EUROPE’S ENERGY CRISIS IS KEEPING ENERGY PRICES HIGH
America leads the world in oil and gas production. We believe midstream energy infrastructure offers predictable cash flows to investors.
Markets as Theatre
Financial markets are not totally devoid of entertainment value. Sometimes a spectacle unfolds that can rivet one’s attention, rather like a movie in which the reckless driver who’s been handling his car aggressively takes one risk too many, causing his shiny sports vehicle to careen off the road and into the valley below. This must have been the expectation […]
Cooper Union Learns An Expensive Lesson About Hedge Funds
The New York Times has a story highlighting what can happen when well-intentioned but financially unsophisticated trustees of a college endowment interact with the wrong kind of financial advisors. It’s a sorry tale of poor portfolio construction and imprudent debt capped off with a Hail Mary type lunge for hedge funds that it was hoped […]
Through the Looking Glass into Public Pension Accounting
The Economist has an interesting piece in Buttonwood this week about how U.S. public pensions do their accounting. Basically, they discount their liabilities using the expected return on their assets. It results in some curious outcomes. For example, since holding cash typically drags down return expectations, if a pension fund simply gave away its cash […]
The Hedge Fund Con Explained
My thanks to Ben Chu of The Independent for articulating the case against hedge funds so clearly.
Putting Stocks in a Bond Fund
In “Running Low on Bonds”, the WSJ today notes that bond funds are increasingly holding stocks because of the shortage of attractive bonds to buy. They cite the Loomis Sayles Strategic Income fund as an example. Common and preferred equity is now 19% of its portfolio, versus 5% in mid-2011. We’re sympathetic to the argument. […]