September 20, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal If you asked me five years ago if the largest investment manager on the planet, BlackRock, would suggest to a room of professionals to “allocate to flexible core bond alternatives, find unconstrained managers and implement long/short strategies”, I would [...]Read More >

September 20, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal   I have had the same hair stylist for 15 years.  Fancy word, “stylist”.  I’d say barber but he would definitely take offense, so stylist it is.  Don’t tell him but I think stylist means $45 and barber means $15.  Anyway, I’m totally loyal, I trust [...]Read More >

September 13, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Looking for a feel-good financial read this weekend?  I highly recommend Gary Shilling’s Advantage America that John Mauldin highlighted in his most recent Outside the Box. Speaking of Mauldin, he and I spoke in Chicago at the Trinity Financial Investor [...]Read More >

September 6, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal This week, I share the following relevant research: Seventh Inning Stretch – PIMCO’s Bill Gross Peak Earnings Equals Peak Valuations – a telling chart The Behavior Gap - Blumenthal Viewpoint How to Make Risk Your Friend – Deepak Chopra, [...]Read More >

By Steve Blumenthal August 29, 2013 If you are traditional 60/40, change what you are doing.  Build in risk protection, rethink how you are investing in bonds and add meaningful exposure to Tactical Strategies, unconstrained mutual funds and other highly liquid non-correlating investment [...]Read More >

August 9, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal (from the 361 Capital Weekly Research Briefing) Every quarter for as long as I can remember, I anxiously await Jeremy Grantham’s quarterly investment letter.  Jeremy’s firm manages more than $100 billion.  I remember how he stuck to his disciplined process in [...]Read More >

August 2, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Like the Wile E. Coyote, we have raced ahead and are finding ourselves out over the cliff.  Slower growth, manipulated GDP, underfunded pensions and unprecedented global currency manipulation…we are far from normal conditions – too much debt remains the major [...]Read More >

July 26, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Sometimes I sit back and reflect on just how grateful I am to be in this business.  Challenging? Yes, but very intellectually stimulating.  I am extremely excited today after a productive meeting focusing on how to better manage fixed income portfolio exposure.  [...]Read More >

July 19, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal I have been feeling more and more uneasy; much like I did in 2007 when I got my arms around sub-prime mortgages and those packaged pools of AAA rated sub-prime junk.  The liquidity it provided fueled an inflating real estate bubble.  “The real estate market had [...]Read More >

July 5, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Money will move to where it is treated best.  One needs to have a global view and understand that we are deeply interconnected.   The grand experiment moves forward and we are not alone in the chemistry lab.  Europe, Japan, China and the U.S. are all printing on [...]Read More >

June 28, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal This week, I discuss two relevant thoughts and first share a few thoughts on the recent spike in interest rates: Total Credit Market Debt is still too high The Tipping Point The big headwind to growth remains debt, deficits and entitlements.  At the [...]Read More >

June 21, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal This week, I discuss four relevant thoughts: Fisher and Volcker – Some common sense exists China - Japanese-style deflation Italian Showdown with Germany over Euro is Near One more to celebrate – Stephen Mittel Dallas Fed President Richard [...]Read More >

June 14, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal This week, I discuss five relevant thoughts: Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher on “The Grand Experiment in Modern Monetarism” El-Erian on “What the Markets are Telling Us” John Mauldin on Japan AQR’s Cliff Asness showing the forward return outlook of [...]Read More >

June 7, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal “A Race to the Bottom”.  It was April 2, 2011 and the call came.  I had just gotten off the ski lift at nearly 12,000 feet on top of Snowbird mountain (Utah).  “Are you sitting down?” No, I answered, what happened?  Mauldin was to fly up to have dinner with me [...]Read More >

May 31, 2013 By Steve Blumenthal Paul Volker - Volcker Weighs In on Limits of Fed's Easy Money Policies  On Wednesday Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker waded into the debate over when to reduce today's ultra-easy U.S. monetary policies, contending that the benefits of bond buying [...]Read More >