MEDIA REVIEWS - May 24-31, 2011

The highlight of this issue of the Journal, and maybe the highlight for the past several years, is an interesting variation of the Bengen research. The "Save Savings Rates" article by Wade Pfau looks, not at the safety of various distribution rates, but the safety of various savings rates under different economic conditions. Looking at the historical record of returns, and taking into account the benefits of hindsight, it looks at what percent of income you would have had to save each year in whatever return environment you accumulated in, taking into account the return environment you are distributing in. As it turns out, those who save in a difficult return environment tend to get a break in the distribution period--and vice versa.

As I say in the review, this is an article you will probably end up reading at some point in your career; you might as well do it now. It's worth your expenditure of time.

Meanwhile, Dan Moisand has put on the record another great argument for not allowing FINRA to take over as the SRO for RIAs, and he brings up the fact that FINRA sold out of more than half a billion dollars worth of auction-rate securities in its own portfolio before concluding that they were not well-structured and poorly-disclosed. You read this and immediately wonder whether the SEC should launch an insider-trading investigation. If this were any private sector entity, the case would be a no-brainer.

In The Economist, notice the article that wonders whether we have entered another Tech Bubble (with Internet-related companies this time) that was published BEFORE the LinkedIn IPO went into a feeding frenzy. And the demographic analysis is very interesting, including the chart that tells you the ten most populous countries in the world in 2100 (Nigeria and the Congo are high on the list)--plus an article that wonders if China has enough people.