rightcoastconservative

The agreement reached on Thursday in the Eurozone sparked a major stock and bond rally in world financial markets.  There was a nearly two percent pop across the globe.  The agreement basically made each country responsible for every other country's commercial banking system.  The next step will be Eurobonds, which makes every country responsible for the sovereign debt of all the other countries -- "joint and several" is the usual phrase. Nothing, of course, in the agreement reigns in the growth of that sovereign debt or in way repairs commercial bank balance sheets.  There is just a new signatory -- Germany.  Now, if one looks only at Germany and ignores the rest of the Eurozone, it is clear that Germany itself is on the road to financial ruin, long before taking on the indebtedness of the likes of Greece, Spain, Italy, etc.  The main thing that these agreements do is to eliminate any rational reason for the profligate countries to take any measures to cur...

I like Helen Dragas.  I know that may sound strange, but I think she is very smart and well intentioned.  We all make mistakes.  I think her second term will prove out that she can be an outstanding member of the Board of Visitors. But, you have to wonder about Governor McDonnell.  What's he thinking?  He announced the appointment as if the opposition to Dragas was gender based, which is completely ridiculous.  What McDonnell still refuses to admit, at least publicly, is that he favored the ouster of Sullivan all along.  That is the only conceivable explanation for Dragas's reappointment. I would not worry about the Board of Visitors ganging up on Sullivan.  I don't see that happening.  I expect Dragas will be very cooperative and the future is likely to be harmonious. But, you have to wonder about the Governor in all of this.  No matter how you tell the story, the Governor's role is likely not to be one that history will look back on wi...

Conservatives are castigating John Roberts for joining with four liberals to provide a path to constitutionality for Obamacare.  Why pick on him?  When Republicans are in political control, they do exactly the same thing. Ever hear of "Americans for Disability Act," "The Prescription Drug Bill," "No Child Left Behind," etc.  These are Republican initiatives passed by Republicans.  Who were the biggest critics of Sarah Palin after she was the Republican nominee for VP?  Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan -- two Republicans.  What was her crime?  She didn't read the NY Times and thought Russsia was across the Bering Straights (which it is). Who coined the phrase "voodoo economics" to describe the Reagan tax cut plan?  A conservative Republican, that's who.  What Governor recently followed the advice of four liberal Democrats, against the advice of conservatives, to try to destabilize the University of Virginia?  A conservative Republican that's...

What was a disastrous future for the southern periphery of Europe is now being extended to the northern states as well.  Germany is the main target of this exercise.  Today's agreement to accept near worthless bank equity by the European banking stabilization fund is an admission of hopelessness. No one yet is reducing the yawning deficits or recapitalizing the insolvent banks that plague Europe.   That's off the table for now.  So, European debt continues to explode off to infinity while the paper-shuffling politicians rearrange the names of the guarantors.  In the end, it won't matter.  Germany will suffer the same fate as Greece and for the same reason.  They can't pay their bills. The problem in Europe is one of solvency, not one of liquidity.  These patch jobs only make the final outcome much more severe than it would be if the real problems were faced with candor.

After the spectacular performance of AmDynamic Bond fund, AmInvestment Services Bhd would like to replicate the success of the conventional fund into this newly launched shariah compliant fund. The Fund aims to provide capital appreciation by investing primarily in Sukuk both locally and globally.  To achieve the investment objective, the Fund will undertake active management  to enhance and optimize  returns from investing in sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate Sukuks. The sectorial weightings maybe  adjusted to maximize the performance. There is no minimum rating for a Sukuk purchased or held by the  Fund. More about the Fund Value-add of the Fund is derived from active tactical duration management, yield curve positioning and  credit spread arbitrage . Credit spread arbitrage and yield curve positioning is part of relative value approach that involves analysis of general economic and market conditions and the use of models to analyz...

Investment professionals love complicating things. Trust me on that. I was once like that. You don’t believe me? The next time you meet people from the investment industry, try asking them to give you a definition of the word “risk”. Investopedia defines “risk” as “the chance that an investment’s actual return will be different than expected...risk is usually measured by the standard deviation of the historical/average return of a specific investment.”   Don’t get me wrong. This is actually a pretty good definition of "risk”... that is if you speak finance. But most people don’t, and if you are like most people, you probably struggled to understand even the first sentence (actual return vs expected return...huh?). Good luck attempting to measure risk! Then, what does RISK mean? Complicated definitions aside, many investment professionals define “risks” consistent with the above definition i.e. in terms of “ uncertainty ” (or “volatility...

Now that the UVA crisis has passed it is easy to see that the ultimate outcome created winning positions for mostly everyone involved.  Even Rector Helen Dragas emerged with strength and character in bowing to the inevitable return of President Teresa Sullivan.  It is unfortunate that Mark Kington and Peter Kiernan remain on the outside looking in.  Both Kington and Kiernan are outstanding alums and their contributions to the University in the past merit returning these two to positions of respect at their alma mater.  I for one hope to see both Kington and Kiernan playing a major role at the University in the years ahead, as they have in the past. There are a lot of messages in what has transpired in the past two weeks, but reflect for a moment on why the groundswell of support for Sullivan was so overwhelming.  Sullivan did the little things well.  She was kind and friendly.  She sought out all parts of the University community.  She expressed i...