Healthcare spending is about 9% of GDP on average in OECD countries. However in many countries it exceeds 10% of the GDP. Over three quarters of healthcare spending is publicly funded. The current economic crisis, ageing populations, rising budget deficits, soaring healthcare costs and other factors are forcing healthcare spending to be tightened in most …
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In a post titled “The Magic of Buy & Hold vs Trend” fellow blogger Barry Ritholtz noted the following interesting fact yesterday: “On December 31, 1998, the last trading day of the year, the SPX closed at 1229.23. That is within 10 points (not 10 percent, but 10 points!) of where it is today. Over …
Continue reading ‘MSCI Index 10-Year Performance: U.S. vs. Select Developed, Emerging Markets’ »
Most U.S. investors have low exposure to foreign stocks. Despite the rising importance of foreign countries in the global economy, many investors have the “home-bias” problem and continue to gravitate towards American companies. While it is true that a quarter of the revenues of the S&P 500 firms come from abroad, in order to gain …
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An article in The New York Times recently compared the economies of Poland and Ireland. From the article: WARSAW — With its drab, Soviet-era boulevards and standard-issue glass-and-steel office buildings, Warsaw does not look much like green, elegant Dublin. But there are some striking similarities between Poland today and Ireland in the 1990s. Like the …
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The MSCI global emerging markets fell 2.7% in November due to monetary tightening in China, tensions on the Korean peninsula and the continuing European Union fiscal crisis. Despite this pullback, Citigroup’s global emerging markets equity strategist, Geoffrey Dennis stated in a research report that it is a healthy sign of long-running bull market and that …
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