The Big Picture

Charlie Rose: An hour with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc.
Coming to D.C. October 15-16th
10 Monday PM Reads
A World of Sovereign Risk
Time to End the Embargo of Cuba
10 Monday AM Reads
The Reformed Broker Refreshed
Vanguard: Has Indexing Gotten Too Big?

Charlie Rose: An hour with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc.

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 04:30 PM PDT

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 04:00 PM PDT

Next month, myself and some staffers will be visiting a few clients and prospective clients in the Washington, D.C. area.

Many of you are familiar with my investing philosophy, but this is an opportunity to have a more in depth and personal conversation.

If you are interested in meeting with us, hearing our views on the markets, or simply having a discussing about your own personal financial planning, give us an email or call.

Send email to Info -at- RitholtzWealth -dot- com, with the subject “DC Trip.”

Or call 212-455-9122 and ask for Erika regarding DC trips.

10 Monday PM Reads

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 01:00 PM PDT

My afternoon train reads:

• The Nasdaq is poised to top 5,000 within months (MarketWatch) but see also Stock-Market Bears Turn Docile, Predict S&P 500 Gains (WSJ)
• How to Throw Away a Fortune: Smart Moves to Neglect and Stupid Ones to Make (WSJ)
• Bartiromo one on one with Mohamed El-Erian (USA Today)
• The Risk of Concentrated Portfolios (Irrelevant Investor) but see Clean Up That Cluttered Portfolio By Simplifying (WSJ)
• An Economic “Perfect Storm” (Fool)
• A Scary World, but Investors Trust the Fed (MoneyBeat) see also The Upside of August’s Jobs Report: A Goldilocks Economy (MoneyBeat)
• How to Get It Wrong (NYT)
• Bill Clinton = Campaign Strategist in Fight for Senate (Bloomberg)
• How quitting my corporate job for my startup dream f*cked up my life (Medium)
• What Are Gravitational Waves? (IFLScience)

What are you reading?

Gold Adjusted for Inflation

Source: Crossing Wall Street

A World of Sovereign Risk

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 09:30 AM PDT

Interesting interactive graphic from Blackrock:

Source: BlackRock

Click for an interactive Risk Index.

Source: BlackRock

Time to End the Embargo of Cuba

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 06:00 AM PDT

U.S. policies toward Cuba are anachronistic and perplexing.

The embargo is a Cold War relic that has long ago stopped serving its intended purpose. It was adopted after the now-defunct Soviet Union tried to establish nuclear bases on the island, bringing the two superpowers to the verge of nuclear war.

But what purpose does the embargo serve today? A half-century later, we have to wonder why it continues. A humanitarian crisis grips the island. You might not read about it in U.S., but overseas media reports on it regularly. The Guardian last week reported that, “US economic sanctions against Cuba have cost the island nation $3.9bn in foreign trade over the past year, helping to raise the overall estimate of economic damage to $116.8bn over the past 55 years, Cuba said on Tuesday.”

The United Nations, the Guardian continued, has urged an end to the U.S. embargo and other trade sanctions against Cuba's Communist government. A resolution gets passed every year — as it has for the past 22 years — with overwhelming support. Last year the vote was 188 to 2, with only the U.S. and Israel voting against the resolution.

I am not running for office in Florida, and I have no relatives in Cuba trying to escape the poverty and despair there. I have no dog in this fight. Well, other than being distraught that my country is causing another country tremendous economic discomfort for no clear reason. And we do business with regimes with unsavory qualities, such as China and Saudi Arabia.

Continues here

10 Monday AM Reads

Posted: 15 Sep 2014 05:00 AM PDT

It certainly feels like autumn ! We have you covered with our pre-leaf changing morning reads:

• Will Apple Pay kill PayPal? (CNN/Money) see also An Apple iBank is only a matter of time (Marketwatch)
• The Secrets of Berkshire’s Success: An Interview with Charlie Munger (WSJ)
• Crowdsourced Trading: 21 Investors / 21 Rules (Stockcharts)
• Bob McTeer: "Ignore the Low Inflation and Strong Dollar. The Experiment Doesn’t End Until I Am Proven Right." NCPA) see also We Might Be Witnessing The Final Humiliation Of The Fed Haters (Business Insider)