WSJ cites subprime as US credit markets "heal"

Subprime and other residential mortgage bonds that helped trigger the financial crisis are back in vogue with long-term investors, in the latest sign that American credit markets are healing.

~Wall Street Journal editorial staff, story lede, "Subprime Bonds Return", March 31, 2011

Jim Grant on the transition of the US monetary system and the third Fed mandate

I think the difficulty with monetary policy is the nature of the policy itself. We have, over the years gradually, persistently elided [sp?] from a gold standard to a PhD standard. We have moved from central banking to a species of central planning. What our well-intended scholar, monetary policy mandarins are about is the manipulation of the economy, manipulation of interest rates and now, the manipulation of the stock market. You know, they had two mandates confirmed by Congress and they unilaterally have taken up a third, which is the levitation of stock prices.

~Jim Grant, author, Grant's Interest Rate Observer, CNBC's Kudlow Report, March 31, 2011

Mohamed El-Arian begs to be taxed more, argues income inequality is bad

Bill [Gross] and I – we do not consider ourselves elite. In fact, we’d like to be taxed more. I said this even before the Middle East started: It is not in the interest of any society for income inequality to keep on going up. It is in everybody’s interest to avoid the extremes.

~Mohamed El-Arian, CEO, PIMCO, Bloomberg Television interview, March 31, 2011

Jack Bogle on commodity investing as speculation

The problem with commodities, gold included, is they’re completely ranked speculation while the ways of delivering stock and bond return are easy. Stocks are riskier but they grow at the rate of our GDP. I think this is gonna be a good decade for that, but I’m worried about the obvious aberrations we’re facing in a political system that doesn’t’ want to respond to current events that gravely affect our nation.

~Jack Bogle, founder, Vanguard, FOX Business interview, March 30, 2011

Jack Bogle on stocks vs. bonds in early 2011

This is a very difficult time to invest because the alternatives to stock are not all that attractive. Money market funds, to be candid, are really kind of a bad joke. With bonds, I worry about rising interest rates; it’s highly likely, but I don’t think anything is a certainty. I would confine my bond position to intermediate term bonds or limited-term bonds. So be careful, but you’ve gotta put the money somewhere or it’s not gonna earn anything

~Jack Bogle, founder, Vanguard, FOX Business interview, March 30, 2011

Jack Bogle, king of the money market fund, on cash as an investment

Cash is a terrible long term investment. It is the one way I know of to guarantee you will earn no return from now to your retirement. Why would anyone want to do that? It’s looked at as a haven, things are disruptive now and I’ll go to cash but I will jump back in when things look good. Well you may get out now, but a good example is Japan. That cash was probably raised at the bottom of the US market and Japanese market even more and people are probably now saying I didn’t get back in quickly enough, but getting in and out, I regret to say, is a loser’s game.

~Jack Bogle, founder, Vanguard, FOX Business interview, March 30, 2011

Vanguard founder Jack Bogle on stocks for the long run

Stay the course. Don’t let these distractions get in the way of an intelligent investment program. There is a long trail between today and the retirement of most people. The whole idea of investing is to build a sum for your retirement and there’s no better way to do that than stocks. They will be good in the long run, but not as good as in the past because dividend yields are so low.

~Jack Bogle, founder, Vanguard, FOX Business interview, March 30, 2011