Weekend Reading for January 16, 2010
What I’m reading this weekend:
- Why Many Investors Keep Fooling Themselves : WSJ – It’s interesting most people don’t know what the average rate of returns for stocks, and expect outlandish returns.
- ‘Nobody’s Watching Charlie Rose’ : WSJ – Love or hate him (is there anything in between?), I find Glenn Beck’s arguments always very logical, even if they go into the conspiracy camp. I don’t believe or agree with everything he says but always like counterpoints to the traditional views. I also like watching Charlie Rose, but found this interesting video Charile discusses Obama with Tom Brokaw. I found this in the comments section. If this isn’t a testament on how clueless our MSM is, I don’t know what is.
- Groomed for a Comeback : Barron’s – I thought Dogs of the Dog was dead and proven another crap investing idea? I guess there are drones who still believe in it.
- Inflation Remains Tame, With a Warning Sign : WSJ – Last year, up there as one of the worst years economically and yet our inflation was 2.7%? Inflation Tame? Right now yes. Where is this deflation people keep talking about?
- A Little Company Praised by President Obama : Stossel – Articles like this just completely piss me off! How is this not crony capitalism? For those who get Fox Business News John Stossel has some great shows.
- For ‘Safe’ Investors, This May Be a Challenging Year : CNBC -Must think about interest rate risk.
The 4% Rule to Investing
As you probably already know, returns on fixed rate investments are pretty bleak. The Federal Reserve, since last year, has effectively set rates to zero. This made traditionally safe investments (CDs, government bonds, and money market accounts, etc.) limited with their returns. At the time of this writing, the only previously mentioned investments you can find higher than 4% is a 30-year treasury, and I’m not sure that’s a wise bet.
