Who Has the Midas Touch?

 
Over the course of a lengthy and illustrious business career, Warren Buffett has offered thoughtful opinions on a wide variety of investment-related issues—executive compensation, accounting standards, high-yield bonds, derivatives, stock options, and so on.

In regard to gold and its investment merits, however, Buffett has had little to say—at least in the pages of his annual shareholder letter. We searched through 34 years' worth of Berkshire Hathaway annual reports and were hard-pressed to find any mention of the subject whatsoever. The closest we came was a rueful acknowledgement from Buffett in early 1980 that Berkshire's book value, when expressed in gold bullion terms, had shown no increase from year-end 1964 to year-end 1979. 

Buffett appeared vexed that his diligent efforts to grow Berkshire's business value over a fifteen-year period had been matched stride for stride by a lump of shiny metal requiring no business acumen at all. He promised his shareholders he would continue to do his best but warned

 

To continue reading the article, please click here.

You don't have to be wealthy to reap the benefits of philanpthropy

Scott Sarber, the Vice President of Petersen Hastings, was recently published in the Tri-Cities Journal of Business for an article he contributed entitled "You don't have to be wealthy to reap the benefits of philanthropy".

"Warren Buffet plans to give 99 percent of his wealth during his lifetime and after his death to charity.  He has encouraged many other wealthy people to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to philanthropic activities.  You can view a list of people who have elected to do this at http://givingpledge.org/"...

To continue reading the article, please click here.

IRS Audit Red Flags: The Dirty Dozen

Ever wonder why some tax returns are eyeballed by the Internal Revenue Service while most are ignored?

The IRS audits only slightly more than 1% of all individual tax returns annually. The agency doesn't have enough personnel and resources to examine each and every tax return filed during a year. So the odds are pretty low that your return will be...

To continue reading the article, please click here.

Why You Need a Roth IRA

One of the smartest money moves a young person can make is to invest in a Roth IRA -- and setting one up is easy.

Follow the rules and any money you put into one of these retirement-savings accounts grows absolutely tax free: You won't owe Uncle Sam a dime as you let your savings accumulate, or when you cash out in retirement. Plus, an IRA is more flexible than a 401(k) and other retirement plans because you can invest it in almost whatever you...

To continue reading the article, please click here.

Fourth Quarter Commentary

After a strong start to 2011, U.S. stock market returns moved into negative territory mid year, but posted positive returns for the fourth quarter.  Investors entered 2011 with hopes that the world economy would continue recovering from a long and painful deleveraging process.  Stock markets had posted two straight years of positive performance, central banks remained committed to pro-growth monetary policy, and major developed nations were focused...


To continue reading the commentary, please click here.

Fourth Quarter Market Review

Although US stocks experienced some of the highest volatility in years, the broad US market delivered flat performance in 2011. Developed markets logged negative returns, and emerging markets had mixed performance, with most countries also underperforming the US. The bright spotswere in the fixed income arena, where a flight to quality triggered by the euro debt crisis...

To continue reading the market review, please click here.

Looking Back on the "Expert" Predictions for 2011

It’s that time again when harried finance editors ask reporters to call investment professionals and cobble together top predictions for the coming year. These are fun to write. But for readers, they’re more entertaining a year later.

To continue reading the article, please click here...