n&rd=n
that is worth reading. They have a sign…
@LewisBraham
Probably for the same reason someone would believe that the US should default on it's debt, eliminate Social Security and Medicare, require five year reenactment of all federal legislation and firing and re-hiring of all federal empl…
I assume that a fair number of people deposited their Bitcoin at SI assuming they would easily turn it into cash when they wanted to. The cash would be FDIC insured, but when everyone ran for the door at the same time their Bitcoin was worth a lot l…
SI ( down 48% today ) and COIN both crashed today as it turns out SI was unloading assets at fire sale prices to raise cash to pay withdrawals, that I would think was to avoid going bankrupt. WSJ reports that SI unloaded massive amount of debt it ow…
Thanks for reminding me of As you sow and fossilfreefunds and Climateaction100.org
The latter’s report on NEE is rather unclear. I also think that you have to avoid being too much of a purist. While NEE may still have a significant carbon footprint…
Thanks for all the useful information
@msf
NALFX available at Schwab without a load.
NEE has an enormous portfolio of renewable energy so it can really not be considered as fossil fuel dependent as other utilities.
I have not found ESG calculati…
