This is the first of our blogs that we will be sending out each Wednesday. We hope to keep you informed about some of the key articles we are reading in order to stay current on the economy and markets.
We will highlight a few articles of interest that we have read during the past week. You’ll find a link that will take you to read the entire article if you like.
Jeremy Grantham’s First Quarter 2012 Letter – Grantham is one of the founding partners of the firm Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co (GMO). His quarterly letters always have useful insights for investors. At the end of Jeremy Grantham’s commentary is a short section by Ben Inker regarding the current market outlook. You can find Jeremy Grantham’s letter by clicking on this link: http://www.gmo.com/America/
ECRI Weekly Leading Indicator – The Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) publishes their weekly leading index each Friday. Financial data analyst Doug Short then publishes a graph and article relating his views on any changes that have occurred. Among other things, this index can be used to forecast whether a recession is imminent. Here is a link to the article and graph that Doug Short published on April 20, 2012: http://advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/ECRI-Weekly-Leading-Index.php
John Mauldin’s Article “The War for Spain” dated April 14, 2012 – John Mauldin publishes an article every Saturday which he calls “Thoughts from the Front Line”. John is an economist and travels extensively throughout the world. He has done an excellent job keeping up with the European debt crisis. In the article “The War for Spain”, John discusses how the debt crisis has moved from Greece and now is impacting Spain. Here is a link to the article: http://www.johnmauldin.com/frontlinethoughts/the-war-for-spain
We would appreciate your feedback on this blog. Feel free to forward it to your friends and family.
John R. Day and Bill W. Ennis