The Fed Tapers While GDP Surges It has been a big week of news so far, with this morning’s second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) print showing the economy grew some 4% from April through June. That number was a welcome relief from the revised contraction of 2.1% in the winter-ravished first quarter. The economy now

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.” –David Hume The brilliant David Hume knew that to preserve liberty, you have to recognize that it tends to decay slowly in societies that forget to hold it up as a core principle. Remember that the next time a new law or

The world of ETFs just keeps getting bigger and better, with fantastic new choices spanning the entire globe. The latest sector demonstrating what I think is an extremely investable innovation is with ETFs pegged to the Chinese stock market. As subscribers to my Successful ETF Investing advisory newsletter know, I have been bullish on China

Brazil’s hosting of the recent World Cup seemingly put all eyes on the Portuguese-speaking South American nation in May and June. My colleague Nicholas Vardy wrote a column on investing in Brazil, perpetually regarded as “the country of the future,” and I myself penned an ETF Talk on iShares MSCI Brazil Capped (EWZ), an exchange-traded

It has been a big week of news so far, with this morning’s second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) print showing the economy grew some 4% from April through June. That number was a welcome relief from the revised contraction of 2.1% in the winter-ravished first quarter. The economy now seems on pace to deliver GDP

This week’s market action was dominated by a combination of mixed earnings news, and the ongoing geopolitical ruckus in Ukraine and in Gaza. On the earnings front, we saw several strong reports, including a big beat from social media darling Facebook. On the flipside, we saw downbeat earnings from online retailer Amazon.com, and a poor […]

Innovation: Another Reason to Choose ETFs There are myriad reasons why investors should choose exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over mutual funds. Factors such as much lower expense ratios (i.e. lower costs), greater tax efficiency, increased access to targeted markets and much more transparency are just some of the headline reasons why I recommend investors choose ETFs

“A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.” –Alexis de Tocqueville When it comes to true chutzpah, there is nothing like being subject to pay a tax that’s been voted on by your neighbor — and one that your neighbor doesn’t

We featured FXI, a general Chinese exchange-traded fund (ETF), a little more than a month ago, and that fund’s upward climb warrants us looking at other ETFs focused on that huge emerging market. To that end, today’s ETF Talk will introduce you to two ETFs, with each fund tracking different areas of China’s market: small