We’ve all heard about the Simpson Bowles Commission (technically, the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform), which was created by President Obama in early 2010 and delivered its final report on December 1 of that same year. Neither Congress nor the White House embraced…
Today is October 19, the 25th anniversary of Black Monday, the day in 1987 when the Dow fell by more than 22%, still the largest one-day percentage drop in the history of the index. The chart below, showing the level of the Dow throughout 1987, vividly illustrates…
Moving to a “Geographically-Neutral” Allocation You’ve often heard us say that it makes sense to be “geographically-neutral,” that there is no systematic return associated with geographic allocation. One exception in recent years has been an extreme under-weighting of so-called Emerging Markets, which for some time represented less than…
Two weeks ago, several members of our financial planning team attended the Financial Planning Association’s NorCal Conference in San Francisco. At the opening keynote presentation, Jennifer Micieli and Jennifer Hicks (aka “the Jens”), Elissa, and Dave listened to Dr. Laura Tyson, Berkeley professor and former…
The Eurozone is back in the news today as economic and political events have given rise to fresh doubts that European policy-makers will get their financial house in order. Renewed uncertainty took several forms, from comments by the head of the IMF that Europe is…
We have lately noticed the growing ubiquity of a British government poster produced in 1939 at the beginning of World War II that advises the reader to “Keep Calm and Carry On.” The poster was intended to boost public morale in the face of the many risks of war,…
When we examine sources of risk and return in the market, we conclude, among other things, that there is no systematic return associated with geographic allocation. One of the practical results of this conclusion is that we always aim to be “geographically neutral” when assembling a global portfolio. …
We thought we’d celebrate this numerologically-significant Veteran’s Day with another edition of the Live Big Digest. While this is the day in which we all pause, reflect, and give thanks for the service and sacrifice of those in our armed forces, it also happens to…