I think the case for adding economic friction is probably only when government initially created the problems in the market themselves. The Singapore government is increasing economic friction (through policy) to prevent a real estate bubble in Singapore - as oppossed to letting the prices run unch...

True free market do not exist in human civilisation I believe, maybe only in nature. There are frictions in market systems that delay responses of free market participants, allowing prices to skew significantly into a bubble before reverting back to sustainable price. Government leaves markets alon...

To clarify, the COE system is based on free market bidding system - limited number of COE are out up for bidding every month and a median price is used as the month's COE price. Some years back the COE dropped to as little as S$1, due to miscalculated oversupply of COE by government. Nowadays gover...

D1984, how much is the tax in U.S. on income of US$40k and US$250k (approx. S$320k)? Coearth, assuming one is in the worst situation (all income is from wages or salary, no children, unmarried, rents a home instead of owning, made no deductible 401K or Individual Retirment Account contributions, an...

Small Cap Value.  Backtest goes back to 1972 from Simba's spreadsheet.  The down SD is 3.24% vs 2.33% for PP.   2008 took a -7% return which isn't horrible, Wellesley was -9% Two caveats: One, if we ever get a period of ungodly high rates a la Volcker that portfolio may get creamed and would have n...

@Reub: In Singapore, there is a 7% Goods and Services Tax (GST) for all product purchases and services. Resident's personal income tax max out at 20% for income of S$320,000 and above. No capital gains tax for personal investment, no bonds and bank savings interest tax, no estate duty tax since 200...

Personally, I have been thinking of adding a bit more volatility to get higher return Stock - SCV (20%) and EM(20%) Bond -  LT Bond(40%) Gold (20%) Std. Dev. 10.12% CAGR 12.77% Sortino 2.54 I am not sure what SCV is and am assuming that EM is emerging markets. That said this looks like an interesti...

Why not take this further and simply own only the asset that's performing best? If your investment horizon is 15+ years then there's the argument that all stocks can be a reasonable low risk choice. Using Kenneth French's data for Small Cap Value since 1927 to 2011, the worst 15 year period yielded...

The basic problem I have with the welfare state is not its goal, which is commendable, but rather its means of achieving that goal, which is theft. The question that it seems we should be debating is whether it is okay in some cases to confiscate (i.e., steal) private property if you do something w...

I wonder the same things at times. Used to be that churches provided a great deal of care for the hungry, sick, and poor, but nowadays the government does through welfare. I wonder if the church would be up to the task if all the various welfare schemes went away. Same goes for the elderly; would t...

MG, holding low volatility blue-chip dividend growers as part of a "slice'n'dice of the stock portion of a PP isn't a bad idea IMO but if you are worried about lack of volatility capture pair it with an SCV fund and a leveraged large growth fund; these assets aren't too strongly correlated with...

MediumTex, Three issues with your proposed idea to have people pay off medical debts they incurred due to lack of insurance: One, wouldn't such a system violate current interpretations of US law as regards peonage, debt bondage, and indentured servitude (United States v Reynolds, 235 U.S. 133, 1914)...

For the bajillionth time, not only is your 1936-1952 PP NOT the PP, the negative real rates after the war would have likely made gold skyrocket.. also, it probably wouldn't have fallen as much in 1937... take a look at 2008), we weren't a soveriegn fiat currency then, so even though gov't bonds wer...

Murphy, Using corporate debt in place of LT Treasury debt isn't that great an idea IIRC. The LTTs are there because they will do well in a deflation or deflationary market crash because in a fiat money system Treasury bonds and interest will always be paid back in full (well, assuming Congress doesn...

Clive, My main concern was not how "inflation taxes" would effect such a portfolio; they would hurt it but it's only adding insult to injury in a situation where inflation is in the low double digits but nominal yields are kept at 1 or 2% (a situation where inflation was at say, 30% and yi...

Overall that's somewhat like holding 18% stock 18% gold 36% currency 24% debt Coupled with 88% in inflation bonds Cllive, What happens if the scenarios in my previous post as far as inflation bonds are concerned come to pass? Theoretically (hopefully? ) the leveraged gold would save your portfolio ...

Clive and Lone Wolf, I'm not sure if using SCV in lieu of TSM is enough protection in times of high inflation and suppressed yields. Looking at the graph of real returns for the 25% SCV, 25% silver, 25% 5-year Treasury ladder, and 25% LTT it seems that anyone who bought into this blend in 1935 or 19...

Clive Couldn't you actually experience real (although perhaps not nominal) losses if you go heavily into inflation bonds (either alone, in an FTM portfolio, or in a 75% inflation bond 25% 3x leveraged portfolio) in an attempt to "get ahead" of impending inflation? Three possible scenarios ...

If you look at the PP gains 1981 onwards, it lagged STT - by more than -25% at one point based on yearly values (perhaps more on a more frequent review basis) i.e. the gains from the leveraged PP levels wouldn't have been large enough to even compensate for the cost of borrowing to create that leve...

The controversy comes in when your'e talking about the lower end of that spectrum.  I have read sources which say that the best place to be is either at 25 or 33 percent usage.  If you have 0% or close to 0% utilitization, you actually supposedly have a worse score than someone with 25 or 33 percen...

Storm, how is your utilization (how much your credit lines on your cards are vs how much you charge on them each month)? If you have (for example) a $5000 credit limit on each card but charge $2500 on each one every month and then pay it in full before the grace period ends you'll still be showing 5...

it would appear that gold might have near doubled over 1946/1947 when inflation ran at 18% and 9% I believe the Swiss and Turks still had free floating gold when most others were tied to fixed gold prices The Swiss did not have a free floating currency (it was tied to the USD at around 4.3 CHF per ...

If your main concept of "freedom" involves not wanting to have someone tell you what you can/can't put up on your land (so long as it isn't harming someone else) or do with your own property then perhaps rural Alabama or Mississippi would be what you are looking for; many unincorporated (i...

Quote from: D1984 on Today at 02:04:35 PM MachineGhost, when I got to http://finance.yahoo.com , type in ^NDX in the ticker symbol box, and open the historical prices list or historical price chart the data only go back to September 2010. When you access it do you have access to daily open and clos...

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