Keynes vs. Hayek Round 2

In case you missed it, Round 1 is here.  A bit biased, but brilliant nonetheless. Enjoy.

Mutual Fund Performance – A Case Study

As a professional investor, I’ve read quite a few annual reports. If you include quarterly reports, they number well over ten thousand. Early in my career this activity was limited to reports from companies, but now I research mutual funds of all types too. One section you see in every fund report is a discussion about past performance. While “past performance is no guarantee of future results” as the boilerplate legal language says, it can give you clues as to how a fund invests. Past performance should also raise certain questions in every portfolio manager’s mind. Namely, why do we own (or want to own) this fund?

Griping about mortgage lenders

On behalf of borrowers everywhere, I’m sharing a couple of gripes about banks who make mortgages. I have had several clients refinance – or attempt to refinance – in the past year. It seems that in just about every case, the bank has screwed up royally. The offenses seem to fall into several common mistakes: