Word: mutually
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...years ago, it was fashionable to shun foreign investments, not just because U.S. stocks were the toast of the world but, some reasoned, because you get international diversification by owning global companies such as General Electric and Gillette or the mutual funds that hold them. That logic always sounded a bit twisted to me. When the air gets let out of a market, few stocks are spared, no matter where they derive their profits. Gillette and GE, for example, have been cut in half from their highs...
...point at which they're technically insolvent. The problem is especially critical in Germany, where the bull market had bestowed "quiet reserves" - unrealized and unrevealed gains - upon insurers, enabling them to entice new policyholders with offers of 6% annual returns. Now most of Germany's 130 or so mutual insurers are carrying "quiet liabilities." "They're sort of in a trap," says Commerzbank analyst Marc Thiel. "They need cash for their maturing policies, but they can't cut the bonuses they offer customers or they'll lose business." Switzerland's insurers face a similar problem, and the government there responded...
Some investors clearly have given up on stocks. A net $3.2 billion flowed out of stock mutual funds last week, after $4 billion fled the week before, according to AMG Data Services. This run is the biggest exodus since September--but you probably shouldn't join it. Sell now and you risk selling near the bottom. Most people should sell only to trade losers for more promising investments and to diversify holdings across different industries, with exposure to some large and some small companies as well as to international markets. Make sure that you have some bonds, cash and real...
Yoder often gets into such spats with the state. Their mutual animosity became routine in the '90s: every few months, Yoder went to court either because the state wanted to recommit him or because he had sued someone. An ineffective public defender usually represented him, and the same couple of state doctors testified against him. (Yoder couldn't afford his own lawyers and experts.) The same two or three judges overseeing his commitment trials would also toss out many of his lawsuits, even those complaining about his treatment at Chester...
...unlikely, though, that the trend toward shareholding has truly been reversed. Although the number of German direct shareholders has been falling since 2000, you can still meet plenty of people like Tanja Bartsch, 31, of Munich, who just this spring started putting €150 a month into mutual funds. In France, meanwhile, a survey by TNS Sofres shows that share ownership hit a record in May of 7.1 million, or 16% of adults. The harsh reality is that most Europeans need to keep investing. The slowing economy has done nothing to help governments put their retirement systems in order, while...