Americans Take Payroll-Tax Increase in Stride to Keep Spending

My Comments: There is a lot of evidence and sentiment that 2013 will be a solid year. Housing starts are strong and will continue to be at least until interest rates start to climb. The jobs report continues to be positive with roughly 200K new jobs every month for the past four months. GDP growth …

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Obama Planned Big Budget Cuts All Along

My Comments: I’m trying to decide if the author of this article is fundamentally to the left of the Obama administration and therefore critical of his lack of fire in promoting new revenue sources for the country, ie higher taxes, or whether the writer is critical because virtually everyone on the right is critical, regardless …

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Retirement Security Gets More Complicated

My Comments: While this was written a few weeks ago, the underlying theme is entirely valid today. There is little chance that interest rates are going to see any significant increase over the next 24 months. The Fed has said they are not going to mess with them for perhaps two more years. There is …

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Coalition Fights Florida Retirement System Changes

By Paula Aven Gladych A bill scheduled for consideration today in the Government Operations Subcommittee of the Florida House of Representatives would weaken a healthy retirement system, raise taxpayer costs and force more Floridians to rely on social services, according to opponents of the measure. The bill would close the Florida Retirement System defined benefit …

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Doll Predicts New U.S. Stock High, Slow Economic Growth

My Comment: I first met Bob Doll some 25 plus years ago when he was a regional representative for what I recall as Oppenheimer Funds. He made intelligent presentations and clearly had his act together. Over the years he has appeared in various high profile positions within the industry and has always been pretty close …

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Big GM Investment in China

My Comments: Not talked about much during the recent election campaign but in the back of my mind as I pondered the merits of the GOP vs Dems. The neo-con crowd who were backing Romney were the same people who pushed as hard as anyone to get us into Iraq in 2002-03 and have been …

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Stock and Bond Funds Appreciate by $1 Trillion in 2012

My Comments: All this in spite of the fact we are in the middle of a secular bear market. One which is likely to take at least three more years and two large sell-offs before we can declare we are now at the start of a secular bull market. The last secular bull market ran …

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The Deficit Is Already Shrinking At Its Fastest Pace Since World War II Demobilization

My Comments: OK, so it’s still Thanksgiving! Tell that to the folks running to the mall to participate in Black Friday. For me, that’s an economic phenomenon that helps justify my blog post today. After all, this is GOOD NEWS, news that we can be THANKFUL for, even if it is about economics, that nasty …

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3 Self-Defeating Investor Behaviors:

By Joyce Hanson, AdvisorOne The intricacies of investor psychology shed light on what people are doing to miss out on long-term opportunities—and on how advisors can help them overcome those behavioral hurdles, according to a recent report from Franklin Templeton Investments. Behavioral phenomena can have a negative impact on investor psychology, says Franklin Templeton in …

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Jobless Rates Fall in 95 Percent of US Cities

My Comments: Yes, there is most definitely a conspiracy going on here, a cooking of the books by the Democrats to fight what is clearly a losing battle. The forces spearheaded by the white male leaders of the GOP will prevail and save our nation from certain destruction! Well... maybe. By Christopher S. Rugaber | …

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