Free Investing

Prieur du Plessis submits: This week on Wealthtrack, Consuelo Mack, sits down with Bruce Berkowitz. He is Morningstar’s Domestic Equity Fund Manager of the Decade and portfolio manager of the five-star Fairholme Fund. Berkowitz explains how he has beaten the S&P by more than 200 percent over the past decade and where he is finding value now.Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: Charlie Rose sits down with Elizabeth Warren, the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where she teaches contract law, bankruptcy and commercial law. In the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis, she has also become the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the U.S. banking bailout, formally known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Legislation circulating in Congress this week suggests that financial reform could be coming. At the center of those discussions is a debate on the powers of a new consumer protection agency and where it might be located. Warren shares her views on these and other issues.Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: The video clips below provide a handy summary of the reports expected on the economic, financial and corporate front around the globe during the week ahead. US: Anniversaries A year ago and ten years ago, stocks hit a low and a high, respectively, and MarketWatch is looking back as well as forward. There will be another round of retail data and some action in currencies and commodities.Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: Louise Yamada, managing director of Louise Yamada Technical Research Advisors, talks with Bloomberg’s Pimm Fox about the outlook for bond markets and her investment strategy. In short, she is of the opinion that the 29-year bull market in long-term government bonds is close to a reversal. Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation (BRK.A) discusses the current economic crisis with Professor Joseph Grundfest, Professor of Law and Business at Stanford Law School. Please note that the video clip runs for 25 minutes.Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: James Montier, a member of GMO’s Asset Allocation Team, examines whether we learned anything from the market declines of 2008 and early 2009. In this paper - his first since joining GMO from Société Générale - he outlines ten of the lessons he believes not to have been learned. Here is the opening paragraph:Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: Home price data continues to show a mixed picture. Robert Shiller, originator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and economics professor at Yale, and David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, discuss data through December 2009. (Click here for the latest Case-Shiller report.) Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: The U.S. administration’s interventions in the market will not solve problems and will bring about unintended consequences, Marc Faber, author and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC on Friday. President Barack Obama on Thursday proposed new limits on the size and trading practices of big banks, to prevent excessive risk-taking.Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: Fighting back against Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s recent statements, John Taylor, Stanford economics professor and the creator of the Taylor Rule, states his case. Complete Story »

Prieur du Plessis submits: “Economic cycles associated with financial traumas such as banking crises or asset price collapses tend to have deeper downturns and weaker upturns. The current uptrend in US economic growth should be sustained, but the rebound will remain subdued compared to recent recoveries,” said BCA Research. The chart below illustrates the typical recovery patterns following financial and non-financial recessions respectively. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words … Should the after-effects of the financial crisis indeed remain a serious headwind to economic growth, policy conditions should remain favorable for risky assets.Complete Story »