"Will the U.S. Sub-Prime Crisis Be as Bad as History Suggests?"

"If history is a good guide, the U.S. economy will stay in the doldrums much longer than we’d like—a minimum of two years. That’s the scary implication of 'Is the 2007 U.S. Sub-Prime Financial Crisis So Different? An International Historical Comparison' by Carmen M. Reinhart of the University of Maryland and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Kenneth S. Rogoff, Harvard University and NBER."

Read more of my article about Reinhart and Rogoff's research and what advisors say about its implications. This article appeared in the Feb. 26 issue of Advisor Perspectives.

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

Nice analogy in credit default swaps article

Sometimes my head hurts when I try to understand credit default swaps. That's why I smiled when I read this analogy in Gretchen Morgenson's "Arcane Market Is Next to Face Big Credit Test" in The New York Times.

"It would be as if homeowners, facing losses after a hurricane, could not identify the insurance companies to pay on their claims. Or, if they could, they discovered that their insurer had transferred the policy to another company that could not cover the claim."

You'll have to read the article to appreciate how nice this analogy is.

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Investment Writing
Writing that's an investment in your success

Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.

CFA Digest: "Diversification Benefits and Persistence of US-Based Global Bond Funds"

Adding a global bond fund can improve your portfolio's risk-return characteristics.

According to a CFA Digest abstract of "Diversification Benefits and Persistence of US-Based Global Bond Funds," "Adding global bond funds to a portfolio is found to provide significant incremental benefits to equity index funds and domestic bond funds and to reduce the impact of volatile markets on a portfolio."

The full article by Sirapat Polwitoon and Oranee Tawatnuntachai, CFA appeared in Journal of Banking & Finance, Vol. 30, No. 10: (October 2006)2767-2786.