Today’s electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:
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Americans spent more than $48 billion on pet products and services last year, according to the American Pet Products Association. Consumer Reports says you can provide the care your pet needs while curbing some of your expenses, too.
Two marquee names in mutual funds, Pimcos Bill Gross and Fairholmes Bruce Berkowitz, were on the hot seat at Morningstars annual investment conference, in Chicago, last week. They were in the uncomfortable position of defending what have proved in recent months to be losing strategies. Although both managers took center stage at the conference, the breakout sessions also yielded plenty of useful advice on subjects of interest to Kiplinger readers.
But first to Bill Gross, who continues to be bearish on U.S. Treasury securities, even though prices have risen. He once again criticized the Federal Reserves easy-money policy, which Gross says has artificially lifted stock prices, punished fixed-income investors and, if it continues unchecked, will inevitably lead to inflation.
Meanwhile, Berkowitz, the manager of Fairholme Fund (symbol FAIRX) and Morningstars manager of the year in 2010, was hampered by a severe case of laryngitis as he struggled to explain why his funds return is in negative double digits thus far in 2011.
Before making a decision on opting for a title loan, you should know what is at stake. There is no doubt that if you are having a need for a considerable amount of fund urgently, which your checking account cannot accommodate at that moment, this type of loan can work wonderfully well. You can easily put the clear and free title of your asset on the cards and get your hands on the money, which can help you in clearing your pending expenses. However, if things go wrong anywhere and you fail to pay the loan back on time, then you may end up losing your asset for good.
If you look from the point of view of a common man, title loan is just what the doctor orders to take care of a financial jeopardy. Considering the fact that the processing takes a few hours and the amount obtainable can be quite high, we are not wrong in preferring it to other conventional loans. However, there comes a responsibility of paying the loan as well. Read more…
Thanks to two horrific bear markets, the 21st century has been wretched for stock investors. Meanwhile, bonds have continued to post solid returns with a lot less volatility than stocks. Warnings of higher interest rates have proved premature. And as bond yields have fallen in recent months, bond prices, especially those on long-term Treasuries, have climbed. Consequently, appetites for long-term bonds and bond funds have remained healthy.
Too healthy, in my view. This is a time for bond investors to exhibit utmost care. In view of todays super-low yields, the product of a 28-year-long bull market in bonds, long-term-government bonds, as well as other long-term bonds, are about as risky an investment as you can make. Piling into bonds now is a really bad idea.
Lets look back. The price of 20-year government bonds peaked in December 1940 after yields fell dramatically during the Great Depression.