From the category archives:

Emerging Markets

The Common Thread Between the Housing Collapse, the Euro Crisis and Millions of Americans – Debt

It’s amazing when you think of it.  Virtually every major financial crisis of late has involved some sort of issue with debt.  And there are millions of financial crises brewing in American households too: The US housing market collapsed precipitously.  No, not because Goldman Sachs sold a complex derivative to European clients which is garnering […]

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3 Lessons I Learned from the Greek Riots and Market Panic

The World is a Very Small Place As the New York Times so eloquently envisioned in the Web of Debt infographic, as Greece goes, so does the rest of Europe due to the incestuous relationships of virtually every large bank.  And lest we don’t forget, much of Europe, and the rest of the world for […]

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Greece Looking To Sell Bonds to US Investors – Are You Kidding?

The Greek economy appears to be very much the welfare state to me.  I don’t see innovation and exports coming out of Greece, but I see a lot of public union strikes over their insistence that excessive pay, pensions and subsidies continue as if they live in a complete vacuum. Since Europeans have lost their […]

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Why Do We Demonize Outsourcing?

I read with interest a rather lengthy and angry comment chain on this recent post from Get Rich Slowly, one of my favorite blogs.  Essentially, a guest poster highlighted how she’s outsourced several things in her life that most of us do ourselves ranging from cooking to virtual assistants.  I can understand how most people […]

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2009 Global Stock Market Returns – Every Country ETF Ranked

Following the most tumultuous investment environment many have seen in their life, it’s worth reviewing the 2009 stock market performance for equities globally.  Interestingly, the US (ticker SPY) ended up toward the bottom of the list from an annual performance standpoint.  Reason being, while the US declined ~50% from its peak, many emerging market stock […]

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2009 Stock Market Returns YTD from Around the World – Shocking!

This emerging markets ETF list is illuminating in that while many of these same ETFs were the worst performers of 2008, they are now the strongest performers of 2009, especially compared to developed nation stock markets.  While historical stock market returns are no guarantee of future results, it is instructive to evaluate which stock markets […]

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2009 Stock Market Returns – Emerging Markets in Triple Digits

2009 Stock Market Returns around the world have been anything but steady following the financial collapse of 2008 and a follow-through into 2009 that resulted in complete capitulation the likes of which hasn’t been seen in decades.  Following the March low, stocks have rocketed back, many of them leveraged off of a US rally with […]

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Lazy Portfolios Beat the S&P – but Claims are Bogus and Deceiving

Marketwatch continues to post on Paul Farrell’s “Lazy Portfolios” that purport to “whip” the S&P500.  While the premise of diversification and passive long term retirement investing is a good one, the claims of whippage are a bit overdone in my opinion and may lull naive investors into complacency when they should be scrutinizing their investments […]

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2009 Stock Market Returns by Country YTD

While historical stock market returns are no guarantee of future results, it is instructive to evaluate which stock markets are holding up in the current economic downturn/hobbled recovery close to the mid-point of 2009 (UPDATE: See Full-Year 2009 Market Returns).   We certainly saw our share of shocking 2008 market events and 2009 portends to […]

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