The dog days of August are on us and the never ending summer heat is at its zenith. Hopefully in a few weeks, temperatures will moderate some and the environment will turn pleasant. The mood in the country is as difficult as the weather. In the forefront of anyone with a pulse is the upcoming presidential election. Voters will face a clear choice between the Romney-Ryan ticket and the incumbant Obama-Biden pair.
I would imagine both sides would agree the country will deserve the winner. A legitimate question which faces the victor is can they work with the defeated side? The advertising campaigns on both sides are doing everything and saying anything possible to discredit the opponent. Staring those same people in the face after you win presents a major problem. One might say it does not matter, but it does and one only needs to look at the lack of accomplishment of our current government to prove the point.
Governor Romney brought up the case of what is happening in California as potentially what could happen to the United States if our government does not start to address the financial issues it has. Naturally, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, says Romney is misguided. California is running a deficit of 10 billion dollars, up 50% from what it thought it might run. The state is losing citizens and businesses because of the financial problems, delusional legislature, and a myriad of regulatory red tape which would frustrate any reasonable business owner. The New York Times recently had a piece in it about how France is going to raise tax rates to 75% for millionaires, and many business owners in France have already left, or are considering leaving. California is facing the same issue and it will continue until people with common sense figure out how to come to an agreement on practical rules for spending and taxing.
Stock market psychology is a reflection of what is happening in all over the world, and I recently read where sentiment about the market is at a 27 year low. Very few people have any interest in the equity market. For experienced investors, this is music to their ears as they want to invest when everyone hates stocks because you get better prices. Time will tell as to how things play out, but I know which camp I am in.
The Olympics ended yesterday and there were no tragic incidents. I am happy the games went so well for the British as they had a smashingly successful two week run. Apparently, the shopping really picked up and certainly the US performance helped on that end.
Facebook's lockup period ends pretty soon and if you thought the selling was bad before this-http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/technology/facebooks-stock-has-suffered-but-some-investors-see-value-now.html?_r=1&ref=business
If you wonder why Mitt Romney does not want to release his tax returns, look no further than this story-http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/us/politics/sheldon-adelsons-dealings-in-china-are-under-investigation.html?ref=business
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Y H & C Investments, Yale Bock, and the family of Yale Bock own positions in securities mentioned in the blog post. Investing in stocks can lead to the complete loss of your capital. As always, on any company mentioned here, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk of losses on invested capital. One should research any investment and make sure it is suitable with your objectives, risk tolerance, risk profile liquidity considerations, tax situation, and anything else pertinent to your financial situation. Also, the CFA credential in no way implies investment returns will be superior for any charterholder.
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