by Dr. Scott Brown, Investment U Advisory Panelist
Wednesday, February 18, 2009: Issue #938

In 1933 and 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing the same thing Obama is working to do today – reduce the corruption in our capital markets by increasing transparency and regulation.

Most investors know that the SEC and our key securities laws were enacted in those years…

Few know that in 1934, at the request of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Bureau of Labor Statistics began the computation of a daily commodity price index, using quotations for sensitive commodities.

The Commodities Research Bureau Index (the CRB Index) let’s you see what the commodity markets are doing, just like the S&P 500 does for stocks. Read more…

by Dr. Scott Brown, Investment U Advisory Panelist
Tuesday, February 17, 2009: Issue #937

As a professor, I am always amazed when I ask “core concept” finance questions to MBA students, only to find out they have no knowledge of it. If my intelligent and attentive finance students don’t get these fundamental principles, how do we expect an average investor to?

But that just scratches the surface…

My students didn’t understand how to extract stellar returns from insider buying, hot IPOs, risk arbitrage, value and international stocks. Again, if finance students need help to master the basics, then we have a lot of work to do.

It’s one of the reasons we created the Investment U course. And you’ll hear more about it in the coming weeks and months. It builds on the core moneymaking concepts behind The Oxford Club‘s most successful services. Read more…

by Dr. Scott Brown, Investment U Advisory Panelist
Thursday, February 12, 2009: Issue #934

Almost four months ago, Warren Buffett famously wrote his endorsement of U.S. equities in his op-ed piece to The New York Times entitled “Buy American, I Am.” Since then, it’s dropped 11.4%. It’s hard even for an Oracle to help when people just don’t believe.

Warren Buffett’s investment model and purchase criteria are unbearably fuzzy to analysts since they can’t just go punch numbers from their database – no matter how big or expensive it is.

Don’t let anybody fool you into believing that value investing is based on any kind of ratio analysis, or that looking at one simple financial figure accurately defines an “undervalued” company. It’s just not that simple. Read more…

Financial Stability: 4 Easy Steps to Get Your Finances in Order

by Scott Brown, Advisory Panelist, The Oxford Club
Tuesday, February 3, 2009: Issue #927

The economic depression hit Chuck Smith on May 30, 2008 after lunch.

The 42-year-old father of four was in his small office in a suburb of Dallas when his boss walked in and closed the door – Chuck’s job was suddenly over.

Even so, it took until June before the Smiths finally sat down at the kitchen table to estimate how his wife’s paycheck would cover all the expenses they’d listed on a white legal pad.

But financial stability was a conversation that should have occurred long before that. And like many Americans, the Smiths didn’t see themselves as financially inept. Read more…