What the experts say
Fresh REITs; Sketchy advisor credentials; Buffett: Don’t buy gold
Fresh REITs
The real estate market may be “moribund,” but real estate investment trusts have been among the top performers of the year, said Alyssa Abkowitz in SmartMoney. “As a group, they’re up 12 percent, with residential REITs up almost 25 percent.” Consequently, real estate executives are flooding the market with these “stock-like investments” to raise funds to pay off debt or “gobble up” distressed properties. Some 20 REITs are expected to go public this year, and some “show promise,” say analysts. Piedmont Office Realty, whose holdings include Chicago’s Aon Center, is among the “highly regarded newcomers.” Shares are up 27 percent since it went public in February.
Sketchy advisor credentials
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Don’t be fooled by a bunch of “fancy initials” after a financial advisor’s name, said Jason Zweig and Mary Pilon in The Wall Street Journal. While some credentials, such as certified public accountant, chartered financial analyst, and certified financial planner, require years of study and rigorous tests, others are “dubious designations” that can be earned over a couple of days or by writing a check. Since 2005, the number of designations tracked by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has nearly doubled, to 95. To keep from getting burned by the alphabet soup, verify qualifications and check complaints at Finra.org, or with state insurance and securities regulators. Then ask “plenty of questions” about who grants each designation, and what’s required to earn and keep the title.
Buffett: Don’t buy gold
Warren Buffett is “so smart it curls your hair,” said Ben Stein in Fortune. So when the Oracle of Omaha gives his 2 cents (or, in his case, $40-something billion) about where to put your money today, it pays to take note. Buffett tells investors looking to create real value in their portfolios that they should stick with old-fashioned equities and pass on trendy investments. Case in point: gold. Purchasing “all the gold that’s ever been mined” would give you control of a pretty big block of metal, Buffett says, but at today’s prices you could instead buy all of the farmland in America and 10 ExxonMobils, and still have “$1 trillion of walking-around money.” When he puts it that way, gold doesn’t seem like such a smart buy.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
How could escalation in the Middle East affect the global economy?
Today's Big Question Oil prices have already risen but wider conflict could see supply chains disrupted more broadly
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'Helene's death toll surpasses 200'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Pig butchering: one of the world's fastest growing scams
In The Spotlight Beijing is cracking down on the crypto con but this has only pushed it worldwide
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published