Do elections affect the stock market? Last week I cited an analysis by Vanguard Group which attempted to answer this question. The verdict: “It’s understandable to have concerns about the election. But as far as your portfolio and the markets are concerned, history suggests it will be a nonissue.” [...]
On January 10, 2000, America Online co-founder Steve Case stood on stage in New York to announce the largest corporate takeover in American history, buying venerable Time Warner for $165 billion. At the time of the announcement, commentators called it the merger of the century. But just five years [...]
I have a big problem with a small word. But before I get to that, I’ll start with a little bit of history. In his book The Success Equation, Michael Mauboussin tells this story: Back in the 1970s, a Spanish man won the country’s biggest national lottery, called El Gordo—the Big One. Awarded [...]
In his company's 2006 annual report, Warren Buffett devoted several paragraphs to a scathing criticism of the hedge fund industry. Their fees, Buffett wrote, were so exorbitant and so stacked against investors that they amounted to a “grotesque arrangement.” For that reason, Buffett frequently [...]
It’s that time of year again—when magazine editors put on their Nostradamus hats to offer up get-rich-quick schemes for the new year. “What China’s Best Investor is Buying Now,” reads the cover of Fortune, along with “40 Stocks for the New Decade.” And they even praise perennially unpopular Goldman [...]
