Chart: US Manufacturing as a Percentage of GDP and Income Inequality

The Manufacturing industry has been declining for many years now. While in the past an average American with a high school diploma could get a well-paid job in a local factory and settle down by raising a family, today’s average American with the same diploma might be lucky to find a job flipping burgers at …

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Three Reasons To Consider German Stocks

German stocks have performed worse so far this year relative to other developed markets. For instance, the FTSE 100 is down just 1.38% compared to the DAX’s decline of 7.70%. The actual loss is even more since the DAX returns includes dividends when other indices do not. From a May 20th article in the WSJ on …

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Foreign Taxes Paid: How To Claim in U.S. Tax Returns

Investing in foreign stocks involves many costs. One of the costs is the taxes paid to foreign governments on dividends earned by US investors. Such dividend withholding taxes can be huge for some countries such as Switzerland and while others such as Singapore do not withhold taxes. While paying a substantial portion of dividends earned …

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P/E Ratio is Not a Predictor of Future Equity Returns

The Price/Earnings ratio (P/E) is sometimes used by investors to identify if equities are cheap or expensive and if getting in when the ratio is lower means higher returns in the future. However an article by Lord Abbett notes that P/E ratio alone is not a good indicator of future market returns. From the article: …

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Knowledge is Power: Fascism, 401K Monster, DAX Index Edition

Performing Reformers: How Political Change Can Affect Stocks (Charles Schwab) This is how fascism comes to America (The Washington Post) Asset Allocation – Why You Should Invest Internationally (T.Rowe Price) The inventor of the 401(k) says he created a ‘monster’ (MarketWatch) UK stock market recoveries (Invesco Perpetual) The German DAX’s Bad Year Is Even Worse Than It …

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