The above chart illustrates net monthly investment flows for US equity mutual funds (red line on the chart) and for total bond funds (taxable plus muni) for the period from January 2007 to July 2010 (as reported by the Investment Company Institute).For each month, some investors added funds to US equity funds and some withdrew funds -- the net (inflows...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Professor Amar Bhide's latest essay, "The Judgment Deficit"
Professor Amar Bhide has just written an outstanding examination of the interplay between centralization and decentralization in a free economy, published in the Harvard Business Review and entitled "The Judgment Deficit."In it, he articulates the insights of economist Friedrich Hayek from the latter's 1945 essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society."...
Friday, August 13, 2010
The first monthly decline in medical prices in 35 years!
Investors who watch the traditional financial media shows can be forgiven for not hearing about an amazing statistic that came out of this morning's monthly consumer price index release from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, because it isn't getting much coverage.The CPI was up in July, after showing declines for the previous three months. However,...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The dance of the hippos
While most of the market players and financial media are focused on the Fed decision and whether it will be good, bad, or indifferent for various slices of the markets, we'd like to take a different tack and focus on our favorite topic, the allocation of capital to well-run and innovative companies.We believe that one of the major pitfalls for investors...
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Have you heard of this company? IIVI
We have noted before that a company does not have to hail from Silicon Valley in order to fit the description of a classic Taylor Frigon growth company (although some Silicon Valley companies do fit that description).Today, we highlight a long-time portfolio holding based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania -- advanced materials and laser component manufacturer...
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
"Reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues"
Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Art Laffer published an opinion piece entitled "The-Soak-the-Rich Catch-22" which offered evidence from history that increased tax rates have actually led to lower tax revenues as a percentage of GDP. He also demonstrates that higher tax rates have historically led not just to lower revenues as a percentage...
