892 articles · page 43 of 45
Investment pundits have identified at least 15 distinct types of investment risks. Now, we can add another: broker risk. After the Bernie Madoff scandal, investors again saw that sociopathic money managers could steal entire accounts. Now, investors have seen that entire brokerage firms can similarly confiscate customer money, even though it is supposedly held in…
The debate over the benefits of active investment management versus passive investing remains a favorite topic of investors. Whenever new data emerges to buttress the long-established argument that index funds, which use passive investing, outperform on all measures compared to active-funds, the strategy gains more attention.
On July 28, 2008, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held a curious meeting in New York with about a dozen hedge fund managers. At the time of the meeting, Bear Stearns had already been forced into a fire sale to JP Morgan Chase for $4 a share four months earlier, and the hybrid mortgage housing agencies,…
April 2012 will be a traumatic time for many 401(k) plans. That’s when 401(k) plans will be forced to disclose the fees they pay to their plan administrators. For many plans, this will not be easy. Like a low tide, it will show which plans are well managed and which have been wasting their money on…
Large banks which set one of the institutional investing world’s most important interest rate-setting benchmarks–LIBOR–are being accused of price fixing by some of the largest regulators in the world. In a series of lawsuits filed in 2011, plaintiffs charge that dating back to the start of the current financial crisis in 2008, 19 international banks…
Average Annual Total Returns (as of 10-31-2011) YTD Returns at NAV 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years 15 Years Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index N/A 8.07% 11.41% 0.25% 3.69% 5.77% DJIA N/A 10.34% 11.80% 2.53% 5.39% 7.04% NASDAQ N/A 7.06% 15.97% 2.55% 4.73% 5.39%…
By Neil Plein From: Invest N’Retire, July 22, 2011 For the complete article, visit Invest n’Retire Having a retirement calculator should be a good thing. It helps to perform computations and projections that would otherwise be out of reach to the common 401k participant. The intent of calculators are primarily twofold; to help a participant…
From about 1991 to 2001, Japan suffered what is called its “Lost Decade,” as a result of steep declines in housing prices and the stock market. During this period, commercial real estate prices fell by about 87%, accompanied by economic stagnation and deflation. This period saw the stock market decline by 60% between late-1989 and…
Millions of American investors lost billions of dollars or more in the 2008 mass housing and financial frauds. But very few people have taken the time to investigate why they lost money and what the U.S. financial services industry did to help create the crisis or prevent it from happening. Author Bruce Gauthier is an…
Federal prosecutions fof certain financial crimes has reached a 20-year low, according to a new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.
The nation’s average retirement age is rising from 65 to 80, according to Wells Fargo & Co.
It looks like the New World Economic Order has gone mainstream. That seems to be the case when Merrill Lynch Wealth Management offers its opinion about the re-alignment of the global economy, the idea of buy-and- hold investing, the role of commodities in a portfolio, risk management and the declining role of the U.S. consumer…
A new survey shows Americans are pessimistic and have very poor retirement plans and financial assets. Among the highlights of the Yahoo Finance poll are: — 41% of Americans say the “American Dream” has been lost. — 37% of adults have no retirement savings and 38% plan to live off Social Security. — 63% of Americans believe…
Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank have agreed to pay $165.5 million to settle federal regulators’ claims that they misled five failed credit unions about the risk of securities tied to mortgages. The National Credit Union Administration announced the settlements Monday over securities that the big Wall Street banks sold the five wholesale credit unions. After the…
The ongoing tug-of-war between all parties concerning financial services reform got some added dimensionfrom a report on CBS’s 60 Minutes about legal insider trading involving the elected members of the U.S. Congress. The report found that trading on insider information involving stocks, IPOs and real estate-related legislation which nets elected officials millions, yet is perfectly legal. Those officials…
One of the darker themes of the current recession and its erratic, mismanaged recovery, is that the U.S. is headed for a lower standard of living. That is not officially articulated, of course, but implied in the many reports about long-term unemployment, proposed cuts to retirement benefits, 401k contributions, unpaid internships, and the rise in…
Millions of people in the first wave of Baby Boomers entering retirement face more stress than they did in their working lives. Their home equity has shrunk, along with their portfolios. Partisans in Congress threaten to cut Social Security, a key component in retirement income, along with the new health care program. And for those…
When it comes to taking sides publicly on major social issues, corporations have not led the way. Corporations do not like to state a public political position. This is not to say that corporations are not political—it is just the opposite. However, their vast political influence is hidden from the public via lobbying and contributions…
A recent Gallup poll found that 66% of Americans ranked not having enough money for retirement as their top financial concern. This was an increase from 53% a decade ago and raised a red flag for U.S. policymakers concerned about distress and downward mobility in the middle class. A recent story by Reuters found that Baby…
Call it the “Revenge of the Baby Boomers,” but the huge inequality in net worth between people aged 65 or older is now estimated to be 47 times greater than that of a family headed by someone who is under age 35. That is a staggering, unsustainable gap, which casts a long dark shadow for…
