May 2013June 2013CommentsInformation received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March suggests that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace.Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in May suggests that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace.No real changeLabor market conditions have shown some improvement in recent months, on balance, but the unemployment rate remains elevated.Labor market conditions have shown further...

I am biased on AIG.  It was never as good as proponents of its past have said.  But it was not as bad as current detractors allege.AIG went through several eras, some of which are barely covered by this book.  There was the secular growth era, which existed from the beginning until the late 1980s.  It was easy to continue to grow in P&C businesses in the US until then.  After that growth would have to come from other ideas:Life insurance in the US and abroad.Foreign P&C...

Hi Friends!  This post particularly applies to those that read me via RSS, which may be half of my readership when you consider all of the republishers of my work.  At present, Google has stopped working on Feedburner, and earning money from Feedburner, which currently handles most if not all of my RSS.I’m planning on switching RSS away from Feedburner, because it is only a matter of time before it disappears.  So if you see your RSS feed go cold, come re-sign up for RSS at my site, and...

In my life, I have been a mortgage bond manager, and a corporate bond manager.  I have enough overall experience that I have played in most bond and loan categories, including municipal bonds.Municipal bonds are one place where the competition level is low, and additional knowledge can pay off.  This is particularly true in an era where municipal bond insurance is less prevalent, and as such credit analysis has more value.This book gives you the basics on municipal bonds.  The most basic idea...

This is a book that gets everything right in broad, but is too insistent on the details.  How should you approach value investing from a purely quantitative standpoint?  Easy:Screen out stocks that have relatively high accrualsAvoid companies that may go bankruptMargin of safety: choose companies with strong balance sheets and profitsLook for long-term strength in profits.Buy them cheap.Buy when informed investors are buying.But here’s the problem.  Like the book What Works on Wall...

Data Privacy Many in Media Claim Bradley Manning’s Leaks Had Little Value—Here’s Why They’re So Wrong | The Nation stks.co/jZXy Who knew? $$Congress grills intelligence officials on data-gathering practices stks.co/qGqB Issue doesn’t divide neatly by political party $$Noonan: Privacy Isn’t All We’re Losing stks.co/hZsF “…you can’t give up your own liberty and your own freedom.” $$US Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of...

Several months ago, I was walking in my bedroom, and in a stack of books that we frequently give as gifts, I saw the book Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond.  I said to myself, where did this come from?  I looked at it, and realized that hadn’t read it.  I looked at the copyright date, and realized that 2001 is a relatively old book.So I read the first chapter, decided it was good stuff, and added it to the reading pile.  As some might know, I am a value investor, and...

Sometimes, when I see an insurance article that could be big, relevant, and tough to explain, I say to myself, “Dave, you’re going to have to write about that.”  But now, I get requests via email to write about it.So tonight I write about the New York Department of Insurance’s attempt to rein in captive insurers.  [Long report here.]  My first question to the department would be: “What took you so long?  These issues have been known for years.”I write this as...

To my readers: if you like this review, please vote it up here at Amazon.  Thanks a lot.Personal finance has issues.  This is because there are many things that are true on average that will not always prove true in the short run.  Here are some examples:Those that save more and spend less for personal needs will usually do better in the long run than those that spend a higher proportion of their income.Those that take moderate risks in investing tend to beat both those that take low risks, and...

Okay, here’s the promoted stock scoreboard:TickerDate of ArticlePrice @ ArticlePrice @...