Many experts believe that fixed income has become a high-risk asset class, more so than at any time in recent years. Demand has pushed bond prices way up and yields way down. Bond sales for 2012 are expected to break the 2009 record of $1.024 trillion. Investors’ average allocation to fixed income is 26%, double […]
American investors’ confidence and risk tolerance remain low despite the stock market rebound. The 2008 global financial crisis, the dot com bubble burst before that, and a volatile stock market dominated by hedge funds and computerized trading appears to have permanently reset the risk parameters of most older investors. According to a recent study (the […]
New research confirms that investors still do not trust financial markets and regulators do not believe they are able to police them. Commenting on a survey done by State Street Center for Applied Research, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig observes that individual investors’ behavior contradicts their stated goals, and that institutional investors are plunging […]
UBS has announced a major a cost-cutting overhaul that will eliminate 10,000 jobs. The positions will be eliminated mostly from its investment banking division. UBS cited increased regulatory capital requirements and persistent problems in the global economy as reasons for the cuts. The move also follows scandals involving the investment banking division, including a $2.3 […]
Investors and their advisers should be very cautious about purchasing and holding municipal bonds and municipal bond funds, and be mindful of the possible deleterious effects of the fiscal cliff that is rapidly approaching.
A sell-off in U.S. Treasury securities is a virtual certainty and the only question is when and how, according to major Wall Street bankers. Wall Street banks are big holders of Treasury securities and could suffer large losses if there is a sell-off. Wall Street apparently believes that such a sell-off could be drastic unless […]
Nearly all (96%) of Wall Street senior executives at financial services firms believe that the public’s negative perception of their firms was invited by the firms’ actions. That is the conclusion of a recent survey of senior executives at large and mid-size financial services firms (the Makovsky Wall Street Reputation Study). The survey respondents included […]
Serious questions have been raised regarding the accuracy of the United States reported 8.1 percent unemployment rate. In fact, one respected expert has stated that the real unemployment rate in the United States is probably 16 percent.
Rising bond prices are indicative of bond risk not safety, Wall Street Journal columnist Brett Arends writes in his article, “Bonds–Headed From Bull Market to Bubble?” He cites bond guru Bill Gross for the proposition that stocks are dead in terms of being suitable investments for long-term growth, and that bonds (historically considered safer than […]
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida confirmed an award in favor of two former financial advisers and against Merrill Lynch in the amount of $10,250,000. Merrill Lynch had petitioned the district court to vacate the award arguing, in essence, that the record of the arbitration proceeding demonstrated bias on the part […]
