From a new SIEPR report on the grotesque pension underfunding problems at California's major plans, a chart comparing the stated and adjusted shortfalls at CalPERS, et al. Source: Going For Broke: Reforming California’s Public Employee Pension Systems

Gotta love when a firm that advises others on investments gets sucked into the very top of a bubble, and loses $8 billion of its own money.  Article can be read here

An interesting article, drawing a parallel between the government's behavior toward the financial industry during the Great Depression, and today.

A few years ago, a relative asked me to manage his money.  I have a rule against managing family money, for obvious reasons, but this relative was rather insistent.   His current advisor was retiring, and intended to hand off his account to an advisor new to the business (someone who, incidentally, had been a Big-O [...]

We've apparently learned nothing from the residential mortgage disaster, since we're about to repeat the identical mistake in the auto industry. Obama's Car Puzzle by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Wall Street Journal You have in GM's Volt a perfect car of the Age of Obama — or at least the Honeymoon of Obama, before the [...]

  I had planned to write a piece on the limits of diversification, at a time when the underpinnings of almost every asset class is based on the twenty-five year bull market in interest rates.  However, the following article from The Economist is well-presented.   All bets are off Oct 30th 2008From The Economist print [...]

In light of the recent stock market turmoil, investors are turning to bonds as a safe haven.  Financial planners, playing to the fear, recommend that an individual's bond allocation should approximate their age; i.e a forty year old should have about 40% of their assets in bonds. This is interesting, because most money managers consider [...]

The current issue of Forbes reports that the stock of Horsehead Holding Company, a zinc producer in Pennsylvania, is currently selling at less than net working capital.  Pretty cheap.

At a time when everyone is worried about their retirements accounts, I thought the following article might offer some perspective. Teachers in West Virginia offer a valuable lesson for what not to doBy JENNIFER LEVITZ Wall Street JournalAugust 4, 2008 Seventeen years ago, West Virginia school employees joined millions of workers nationwide in a shift [...]

As of today's close, 80% of stocks in the Russell 3,000 are down year to date, and a whopping 17% are down more than 50%. The only two places to hide in recent weeks have been US Treasuries and the US Dollar. Source:  Bespoke Investment Group