Commentary

Each month, the BCWM Portfolio Management team publishes an Investment Commentary that examines the latest developments in financial markets and the economy. We filter out the noise and present the information most relevant to our investment strategies and management of our clients’ portfolios.

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Still Hoping for Change

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Four years ago this month, the financial world walked to the edge of a cliff just weeks before a presidential election. During September, 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed into conservatorship and taken over by the U.S. Government. Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America, Washington Mutual by JP Morgan, Wachovia…
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Ryan Gives Romney a Chance

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The race for President of the United States just got interesting. Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate pits Romney/Ryan against Obama/what’s-his-name. Romney has signaled his lack of desperation by NOT choosing a running mate as inexperienced as what’s-her-name, and his choice of Paul Ryan is a bold statement that this campaign…
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SCOTUS

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The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.” The justices didn’t say they liked Obamacare…they just stated it was constitutional. In a 5-4 vote, the Court ruled that it was within the power of Congress to impose a tax on a…
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Facebook and Other Natural Disasters

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Facebook shares began trading publicly this past month. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Facebook was the most exciting and over-hyped IPO in a long time… maybe ever. Everyone wanted in on it because everyone was sure the stock price would do nothing but go up after the first minute of trading. The media absolutely…
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He Undressed the Maid Himself

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I just returned from back-to-back conferences featuring some of the brightest minds in the investment industry. The Strategic Investment Conference, May 2-5, was followed by the 65th annual Conference of the CFA Institute May 6-9. At the CFA Conference, Daniel Kahneman delivered a talk he called “Psychology for Behavioral Finance” in which he attempted to…
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