Barron's Mini Review: This is the mutual fund family rating issue, and a must read. 1. Abelson was hot as a pistol this week. He thanks the Busheviks are trying to constrain boosting the economy too much until election year. And he doesn't think that the American auto will respond when Flubya steps on the accelerator. Fiscal policy will have no more effect than Greenscam's "serial slashing" of interest rates. That man can turn a phrase and to quote another group of turners, this parrot is dead.
The problem is the speculation and the losses after that craziness, according to AA. He doesn't mention the debt spiral throughout the economy, but would probably say it all came from the stock market shenanigans.
He quotes a Blodgett piece on overpriced internet stocks from 1999: "the real 'risk' is not losing money, but missing the upside." Long and wrong. It is so funny to hear this silly advice. Since I've been working where I'm working, I've heard that my clients will hate me if the train leaves the station and they're not aboard. So far, this hearkens back to the recent exchange on a venerable thread between a couple of regular posters about "driving that train, high on cocaine. Switchman's sleeping, train one hundred and two, is on the wrong track and heading for you." Somehow, I trust The Grateful Dead more than the Wall Street braintrust. <g>
Abelson mentions that the soft spot is now 10 months old. Hey, most babies have a soft spot on their head when they are born. But if they still have it when they're 21 years old, they ought to see a doctor. Get my drift George and Barbara Bush? <G>
2. A follow-up article about Drugs and PBMs. I love the latter and like the former. I couldn't quite figure out if they were positive or negative. Perhaps they are being fair and balanced. I hate that kind of crap. <g> Tout my stocks, damn it!
3. A very positive piece on big oil. The stocks have sucked. Hey, folks, these guys own The White House and when we use our military to help big oil, they rarely come out looking bad.
4. The mutual fund story was terrific. They tout the one year numbers, but I rarely pay much attention to them. The one year winner was State Farm Management. A couple of years back, it was Colonial Management. Neither of these firms are really in the game longer term. So, look at the 5 and 10 year numbers.
I always look for firms I've worked for or with. For some reason, Van Kampen seems to have pissadeared from the ratings. Perhaps they are being combined with Morgan Stuck-Up. Too bad in a year when Jim Gilligan's Equity Income Fund outperformed his peer group for the 13th year in a row. I don't know how the other funds did.
Waddell & Reed dropped out of the Top Ten for five years, finishing a respectable #20 out of 72. For 10 years, they are #10 out of 24. Both of those numbers are declines from their usual sterling performance. Hank Hermann is a brilliant guy and he runs the joint. But Hank wuvs his tech stocks. Dancing with the stocks that brung them have not killed performance, but they have hurt it.
Salomon Bros ranked #9 or 72 for 5 years, which is pretty good. Smith Barney ranked #38. For 10 years, Sally is AWOL while Smith Barney ranks 16 of 24. Not so good.
The 3 best fund groups for 5 years weren't mentioned on the list for 10. American Funds was #4 of 72 for the nickel and #1 for the dime. These guys ain't my cup of tea a lot of the time, but they are sure a lot smarter than their competition.
4. An interview with Bill Miller of Legg Mason. Every time I read what this guy says, he sounds like a mongoloid idiot. But his record says otherwise. I will always take real long-term performance over words. But the doofishness of the words cause me heartburn.
5. Market Watch has some nice word bites from newsletters. The best was The Financial Commentator, who asks what would happen if Iraq was resolved and the economy didn't recover.
6. A bullish piece in the Commodities section on Natural Gas.
Worth the $3.50. The danged clerk caught the price tag this time and I had to pay for it instead of having it shoved inside my grocery bag as a freebie. The world sucks. <VBG> |
