Bill Gross

For nearly 2 years I have been recommending MLP pipelines (Master Limited Partnership) as an attractive energy play with high yields and upside price potential.

In the past few years it certainly has been. No wonder.

Value — defined by stocks with a low book-to-market ratio — handily beat growth by a minimum of 4% on average annually over the period 1927-2014, although surprisingly with a higher standard deviation. In today’s world, think Verizon versus the Magnificent Seven decades forward.

Much like the universe, which began with a big bang nearly 14 billion years ago, but is expanding so rapidly that scientists predict it will all end in a “big freeze” trillions of years from now, our current monetary system seems to require perpetual expansion to maintain its existence.

Those that argue for lower rates have to counter the inexorable upward climb in Treasury supply and the likely Sisyphean decline in bond prices. Total Return is dead. Don’t let them sell you a bond fund.

Today’s “finance-based” global economies are moving in the wrong direction.

Professional stock investors know little about bonds and vice versa I suppose. Yours truly has to be included in that mix but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

I, however, like all Kens, have always had a firm grip on the remote for 100% of the time but I decided to let her have her way just once.

Before you say “not me” to Matthews’ jewel of introspection, you should know that at some point(s) in your life you probably did – want to be someone else. So did I. As a matter of fact, since my early 20’s I’ve always dreamed of being a rock star.

I’m not sure where I’m going these days.

There are lots of “total return” bond funds these days, almost a half century since I innovated the concept in 1987.

"Carry on!!" was the gruff but oh so welcomed command screamed at me by Marine drill Sergeant Jo Quinn Cruz in October of 1967.

There are eight global mountaintops scaling 26,000 feet or higher, including Mt. Everest, the most famous of them all.

I didn’t start the fire.

A high school reunion can be a revealing thing.