When the market cuts the price of oil in half within three months it is sending a clear signal to producers that there is sufficient capacity to meet global demand for at least the next decade. Well, maybe not. The International Energy Agency (IEA) seems to think that recent price feedback information is exactly the opposite of what is needed to ensure energy needs are met. What does this mean for all of us energy consumers and our portfolios?

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Looking at the guest list attending Barack Obama?s Hollywood fundraiser earlier this month, and the fact that he raised $9 million from the event, would seem to corroborate the general notion that Hollywood is fairly liberal. Not being liberal makes it difficult for me to stomach anything that comes to the theater with a political theme. However, a new David Zucker film called “An American Carol” breaks the mold. It’s a rare conservative movie that makes us question the freedoms many of us take for granted. Given widespread anti-American sentiment around the world, including a general antipathy at home, this movie provides a refreshing look at “what it means to be an American in an anti-American world.”

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There’s much talk about the “credit crisis” and “housing bust,” but the root cause for both is the housing boom. There are several key regulatory, fiscal, and monetary policy factors that contributed to, and likely can be aggregated to have caused, the unprecedented housing boom that ended in 2006. It was this unsustainable boom that ultimately led to the excesses that nearly collapsed our financial system. We all hear about unscrupulous lenders (there were many of them), greedy investment banks (there were several of them), and lack of regulation to contain the circus. But what about the notion that perhaps this was caused and perpetuated because of regulation?

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Taxation is an unavoidable part of life. For real estate investors, taxation is a very important variable. Property markets are extremely sensitive and highly influenced by tax policy, so it is important to understand some of the basics. For instance, real estate taxes fall into two categories: transfer taxes (% of sale) and property taxes (% of assessed value charged annually). Changes to either of these two categories will influence broad market valuations.

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According to the statistics it seems so! In an article written by economist Jeremy Siegel (Published 9/5 on Yahoo Finance), it appears that over the last 120 year period stock markets have risen 10.85% under Democratic presidencies, compared to 8.25% under Republican administrations. This trend has only accelerated in the last 60 years, with Democrat returns averaging 15.26% per year versus 9.01% Republican returns. What is it about Democratic presidencies that drive markets nuts?

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Conventional wisdom in creating a healthy, diversified portfolio needs to be updated to reflect new market opportunities. Small investors now, more than ever, have the opportunity to include what are historically institutional-only assets in their personal holdings.

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