Monday, April 29, 2013

ONE SIDE OF THE BOAT

One side of the boat is starting to fill up.

The name of the vessel could easily be: "Could Persist For Years." That's becoming the mantra it appears for more and more money mangers quoted in financial pages. The reference is to Ben Bernanke and the Fed's next-to-zero interest rate scheme.

And a scheme is what it is, though in the British vernacular the terms carries less questionable baggage. We prefer the good old American usage, as in up to tomfoolery.

Much of this sentiment comes from the belief there's no inflation, a point of view that could turn out to be one of the biggest lies ever told. But we'll leave that for later. If the golden rule is those who hold the gold make the rules, the same holds for the CPI.

Check out chained CPI. It might be playing at a venue near you soon if certain people get their way. Without getting into a rant, the chained CPI is like the air traffic controller mess. You deserve it if you stand for it.

Dividends historically have played a large part in total return, more so at some times than others.  We like dividends as well as the next fella. What we don't like is the double taxation, a government scheme in the best American usage of the term. 

Again it's a question of whom do you believe. During the tech stock mania, those stocks represented a big percentage of the S&P 500 value. Same case when energy stocks soared.  

Somehow these things usually find their way back to the mean.

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