News Links: Jeremy Grantham’s investing strategies for 2012

"Quality gave back a bit of its outperformance [in the fourth] quarter, but the game is in the early innings still," GMO says in its latest report. "High quality stocks still trade at attractive levels, and the general defensive posture of quality still remains appealing given all of the uncertainties surrounding global prospects, dysfunctional governments, and horrific bond yields."

Motorola is still seeking damages of 2.25% of the revenue from each 3G-enabled Apple product sold. At that rate, Motorola would be owed $2.1 billion since the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, plus royalty for future sales.

It’s not really about the money, its the hypocrisy. $9,000 is not a lot of money to many people in America these days. And certainly such an amount could be raised fairly quickly with an online drive for funds. Over 40,000 people have signed the online petition protesting this.

The Quinnipiac University poll released today finds Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, would get 43 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for Obama. In three previous Quinnipiac polls in Virginia, in September, October, and December, Romney edged out Obama in a head-to-head match-up. The poll shows women and independents are now backing the president over Romney.

An 85-year-old woman claims a Wells Fargo debt collector harassed her by sending police to her house on the bogus claim she had threatened to commit suicide, and that the false 911 call cost her $1,055 in medical bills.

The annual average growth of China’s minimum wages should be at least 13 percent in the five years to 2015, according to a government job market plan for the period published on Wednesday.

German exports fell at their fastest rate in nearly three years in December raising concerns that the eurozone debt crisis has damaged the powerhouse economy more than expected.

The two leaders recorded a rare joint television interview for broadcast in France and Germany on Monday night – again drawing comment in France that the chancellor was going out of her way to boost Mr Sarkozy, who trails François Hollande, the opposition Socialist party candidate, in the opinion polls.

A new analysis concludes that easily extracted oil peaked in 2005, suggesting that dirtier fossil fuels will be burned and energy prices will rise

Why do so many people (including many who should know better, like the authors of test-preparation guides) still say that you should stick with your first answer? Kruger et al. (2005) argue that it’s partly because it feels more painful to get an answer wrong because you changed it than wrong because you didn’t change it.

What matters instead is a group of so-called swing states. And on paper, Obama’s fortunes in these states have declined further and faster than they have for the nation as a whole, both since Obama arrived in Washington, and since the midterm elections in 2010.

Behavioral economists do an experiment where they offer two people a $100 bill if they can agree on how to divide it. Even if one partner demands $90, the other should still agree-after all, she’ll gain $10 more than she otherwise might have had, and thus emerges a clear winner. Yet people won’t do it. They’d rather receive nothing than accept an outcome they regard as unfair. People often act for non-economic motives.

America remains a conservative nation, at least as measured by the ideological labels Americans choose to use to identify themselves. Residents of all states of the union except for Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are more likely to identify as conservative than as liberal, and in every state except D.C., residents are also more likely to say they are moderate than liberal.

Germany’s trade surplus reached 158bn euros (£132bn; $209bn) in 2011 on record exports that rose 11.4% to top 1tn euros for the first time.

Entlang der Grenze zur Türkei baut Griechenland einen Zaun. Das Bollwerk gegen den Flüchtlingsstrom aus Asien und Afrika ist umstritten – die EU-Kommission hält es für sinnlos

Charles Murray’s new book does not provide an adequate explanation for the collapse of the white working class.

This is a multi dimensional topic with a lot of variables for each dimension but I will try to cover a lot of ground. Keep in mind this is what we do for client accounts, you may want to do things very differently. I can’t say what is right for you, only what we believe is best for our clients. Most of these will be examples of trades we’ve done and why.