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...tell the dismal story. In the 10 years ending Dec. 31, 2008, investors suffered a negative 3.15% real return in U.S. stocks, constituting the fourth worst 10-year period since 1871. Given the pummeling the stock market has taken this decade - even after this year's rally, the S&P 500 index remains 32% below its all-time high reached in October 2007 - many are now questioning whether stocks should be the cornerstone of investors' long-run portfolios...
...Equities bears maintain that the recent stock rally has already outrun fundamentals and that stocks are no longer cheap. To be sure, based on projected operating earnings for all of 2009, S&P 500 companies are trading at an average price-earnings ratio of nearly 19, higher than the long-term historical average of 15. But basing stock values on 2009 data is inappropriate. This year saw the bottom of the worst recession since World War II. What is relevant for determining stock values are future earnings, not past earnings. Next year's operating earnings for S&P 500 companies...
...slower economic growth and limited stock returns because American consumers have become thriftier. Instead of spending, they are paying off their heavy debts, and this will weigh on corporate earnings indefinitely. Yet it is world economic growth, not U.S. growth, that will dictate future stock returns. S&P 500 companies now obtain almost half of their revenue and profits outside the U.S. That share will most certainly rise as growth in the emerging nations continues to outpace that of the developed world...
Regents at the 174,000-student University of Wisconsin system have adopted tuition hikes of 5.5% for the past three years. UW System President Kevin P. Reilly says the "modest and predictable" increases have allowed the university to avoid curbing enrollment or cutting programs even as class sizes increase. UW-Madison's tuition still ranks as one of the lowest...
...Meanwhile, national efforts to bring this decades-long insurgency to a swift end are also intensifying. India's new hard-line Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, is not convinced that states, if left to their own devices, will be able to reassert state authority over Naxal-dominated territories anytime soon. That's why this month, tens of thousands of paramilitary and border security forces were withdrawn from other regions and deployed in rebel districts in northern and central India. "Our newest strategy is to win complete control over small areas under Maoist influence, hold them, and not withdraw forces until development...