Not long ago, during the late 1990s, tech stocks were all the rage and common stock dividends were regarded by many to be archaic. But sentiment changes quickly; on July 20 Microsoft announced an unprecedented onetime payout of $32 billion to shareholders, or $3 per share, and doubled its regular dividend to $0.32 per share. […]

The Wall Street Journal warned in early May that “Nearly everyone agrees the bond market will take a hit when the Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates, perhaps as early as next month.” The Fed did in fact raise the target federal funds rate from 1.00 percent to 1.25 percent on June 30, but the

“In recent years, with the U.S. stock market regularly providing returns well into the ‘double digits,’ we suspect that many investors have overlooked the importance of costs. Should the market revert to its long-term average, the impact of these costs will be more apparent.”—Investment Guide, February 2001 If recent trends are any indication, we were

We have written a great deal about the debate between active and passive money management, and the topic is now getting attention from the broader financial media. A recent front-page article in the Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2004 “As Two Economists Debate the Markets, The Tide Shifts” ) provided a summary of the debate,