Malkiel: Smart Beta = Smart Marketing Doesn't Equal Smart Investing

Malkiel: Smart Beta = Smart Marketing Doesn't Equal Smart Investing: "In traditional index funds, stocks are selected and weighted according to each company's market capitalization. Smart-beta strategies weigh a portfolio's stocks on book value, cash flows and dividends, and then tweak portfolios by adding what Malkiel calls “a trick or tilt toward another factor, by weight, by value or by earnings.”

The aim of smart beta is to increase the return without raising volatility. But Malkiel, the former dean of Yale School of Management, pounced on Rob Arnott, founder and chair of Research Affiliates, acclaimed for smart beta plays and his RAFI fundamentals-based indexes, to attack the strategy."



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What's Really Driving Income Inequality - Bloomberg View

Phenomenal article!:



What's Really Driving Income Inequality - Bloomberg View: "From 1978 to 2012, effectively all of the increase in wage inequality nationally has been due to increasing disparities from company to company. As the researchers note, “the wage gap between the most highly paid employees within these firms (CEOs and high level executives) and the average employee has increased only by a small amount, refuting oft-made claims that such widening gaps account for a large fraction of rising inequality in the population.” The researchers also found, by the way, that the male-female wage gap within companies has shrunk noticeably."



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An iconic chief executive vs. his company’s internal watchdogs

An iconic chief executive vs. his company’s internal watchdogs: "new details and allegations call into question how Liveris, close to presidents past and present, has been running the $58 billion company. The materials offer an inside look at how one of America’s largest multinational corporations conducts itself, and how its internal watchdogs battled their renowned chief executive over what they considered inappropriate practices and perks."



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At long last, corporate boards step up - Fortune

At long last, corporate boards step up - Fortune: "The latest reminder is a Wall Street Journal report that federal bank regulators are grilling individual directors of major Wall Street firms, sometimes monthly, as well as sitting in on board meetings and even instructing boards to add members with specific qualifications. It’s happening at the biggest firms—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs—and at smaller banks. While regulators have met with bank boards for years, the current intensity of oversight is unprecedented."



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