Investments

The Goldman Sachs chief is bullish on China, calls proposals for taxes on financial transactions "screwy," and believes that his firm needs to do a better job of repairing its image.

Tax season has come and gone, yet the run of outflows from municipal bond mutual funds dragged into its ninth straight week, at $391 million.

SEC chairman Mary Jo White made no comment Friday on what new reforms for the money market fund industry will come out of her administration, except that its proposal will be “appropriate and balanced.”

Speakers and attendees alike had plenty to say about the merits of an active management approach to investor assets at the annual conference of he National Association of Active Investment Managers. Check out some of the smartest things overheard at the conference.

The Lloyd Blankfein Show

Goldman Sachs Group chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said China needs ‘bigger equity markets” if it hopes to continue its “pretty impressive growth” of the last two decades.

There are a number of issues advisors should make sure are addressed before putting a client in international equities.

Emerging Global Advisors (EGA) is in the process of registering several actively managed ETFs investing in emerging markets, under the umbrella of the EGA Emerging Global Shares Trust.

Independent broker-dealers (IBDs) and RIAs have the edge over wirehouses when it comes to adding mutual fund assets under management, according to Access Data and Strategic Insight.

Robert Sharpe joined Heartland Advisors in the role of co-portfolio manager of the International Value Fund (HINVX), which invests in smaller equity dividend-payers in developed and emerging markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the trustees, chief compliance officer and fund administrator of a pair of mutual fund trusts with causing untrue or misleading disclosures about the factors they considered when approving or renewing investment advisory contracts on behalf of shareholders.

There may be global institutions with no leaders. Or U.S-led institutions that are not global. But no global institutions with U.S. running the show any longer, said Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group.

Globally, exchange traded products are scooping up assets on a faster pace than in 2012, according to BlackRock’s April 2013 ETP Landscape Report.

Finding something, anything, or any combination of investments that can generate an annual return of 5% on assets is a challaenge, as baby boomers retire at the rate of 10,000 per day.

Invesco, owner of the Invesco, Van Kampen and PowerShares funds, said first-quarter profit rose 15 percent as record client deposits lifted assets.

Investors plunged back into bond funds with gusto for the week ended April 24, after two consecutive weeks of taking their foot off the petal, according to estimates from the Investment Company Institute.

“We are seeing good cyclical improvement,’’ Mary John Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. told the general membership meeting of the Investment Company Institute in its policy forum Wednesday. “Now e need to tackle longer-term structural improvement.’’

Speakers and attendees alike had plenty to say about the merits of an active management approach to investor assets at the annual conference of he National Association of Active Investment Managers. The following are some of the smartest things overheard at the conference.

From athletes who abuse illegal substances in order to win to business executives who lie on financial statements to boost profitability, examples of cheating are all around.

“We are seeing good cyclical improvement,’’ Mary John Miller, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. told the general membership meeting of the Investment Company Institute in its policy forum Wednesday. “Now e need to tackle longer-term structural improvement.’’