Mancell Financial Group

2011 Year in Review 

Economy & Markets: Overview

Investors entered 2011 hopeful that the world economy would continue recovering from a long and painful deleveraging process. Equity markets had posted two straight years of positive performance, central banks remained committed to pro-growth monetary policy, and major developed nations were focused on reducing debt.

Hello saving, my old friend. I’ve become reacquainted with you again.

Not quite the opening lyric to the Simon & Garfunkel tune, but an appropriate rewrite given the subject of this article.

Interest rate decision day appears to have become a national obsession.

Despite only around a third of people having a mortgage, the media and Wayne Swan continue to whip up a frenzy expecting banks to shovel cheap debt out their doors.

Insurance policies these days are like varieties of plants – never ending variations continue to be propagated.

Those new propagations contain a myriad of inclusions and exclusions based on the wording that is becoming harder to decipher.

Hybrids are usually an offspring from the combination of two separate entities.

So mention the word hybrid and you might think of a fruit tree, a Toyota Prius and if you’re an animal person, a Liger or a Zonkey!