The next time you encounter a “talking head” pontificating about “where investors should be during this phase of the business cycle,” reach for the remote. During recessions the financial media invariably fixate on whether recovery has begun and what that portends for investors. However, economic indicators in fact provide no information that is useful with […]

From time to time it falls upon us to pull away the punch bowl just when the party is in full swing. To that end we remind our readers that gold, now at an all time high, is by far the most volatile of our recommended asset classes. Our target allocations exist to ensure discipline,

“Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the central bank is already developing plans for a world without Treasury securities and gave members of the bond industry something of a nudge to begin their own planning. . . . Mr. Greenspan expressed confidence that worker-productivity gains will continue, enabling the nation’s debts to be paid off

If there was ever a year to test investors resolve, 2008 was it. A new year is upon us and with it comes a good deal of change. Many are fearful regarding the global economy and the future of capital markets. We hope that a restatement of our most fundamental convictions will provide an anchor

During periods of distress in the capital markets we often hear from investors who, rather than hold a portion of their portfolios in common stocks, tell us they plan to hold cash, in order to “wait to see what will happen” and later “get back in when things are more certain.” We understand their apprehension

Since last November’s election we have heard from many investors who are unnerved at the prospect of a socialist future. Indeed an enormous expansion of federal spending is underway and ambitious plans have been hatched for greater government involvement in healthcare, energy and in other sectors. Newsweek magazine recently went so far as to announce

The fact that we are currently experiencing a severe recession generates little “shock value” to most of us by now. We have read about and heard about the weakening state of the economy for the past 18 months. We have witnessed a 50 percent drop in the overall stock market. While not everybody has reached

Though the bear market that began last year will be remembered as one of the most severe in history, financial crises ultimately come and go. The financial services industry on the other hand, has been permanently altered. The bear market of 2008 will come to be regarded as a watershed year that triggered an investor

News of impending hyper-inflation is everywhere. Fund managers, financial bloggers and economic commentators are showcasing their “inflationsniffing” bona fi des and providing insight on how to confront this specter. Notably, Universa Investments, a fund associated with Nassim N. Taleb, best selling author of The Black Swan, has launched the “Black Swan Protection Protocol Inflation fund”