Auto Sales Are Down. Punish the Parts Makers.. Being whipsawed by the misfortunes of its biggest customers is business as usual for the Delphi Corporation. By Fara Warner. [New York Times: Business]

This is probably one of the biggest economic factors concerning my business.  You can take this either one of two ways, as auto profits fall, more people are going to be seeking my services, or as they fall, more people are going to be worrying about other things than talking to me.  I prefer the first interpretation, and so far, it appears to be mostly true :)

10:02:41 AM  #  

You Can Beat the Market? A Study Says 1 in 5 Can. A new study has found that as many as 20 percent of investors may be able to regularly pick stocks that beat the market. By Mark Hulbert. [New York Times: Business]

This article cracks me up...let's take the start of the largest bull-run in history and let's compare the average investors performance and compare it to the market as a whole.  Given that during a bubble economy most investors don't diversify at all, you can probably expect them to concentrate their portfolio in the rising sector at the expense of not hedging their risks.  So, viola, they outperform most diversified indexes by a wide margin.  Mutual Funds and money managers are capped on how much of one investment they can own so it makes sense that in those market conditions you would overperform them.

I think a 10 year or 20 year study would be much more appropriate since you are dealing with a wider divergence of market cycles.

The other thing I found funny was their litmus test to determine if you are one of the star performers.  Take your last 25 investments and compare them to a market index.  First off, I don't have 25 investments, I have 6.  I have had a total of 8 in my investment history and with the exception of 2 they have all out performed the market as of late...but that is no indication of how they will handle the markets in the future.

10:00:10 AM  #  

Grading Bush on Prosperity and Pain. Is the troubled economy President Bush's fault? Yes and no, economists say. By Daniel Altman. [New York Times: Business]
9:50:38 AM  #  

Friedrich Nietzsche. "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." [Quotes of the Day]
9:45:43 AM  #  

Mark Twain. "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." [Quotes of the Day]
9:45:26 AM  #  

This has got to be some kind of crude joke...but it's fascinating to look at.  Much like a bloggin-trainwreck.
1:56:51 AM  #