The Gini index measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country.The higher the Gini coefficient the higher the income inequality. According to the CIA’s The World Factbook the Scandinavian country of Sweden has the lowest Gini coefficient.The U.S. ranks 41st just behind its former colony of Philippines with a Gini …
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Mercer Consulting recently published the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index report rating pension systems around the world. The U.S. pension system received a “C” grade based on this study. Denmark has the world’s best system followed by The Netherlands and Australia. It is interesting that the pension system of Chile is ranked highly with the systems …
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Every year Callan Associates publishes their famous Callan Period Table of Investment Returns. Recently they updated the table with data for the year 2012. The Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns for 2012 is shown below: Click to enlarge Source: Callan Associates Some interesting observations from the table are: In 2012, the emerging markets beat U.S. …
Continue reading ‘Review: The Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns 1993-2012’ »
The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 7.9% in January this year. This rate has not changed much since September of 2012. Based on this official figure, currently there 12.3 million unemployed individuals in the country. The actual unemployment rate is much higher since the official rate drops out many unemployed persons such as those that …
Here is an interesting chart showing the yield on long government bonds of US and UK. In the 1970s and 80s, British bonds yielded over 12% while US bonds over 7% and 10% respectively. Since then the yields have fallen dramatically for both country bonds. At the end of last year 20 year government bonds …
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