Historically, it has made reasonable sense for retirees to have a sizable allocation to bonds.  A minimum of 40% was certainly not uncommon.  The logic behind this was that retirees regularly draw from their accounts and are less comfortable with the enhanced volatility that stocks can at times provide.  The supposedly steady income from the...Read More

This morning I read a good article in the WSJ, posted below.  The article discussed that, as a whole, stocks and bonds are pricey by historical measures.  Highly valued stocks and bonds have very likely pulled future returns forward, meaning many investors have less of an opportunity for big gains in the future. “U.S. stocks...Read More

Over the last week, value stocks have poised very impressive gains, while many of the momentum names have really struggled.  This is obviously very good for our deep value investment portfolios.  I want to emphasize, we should never get too excited or upset by short-term performance metrics.  With that said, value stocks are as cheap...Read More

This has been a very busy week for earnings releases on some of our largest investments.  I just wanted to provide a quick update on a few of them, as they were meaningful. Assured Guaranty (AGO), was up roughly 7% after reporting a very strong quarter and a particularly attractive acquisition.  Net income was $142MM,...Read More

On August 1st, markets across the globe were rattled as President Trump announced new tariffs on China.  Stocks plunged and the 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 1.9%.  The news shouldn’t have been such a shock as it has become increasingly clear that China hopes to stall.  If a new administration takes over in 2020, it...Read More

Most financial advice starts with an asset allocation model.  These asset allocation models typically use information from the past, typically the last 30-40 years or so, and then project that into the future.  The big flaw in the process is that they don’t factor in changes in starting conditions and valuations.  For instance, on January...Read More

In a recent interview on CNBC, Warren Buffett mentioned that if interest rates were to stay below 3% on the 10-year, stocks are incredibly cheap.  I talked about the same thing in the recent podcast with Tobias Carlisle.  The reason that this is so, is because interest rates have an almost gravitational impact on stocks....Read More

Well that was one heck of a week.  While I certainly was not smart enough to predict the results of the election, it has had a profound impact on my expectations for us as investors.  For the last 7 years, I’ve been one of the most vocal advocates of financial stocks that I am aware...Read More

I’ve been warning all year about a clear and obvious bubble in consumer staples stocks.  The same can be said for utilities and many areas on the fixed income market.  This bubble has been built on the pervasive market sentiment that as long as the dividend yield is reasonably greater than what can be obtained...Read More

This morning I was reading an interesting Bloomberg article on the lack of savings being accumulated by a large percentage of the population, including those earning between $100-$150K per year. Astonishingly in the survey, close to 50% of those have less than $1,000 in savings, and about 18% have absolutely nothing. Even those who earn...Read More