At a recent Investment Management Committee meeting we were discussing the importance that gold plays in our portfolios. Over the past year, many clients have asked if we had exposure to gold. To their surprise, we let them know that we have always maintained exposure to gold in our portfolios via investments in several mutual...Read More
Portfolio Strategy We just completed a series of Investment Committee (IM) meetings to review our portfolio strategy. We started with a view of the world’s investable capital and how it is distributed. The purpose of this exercise is to become more informed on the changes to the relative size of the various markets and to...Read More
“You will never be a leader unless you first learn to follow and be led” Tiorio Recent market volatility is being attributed to many things. Some true and others are pure speculation. The problem is not the problem, the problem is that our politicians don’t know how to think about the problem. So here is...Read More
The Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgrade of long-term U.S. debt from AAA to AA+ is sad, but it is not news. Everyone already knew we were in trouble and to act surprised is unjustified. Now we and our politicians can no longer deny it. It’s official, which may be good for us long-term. While the...Read More
Our elected leaders in Washington, D.C. are playing a dangerous game of chicken. They are making everyone nervous about the deadline (August 2, 2011) for extending the debt ceiling. While every expert on the subject, including Congress, knows that the only solution is to raise the debt ceiling, they are using this to score points...Read More
I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately about the issues facing our country, particularly the financial dimension of government. Following the release of the Republican budget proposal authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, President Obama’s subsequent response and the recent downgrading by Standard & Poor’s of our country’s economic prospects, I thought I would share...Read More
Recently we have had conversations with a few clients about making changes to their portfolios due to the current events in Japan and the Middle East. Our advice is not to make changes based on current events. One should only revise their portfolio if their goals or personal circumstances change. A good friend of mine...Read More
Our investment thesis laid out this time last year was one of caution. We were receiving mixed signals from the market and economies. On one hand equity markets were coming off one of the best years in its history in 2009 and fixed income markets were hitting new highs too. The economy was still on...Read More
As you probably know, I like to write to communicate my thoughts. However, recently I have been suffering from writer’s block. I think it’s because I am in observation mode about the economy, government policy and business; trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Everywhere I go I ask business owners, “How’s business?” The...Read More
