Malkiel Revisits Stock Indexing

Burton Malkiel is a Princeton professor who wrote the classic, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, now in its 9th edition.  Jim Picerno has a good interview with him in Wealth Manager. Malkiel distills up-to-date …
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China’s Stock Market Outlook

Did Alan Greenspan slap his forehead and say, “Conerly’s right this time!” ? He’s been quoted as saying about the Chinese stock market,  "It is clearly unsustainable.  There is going to be a dramatic contraction …
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Is China’s Stock Market Overvalued?

China’s stock market has soared in the past year and a half: Even if you look at the market from 2000 and average in those down years through 2005, it’s still grown tremendously. Nouriel Roubini …
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Behind the Stock Market

I’ve been ho-humming while everyone else is swooning.  Yes, the market is up.  Gee, though, this doesn’t feel like a boom to me.  The market is up 15 percent from a year ago, which is …
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Understanding Mortage Securities

With all the talk about mortgages, lots of folks don’t understand what really happens behind the scenes after a mortgage is made.  Calculated Risk has two primers on the mortgage securities market, but first I’m …
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Stock Investments & Real Estate Investments

A recent post about real estate has prompted a comment, in which the advantages of real estate were listed.  Real estate certainly has strengths, but diversification does, too. Basic concepts:  return of an asset is …
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Don’t Buy More Real Estate

The Wall Street Journal had an article today saying "Why Investors Should Consider Real Estate."  That’s good advice for one or two of you.  The rest should burn the paper. First, here are the basic …
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Business Equipment Orders Soft – Again

Business orders for capital equipment rose counting aircraft.  But the non-aircraft sector was down: I separate out orders for aircraft for two reasons.  First they are very volatile, as the chart shows, so they don’t …
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