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IF YOU'RE IN THE LUCKIEST 1%, YOU OWE IT TO THE REST OF HUMANITY TO THINK ABOUT THE OTHER 99%

The trade deficit has become a political football leaving many with the perhaps misguided notion that our trade deficit with countries like China and Mexico makes us a loser. As with many things economic, it ain't that simple. Arm yourself with the facts:

Interns hard at work...putting the finishing touches on some great things coming your way. Check it out here

Experts and pundits are notoriously bad at forecasting, in part because they aren't punished for bad predictions. Also, they tend to be deeply unscientific. Moreover, most of us engage in constant forecasting without even realizing it, and that can have an important impact on the way we think about investments. This podcast from Freakonomics Radio will help you rethink the subconscious ways in which we all take forecasting risk. The psychologist Philip Tetlock is finally turning prediction into a science -- and now even you could become a super forecaster.

The fiduciary rule will help to ensure that financial institutions act in investors’ best interests when providing retirement advice.

Do you understand what diversification does for your portfolio? While people generally know diversification is a good thing, they’re often not sure exactly how or why. Academic research has shown that investors don’t understand diversification's impact on volatility and expected returns.

You want to be a team when it comes to your money...but you're not. Here's why — and what you can do.

by economist John Mauldin

An Open Letter to the Next President, Part 4, Where to Find $1 Trillion of Free Money, Making America Competitive Again, New York, Dallas, and Abu Dhabi

When you invest, it’s good to mix things up.  Diversity applies to many things in life—our friends, our colleagues, food, and sports—but it is most well known in the context of investing, and it’s commonly referred to as being diversified.

The beauty of a well-diversified portfolio is that you can come out ahead by sticking to the middle.

The stock market is a lot like weather in New England – wait a few minutes and it will surely change! In late February, as the wintry weather waned, Wall Street waxed, climbing a proverbial wall of worry.

Investor Sentiment now supportive of a market bottom  

Are you really worse off after the recent drop in stocks?

Sharp increases or decreases in the stock market may have a lower impact on your financial plan than you think. Sometimes when you lose in one aspect of your plan, you gain in another. That’s the “Even Steven” concept.

The day after posting Market Corrections: Separating Fact from Fiction, I was tickled to see this great article by Robert Shiller about how popular narratives, however unfounded, influence stock prices.  

Some additional thoughts on the January market swoon and on Alan Blinder's WSJ article -- The Markets are Scaring Themselves

What it Says About the Way Our Economy is Changing

Great article by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School about the importance of GE's decision to relocate its headquarters to Boston, not just because of what GE brings, but because of why it is coming.

GE's transformation over the last decade reflects how manufacturing is changing, the good things that portends for our economy and our competitiveness in global markets, but also the disruption it brings. Increasingly, the have and have not's will align along those who embrace change, and those stuck in old ways of thinking.

This has powerful implications going forward for our human capital -- one of our most valuable assets. 

 The best advice is too boring for TV, and not profitable enough on Wall Street.

Given recent weakness in the stock market, and financial media’s tendency to magnify every normal wiggle, this is as good a time as any to revisit some long term perspectives, and some of the do’s and don’ts of a market correction.

Dean Karlan's ImpactMatters hopes to help prospective donors give smarter, better and more often.