It’s a conversation many of us have over the dinner table or with our colleagues at work: “I can’t believe the cost of college.” It is a very reasonable statement when you consider that many private colleges cost $40,000+ per year. My alma mater, New York University, is now over $50,000 per year.

It’s hard not to notice the slamming endured by the municipal bond market over the past few months. Many advisors discussed with clients a scenario in which bond pricing would gradually decline as interest rates gradually moved up.

It seems like every time I turn around another variable annuity (VA) provider is closing its doors. Sun Life, John Hancock, AXA, Genworth, and ING are among the companies which have either limited new contributions to one of their VA products, taken some other step to minimize exposure to the VA market, or completely exited the market.

There is a tremendous amount of money invested in mutual funds in the United States. In some cases people own mutual funds for their personal investments. In other cases people own mutual funds in their employer retirement plan, whether it be a 401k, 403b, Simple or Sep IRA, etc.

In my opinion, no, that’s ridiculous. As I wrote in my book back in 2007, I believe ETFs are one of the best financial innovations to hit the market in decades, perhaps since the mutual fund made its debut. ETFs allow investors to own broad, diversified portfolios at low annual costs.

Part of what is allowing the Federal Reserve to continue promising an endless period of low interest rates is the fact that – or at least they claim – we aren’t yet experiencing any inflation here in the US. I get the logic: the big pitfall of keeping rates so low for so long is inflation but with an economy that is barely growing, we can ignore inflation for now (or even cry deflation) and continue the path to devaluing the dollar for greater short-term economic benefits.

The U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday that the U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs in November, roughly in line with expectations. The economy has now produced 100,000 or more jobs five months in a row – the first time that has happened since April 2006.

Blowout Black Friday retail sales sent stocks higher on Monday by nearly 3 percent on light volume, reversing a seven-day stock losing streak. Bond markets in Italy and Spain were the key negative culprits as yields on both countries’ debt breached the dangerous 7 percent level

Below is this week’s market commentary from Craig Columbus, our chief economist. This week’s selected articles mostly pertain to Europe as that has dominated US trading/markets over the past few weeks.

Bond investors have reason to be frustrated. As it is, they are willing to accept a lower total return than stock market investors by choosing safety and security over risk and return.

We’ve been saying in my office for months that Obama would extend the Bush tax cuts. It seemed a given with the unemployment rate stuck near 10% and horror stories circulating about how higher taxes contributed to the lost decade of the 1930’s.