UO E-clips, Aug. 26

Core and Casino (FinancialPlanning.com): There are two extreme schools of thought when it comes to investing. On one side are the proponents of active investing, while on the other are the proponents of low-cost passive investing. In the middle lies a method that uses a bit of both, known as the core and explore approach. …This study, forthcoming in The Review of Financial Studies by Daniel Bergstresser and Peter Tufano of the Harvard Business School and Johan Chalmers of the University of Oregon, found "no evidence that, in aggregate, brokers provide superior asset allocation advice that helps their investors time the market." If financial planners aren't providing this discipline with mutual funds, there is no reason to believe we are doing it with separately managed accounts.

For local economy, it'll be a long slog (Seattle Times): For Lisa Jones, of Seattle, the economic outlook is as simple and raw as finding full-time work. A former creative director for a public-relations and advertising agency, Jones worries that her age -- 55 -- and lack of advanced technical skills are keeping her from getting a new job.…Similarly, the economic model of Pacific Northwest economies maintained by Jeremy Piger, associate professor of economics at the University of Oregon, showed a 99.4 percent chance of recession for Washington in its latest reading. The model is based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.