A ruling by a judge, who in one case said Edison International did ‘substantial’ harm to employees by not negotiating lower fees from the firm running the 401(k) plan, may bolster other lawsuits. By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times – July 29, 2010 For decades, high fees have quietly but steadily eaten away at the [...]

Eugene Fama guests on CNBC. This is ironic. Fama and other progenitors of the Effecient Markets Theory are generally maligned around the Wall Street world but here he is invited back to continue to advocate for capitalism. This is an important interview in terms of content. Please enjoy listening.

Some may wonder why we would be posting a story about renewable energy on a site that is dedicated to Investor Education for Main Street America. It is precisely because there is a huge financial impact on Main Street America if we continue down the current path of forcing the consumption of energy that is [...]

Whether rates are high or low, evidence shows our tax system won’t collect more than 20% of GDP. By David Ranson – Wall Street Journal The Greeks have always been trendsetters for the West. Washington has repudiated two centuries of U.S. fiscal prudence as prescribed by the Founding Fathers in favor of the modern Greek [...]

This article explains in clear terms why a higher tax rate will usually result in fewer taxes being paid into the U.S. Treasury. Wouldn’t it be better if we had lower tax rates and actually collected them than higher rates that we don’t collect? Here’s what Forbes’ Christopher Helman found: What The Top U.S. Companies [...]

The following article by Adam Meyerson is taken from the Hillsdale College newsletter, Imprimus. The article is available as a pdf file, The Generosity of America. Adam Meyerson has been president of The Philanthropy Roundtable since 2001. From 1993 to 2001, he was vice president for educational affairs at the Heritage Foundation. He served as [...]

As the stock market has improved, more investors have shifted their concern from weathering the financial crisis to anticipating the inflationary effects of rising federal spending and debt. Many folks are asking how they can prepare for potentially higher inflation. This article explores two basic ways to address inflation uncertainty and highlights asset groups that [...]

by Bob Veres All of a sudden, it seems like everybody in the financial planning world is talking about Roth IRAs and Roth conversions.  In fact, an article in Financial Planning magazine–one of the trade magazines in our world–recently proclaimed 2010 “The Year of the Roth.” What’s the big deal?  Roth IRAs are interesting to [...]

The first two columns in this series by Brad Steiman offered answers to frequently asked questions about active vs. passive investing, and explored a general set of ideas around market efficiency. The main purpose has been to help build a framework for educating clients on the debate. There are other good reasons to approach the [...]

In his previous column, Brad addressed questions related to the theoretical aspects of market efficiency and active manager performance. In this second of his three-column series on active vs. passive investing, he explores the challenges of implementing these strategies in the real world. The previous column in this series focused on some theoretical aspects of [...]