After listening to the array of speakers, many of great notoriety, at the Mauldin/Altegris Strategic Investment Conference (SIC) held in San Diego last week, the Evergreen Exchange team elected to select one speaker—and his/her main theme—to highlight for our respective section of this month’s edition. Our selections were driven by what we felt was the most urgent topic based on the current state of the financial markets. In addition, each of us will try to persuade readers why their choice was the most important. You, as readers, will be asked to vote on which of us made the best case (the voting link can be found on page 7). Read More

After listening to the array of speakers, many of great notoriety, at the Mauldin/Altegris Strategic Investment Conference (SIC) held in San Diego last week, the Evergreen Exchange team elected to select one speaker—and his/her main theme—to highlight for our respective section of this month’s edition. Our selections were driven by what we felt was the most urgent topic based on the current state of the financial markets. In addition, each of us will try to persuade readers why their choice was the most important. You, as readers, will be asked to vote on which of us made the best case (the voting link can be found on page 7). Read More

Not-so-safe assumptions. One of those simple but clever old sayings goes, “You know what happens when you assume: You make an ass out of you and me.” Despite that admonition, we all continually make assumptions every day. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the oft-intersecting worlds of investments and economics. For example, there are certain bed-rock assumptions about finance that are too obvious to question, such as lenders will always receive a positive rate of return on the funds they extend (at least from a safe borrower who doesn’t default.) In a healthy economy, this means an actual real yield (i.e., net of inflation). Read More

Not-so-safe assumptions. One of those simple but clever old sayings goes, “You know what happens when you assume: You make an ass out of you and me.” Despite that admonition, we all continually make assumptions every day. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the oft-intersecting worlds of investments and economics. For example, there are certain bed-rock assumptions about finance that are too obvious to question, such as lenders will always receive a positive rate of return on the funds they extend (at least from a safe borrower who doesn’t default.) In a healthy economy, this means an actual real yield (i.e., net of inflation). Read More

Not-so-safe assumptions. One of those simple but clever old sayings goes, “You know what happens when you assume: You make an ass out of you and me.” Despite that admonition, we all continually make assumptions every day. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the oft-intersecting worlds of investments and economics. For example, there are certain bed-rock assumptions about finance that are too obvious to question, such as lenders will always receive a positive rate of return on the funds they extend (at least from a safe borrower who doesn’t default.) In a healthy economy, this means an actual real yield (i.e., net of inflation). Read More

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When I studied finance, I was taught that if I put hard earned money in the bank, I would received interest. Conversely, if I wanted to borrow money, there was a cost associated with doing so. Many investors are overlooking just how much impact central bank’s policy is having on… Read More

Click here to view this week’s Evergreen Exchange.

Retirees’ confidence in their financial future has nearly doubled since the recession, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. A sign of improvement is the decline (almost half) of workers postponing retirement (13% this year versus 25% in 2009); 37% of retirees say they are confident they will be able… Read More