Benjamin Graham on Financial Advisors (LINK)
Best's Review Article about Ajit Jain [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Buffett’s Gen Re Turns to Rival for Broker Relationships [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Why Banks Aren’t Giving You a 3%, 30-Year Mortgage…Yet (LINK)
Government bond yields have plummeted this week, but mortgage rates haven’t fallen so fast.
After plumbing record lows earlier this week, the 10-year yield closed at 1.387% on Thursday. The national average for a 30-year, fixed-rate conforming mortgage was 3.41%, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac released Thursday. The difference or spread between the two, at 2.02 percentage points, has risen in recent weeks and is at one of its widest levels since mid-2012.
Groundhog's Shadow and the Cost of Fear: A Case for the Mounting Bubble in Defensive Stocks (LINK)...Indeed, if the difference between the 30-year mortgage rate and the 10-year Treasury yield were at its average level for the previous 10 years, the average mortgage would be 3.17%. Mortgage rates key off the 10-year Treasury because most homeowners tend to move within around 10 years, repaying their loans in the process.
Even so, borrowers are doing well. Rates around 3.5% are historically low. And the fact that the national average has dipped decisively below 3.5% may spur even more borrowing activity. A range of average rates between 3.6% and 4% has occurred many times for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages since 2012, but they fell below 3.5% for only brief periods; the record low of 3.31% was hit in November 2012.
How Accounting Standards Went Insane: It Didn’t Start with IFRS Convergence (LINK)
Crazy - A Story of Debt, by Grant Williams (video) (LINK)
This is a story about debt – 2008 was the crystallization of that, the years since have been the denial of it, and the years to come will be the resolution. Grant Williams, founder & publisher of the ‘Things That Make You Go Hmmm...’ research service, and co-founder of Real Vision TV, brings us an eye-opening presentation titled Crazy, where he puts into perspective the extraordinary levels of global debt and unprecedented monetary policy, and reminds us that the many factors that led to the ‘08 crisis are still very much present.U.S. Regulator Bans Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes From Operating Labs for Two Years (LINK)
U.S. Federal health regulators dealt a major blow to Theranos Inc., banning founder Elizabeth Holmes from operating a blood-testing laboratory for at least two years and yanking regulatory approval for its California lab.
The Silicon Valley company announced the sanctions, by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a news release late Thursday night. The company can appeal the ruling.
The sanctions, which include an unspecified monetary penalty, cap eight months of public scrutiny that began in October when The Wall Street Journal raised questions about the company’s ability to perform a wide variety of blood tests with just a few drops of blood. Theranos once was a leading light in the technology boom, with the private company valued at $9 billion in 2014.
Cool Tools Podcast - Show 058: Tim Ferriss (LINK)