Salient to Investors: Cash and marketable securities are at a record $1.73 trillion, while capital spending in the most recent quarter rose by the least since March 2010. Nick Raich at Earnings Scout said public outcry will erupt if companies do not spend and create jobs. Economists and money managers
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Cass R. Sunstein at Harvard writes: The sheer number of executive-branch decisions increases substantially over time, increasing the likelihood that at least one of those decisions will turn out to be incorrect, inappropriate or worse. As time passes, the incumbent President becomes more likely than his predecessor to be held responsible
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: More than half of the 20 municipalities with the fastest-growing populations between 2010 and 2012 were suburbs, meaning growing suburban communities will continue to get their share of the $400 billion in funds the federal government annually spends based on population data provided by the Census Bureau. Author James
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The loss of water rights to heavy industry, the worst drought in four decades and the rise in debt that follows is causing farmers to take their own lives – more than 2,200 farmers in India committed suicide in the past 4 years. Mandar Sathe at Prayas said a
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: 11 percent of student loans were seriously delinquent – a record – in Q3 2012 versus 6 percent in Q1 2003. Almost 30 percent of 20 to 24-year-olds are not employed or in school. Jack Buckley at the National Center for Education Statistics said a college diploma
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dean Maki at Barclays said the housing recovery is intact and on a solid foundation. Lawrence Yun at NAR said the double-digit median price increase is unhealthy because incomes are rising at less than 2 percent – the only way to moderate price increases is more supply, which is 14
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IAEResearch writes: Warren Buffett will be gone soon but that does not imply that the company is in jeopardy because its strategy is more of a philosophy embedded firmly in value investing. Berkshire Hathaway has outperformed the S&P 500 by 10.3% on an annual compounded basis. To
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: William D. Cohan writes: The CFTC voted May 16 for a watered-down compromise over requiring opaque and hard-to-value swaps and derivatives to be traded on an exchange, allowing dealers – essentially the big Wall Street banks – to continue to set the prices for these financial instruments using their black
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Tim McAleenan Jr. writes: It is rarely advisable to follow the investment decisions of others because they have different opportunity cost calculations than you, and may understand a company in a way that you do not. Buffett recently stated that he makes the decisions in any Berkshire
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Market Flash writes: The Quantity Theory of Money is under fire in academia because changes in technology and innovations by financial institutions have rendered the theory a less than complete view of the world – with important implications for investors from a macro point of view.
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