After reading this you’d probably never guess that PALM stock is 284% ahead of AAPL in 2009.
Disclosure: We own positions in both stocks in some of our managed products.
You’re On Your Own
June 24, 2009According to a recent article in the Economist, the U.S. is one of the leaders in having retirement income come from private sources (i.e., pension plans rather than government checks). This could mean that our Social Security system is meager compared to many other countries, or it could mean that our industrial companies have traditionally been very, or perhaps, overly generous in the benefits paid out.
Over the last decade or so, there has been a very strong trend in place whereby corporate American has moved away from defined-benefit pension plans based on earnings and years of service and toward defined-contribution plans like 401k’s, where the employee saves his or her own money and makes the investment decisions. It’s an open question as to whether these defined-contribution plans at retirement will be able to supply anywhere near the same level of income as the traditional defined-benefit plans.
Will American retirees simply make do with less? If nothing else, it’s clear that retirement planning is more important than ever before.
Leave a Comment » | 
Off-Topic | 
Permalink
Posted by Mike Moody
Currency tailwind
June 24, 2009The fact that investors hold modest amounts of foreign equity has been well documented. People simply are more comfortable investing in their home country, despite the potential benefits of increasing their international equity exposure.
Much has been written about the risks of a continued slide in the dollar given the massive amounts of debt that the U.S. government is taking on. However, a falling dollar is a big benefit to U.S. investors holding international investments as a result of the currency tailwind.
Consider the significant difference to performance that a falling dollar has made so far this year:
Source: The Economist, June 20, 2009, based on year-to-date national stock indexes through June 17, 2009
Leave a Comment » | Markets | Permalink
Posted by Andy Hyer
