That's the news

Post-Recession Americans Saving More, Risking Less

If the retail investor is not stoking the Dow, where is the boom coming from? As CNBC's Jeff Cox has noted, the market's recent surge has come as cash-rich companies have plowed nearly $1.2 trillion into stock buybacks since mid-2009 as individual investors have largely stayed pat in the cash, bonds, and other instruments built to weather another storm.

So, retail investors are set to "weather another storm."  But how's that going to work out if things don't turn south any time soon?  Not so good.  All of those things will not perform well, or even badly, if the economy actually does pick up steam.  And then what?  Well, those people will suffer again.  This is why we diversify.


Home prices up in February by most in 7 years

Home prices rose 10.2% in February compared with a year earlier, CoreLogic, a real estate data provider, said Wednesday.

Nothing disturbing about a 10.2% year over year increase in home prices, is there?

Prices have now increased on an annual basis for 12 straight months, underscoring the recovery's steady momentum.

You know, up until a short time ago, a lot of people looked at the chart for home prices and asked, "Why didn't anyone see the real estate bubble?"  Now, we're calling the same kind of price appreciation a "recovery," and claiming that there is "steady momentum."  I think it won't be long until we're asking why nobody saw another crash coming.

Slowing Service Industries Point to Cooler U.S. Growth 

This article covers a lot of data, mostly saying it's good, but not great, but it's still okay, and might be right about where we want to be.  But, slowing growth is the theme these days.  Better than I had expected, but then, I don't think we're still seeing the effects of tax increases and spending cuts just yet.