Salient to Investors: The Society of Actuaries says less than 20 percent of men and women say their planning horizon is at least 20 years. Cynthia Levering at the Society of Actuaries said the variability of life expectancy is often misunderstood, and people need to plan for being above average. Average
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The vast majority of older Americans face steep and rising health-care costs that threaten to bankrupt them and are doing little to protect themselves. Only 1 in 5 companies with at least 10 employees offers long-term care insurance. Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care. Millions face spending themselves into
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jaimini Desai writes: After inflation, the market is well below all time highs. The S&P500, Dow Industrials and Nasdaq 100 remain resilient, but many of their high beta counterparts have begun to falter, though not a reason to fight the trend. Small caps are the most leveraged
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Asian Development Bank said: China’s surging wage costs are undermining competitiveness and threatening growth. Average inflation-adjusted wages have more than tripled in a decade and non-wage costs have risen since a 2008 labor law – restrictions on workers’ mobility through the household registration system known as hukou. Changes in
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Economists expect China to report an 11.7 percent growth in exports and a 6 percent rise in imports. In each of the previous three months, exports have come in at least 7.5 percentage points above what economists had predicted. While China has reported stellar numbers, neighbors South
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Russian investment banks controlled by Russia are squeezing out foreign competitors, helped by a bailout of the country’s richest men five years ago. Freeman & Co says Russian banks won 38 percent of fees in 2012 versus 7 percent in 2005, European banks dropped to 32 percent from
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Goldman Sachs forecast that supplies at the US delivery hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, will shrink at the end of May. Goldman Sachs now recommends buying September 2013 WTI and selling September 2013 Brent rather than the June spread because weaker production growth in Texas and New Mexico greatly reduces the risk
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Soros said: China has a couple of years to control risks as t he rapid growth of shadow banking is disturbingly similar to the subprime-mortgage market in the US that caused the financial crisis of 2007-2008. China can keep its current economic growth model for another year
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Loren Gatch at the University of Central Oklahoma said the state legislation promoting gold signals discontent with monetary policy and fear that Bernanke and the Fed are pursuing policies that will lead to the collapse of the dollar. Jim Rickards at Tangent Capital Partners said should Texas
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jan Hatzius said the US economy is losing steam and the current $85 billion pace of purchases is very likely to continue for the time being. Michael Cloherty at RBC Capital Markets said the significant move in Treasuries may be too much, and does believe the widely expected dramatic change in capital flows from the
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