In the last issue of the Powerfund Portfolios we explained why treasury bonds may start being less of a sure thing, and might even surprise investors by their lousy returns as rates go back up sometime in the future (how's that for a prediction that can't go wrong?). This month we want to get back to the issue on everyone's mind: stocks. Namely, are stocks cheap, and can investors expect to make any money in them anytime soon? ...read the rest of this article»

How hot are "safe" US government bonds? They were up around 4% in August, after a big run in July amidst the market chaos. In fact, long-term government bonds, the kind the government recently decided they didn't need to issue anymore, are up over 12% this year so far. That's a lot of money to make in a safe investment. ...read the rest of this article»

Tabloid news headlines aside, the real trouble - as it's been for some years now - is valuations. Stocks were priced for perfection when anything but became the market environment. More troubling, stocks were richly valued assuming the numbers (earnings and revenues) were "on the level", which, sadly, they were not. ...read the rest of this article»

Any way you slice and dice it, the market is expensive. This is not a new thing. The market has been expensive for at least the last decade, if not longer. We've been complaining about valuations being sky high for years, but that doesn't mean there aren't good categories of funds in which to put your money. You can still invest in a historically overvalued market, and probably should. ...read the rest of this article»

It wasn't all bad news. Small cap value indexes rose around 3 - 4%. For those keeping track, these types of stocks are now up well over 50% since the large cap indexes hit the skids. That's a pretty big move... for stocks that aren't really growing earnings, broadly speaking. ...read the rest of this article»

Is it me, or does it seem like the Dow has been kicking around 10,000 forever? Forever actually started in 1999 when the Dow first broke 10,000. It's been kicking around in the 9,000 - 11,000 range ever since. ...read the rest of this article»