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The Independent Investor: Does Another Trade Pact Make Sense?
By Bill Schmick,
03:30PM / Thursday, April 30, 2015

As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the United States winds down, politicians in both houses of Congress need to decide whether the proposed Trans-Pacific, 12-nation trade pact makes economic sense. It does and we should jump on it.

Through the years I have been in favor of more trade, rather than less. At the same time, I recognize that trade agreements, by their nature, means that in every country some sectors win and some lose. If you can produce something better than I and at a lower price, why shouldn't I take advantage of that?

Yet, there is always vocal opposition from those who perceive their position will be threatened. Those who stand to gain

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@theMarket: Buy on the News
By Bill Schmick,
02:42PM / Saturday, April 25, 2015

The worst of earnings season is behind us and it isn't nearly as bad as investors feared. Led by the tech sector, market averages are once again near their highs and appear to be on their way to even higher highs. Halleluiah.

If you recall that last week at this time, world markets looked to be at death's door and the recovery in five days has been encouraging. It is not only the U.S. market that has seen a strong recovery. The highly volatile Chinese market, after experiencing close to a 5 percent sell off in two days, rebounded nicely, erasing all losses and then some. The same can be said for Hong Kong and Japan. And now Taiwan is getting into the mix with more than a 3

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The Independent Investor: Should You Manage That 401(k)?
By Bill Schmick,
05:47PM / Thursday, April 23, 2015

When the Federal government, together with Corporate America, offered the American worker 401(k) and 403(b) tax-deferred savings plans, as an alternative to pension plans, they forgot one thing. The vast majority of employees have no idea how to manage these plans.

Back in my Dad's day, managing American's retirement savings was the job of professional pension plan managers. The money was invested conservatively, with a long-term view, regardless of market conditions. Clearly, it was the tortoise approach to investing, but by the time he retired his nest egg had grown considerably.

Today, less than 3 percent of all workers are enrolled in traditional pensions. The

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@theMarket: Right Back Into the Range
By Bill Schmick,
01:39PM / Monday, April 20, 2015

The first week of earnings season is behind us. The results were not nearly as bad as investors feared. Some averages, such as the Russell small and mid-cap indexes, actually made new highs. However, all the indexes fell back into a trading range by the close on Friday.

As I suggested in my last column, on average 75 percent of companies actually beat earnings estimates. This quarter seems to be following the same pattern, at least so far. The money center banks reported pretty good numbers and even the worst of them got the benefit of the doubt from investors.

The really big moves came from the overseas markets. China, which has been a red-hot market all year, finally

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The Independent Investor: Brazil — Not For the Faint of Heart
By Bill Schmick,
01:35PM / Friday, April 17, 2015

Beset by scandals that could reach as high as the presidential office, suffering from an epic drought, low oil prices, high inflation, a declining currency and a negative economic growth rate, the world's seventh largest economy could be an interesting long-term investment but not for the faint of heart.

No question about it, Brazil is a basket case right now. Dilma Rousseff, the two-term Brazilian president and former head of the state-owned energy behemoth, Petrobras, is embroiled in scandal. So far she has managed to elude prosecutors, who are pursuing 28 different investigations involving 54 politicians. Present and former Petrobras executives, including heads of both

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