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Egypt’s civilian Cabinet offered to resign Monday after three days of violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tahrir Square, but the action failed to satisfy protesters deeply frustrated with the new military rulers.

The Health Ministry and a doctor at an improvised field hospital on the square said at least 26 people have been killed and 1,750 wounded in the latest violence as activists sought to fill the streets for a “second revolution” to force out the generals who have failed to stabilize the country, salvage the economy or bring democracy.

Throughout the day, young protesters demanding the military hand over power to a civilian government fought with black-clad police, hurling stones and firebombs and throwing back the tear gas canisters being fired by police into the square, which was the epicenter of the movement that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

By midnight tens of thousands of protesters were in the huge downtown square.

The clashes have deepened the disarray among Egypt’s political ranks, with the powerful Muslim Brotherhood balking at joining in the demonstrations, fearing that turmoil will disrupt elections next week that the Islamists expect to dominate.

The protests in Tahrir and elsewhere across this nation of some 85 million people have forced the ruling military council as well as the Cabinet it backs into two concessions, but neither were significant enough to send anyone home.

The council issued an anti-graft law that bans anyone convicted of corruption from running for office or holding a government post, a move that is likely to stop senior members from the Mubarak regime from running for public office.

Hours later, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf submitted its resignation to the council, a move that was widely expected given the government’s perceived inefficiency and its almost complete subordination to the generals.

Protesters cheered and shouted “God is great!” when the news arrived of the Cabinet resignation offer, but they almost immediately resumed their chant of “The people want to topple the field marshal” _ a reference to military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

“We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility,” said activist Rami Shaat, who was at the site.

The council released a statement late Monday calling for a national dialogue to “urgently study the reasons for the current crisis and ways to overcome it.”

The statement, carried by Egypt’s state news agency, said the military deeply regrets the loss of life and has ordered the Justice Ministry to form a committee to investigate the incidents of the past few days. The military said it ordered security forces to take measures that would protect demonstrators, who have the right to peaceful protest.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States was deeply concerned about the violence and urged restraint on all sides so Egypt could proceed with a timely transition to democracy.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also deplored the loss of life and called on authorities “to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians, including the right to peaceful protest,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

Amnesty International harshly criticized the military rulers in a new report, saying they have “completely failed to live up their promises to Egyptians to improve human rights.”

The London-based group documented steps by the military that have fallen short of increasing human rights and in some cases have made matters worse than under Mubarak.

“The euphoria of the uprising has been replaced by fears that one repressive rule has simply been replaced with another,” according to the report, issued Tuesday.

The report called for repeal of the Mubarak-era “emergency laws,” expanded to cover “thuggery” and criticizing the military. It said the army has placed arbitrary restrictions on media and other outlets.

Egyptian security forces have continued to use torture against demonstrators, the report said, and some 12,000 civilians have been tried in military trials, which it called “unfair.”

In many ways, the protests in Tahrir bore a striking resemblance to the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak. The chants are identical, except that Tantawi’s name has replaced Mubarak’s.

“The people want the execution of the marshal,” protesters screamed Monday. The hallmark chant of “erhal,” or “leave,” that once was aimed at Mubarak is now meant for Tantawi, his defense minister for 20 years.

Some of the protesters demanded that the generals immediately step down in favor of a presidential civilian council.

“If the military steps down, then who will be left to run the country until elections are held?” said Ahmed Fathy, a 27-year-old dentist who prefers a date for the handover rather than the departure of the military now. “The military can strike back by turning the nation against us.”

About 5,000 to 7,000 protesters were in Tahrir Square for most of the day but the number rose to around 30,000 after nightfall _ nowhere near filling it but displaying the strength of the movement despite the military’s tireless campaign to marginalize the youths who drove Mubarak from office. Protesters also marched in other cities, including thousands of students in the coastal city of Alexandria.

Unlike in January and February when the demonstrators were united against Mubarak, the latest protests reflect political divisions and Egypt’s growing economic hardships and tenuous security.

Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest and best-organized political group, are not taking part in the protests this time, a stand that has been widely seen as motivated by a desire not to get involved in anything that could disturb parliamentary elections that are due to start Nov. 28 and conclude in March.

But the Brotherhood, whose supporters gave muscle to the protesters in January and February, may have underestimated the appeal of the secular-minded activists and the depth of anger over the military rulers’ failings and the inefficiency of the Cabinet that the generals support.

To many of the protesters, the Brotherhood and its allies, mainly the ultraconservative Salafis, are more keen on winning parliamentary seats than the future of the nation.

That so many protesters are in Tahrir Square without the participation of the Islamists could provide the liberal pro-reform groups with a boost that would fuel their movement in the face of the military’s perceived intransigence.

“We don’t need them,” Zeinab Kheir, a lawyer and an activist, said referring to the Brotherhood, vilified by many activists as an opportunistic, self-serving group.

“We want the (military) council to leave immediately so we can continue our revolution, which the military sold out,” said Mohammed Ali, a shoemaker among the protesters. “A civilian Cabinet from the square is what we want.”

The divisions between the secularists and Islamists surfaced in the square Monday when senior Brotherhood leader Mohammed el-Beltagy was heckled by protesters who threw water bottles at him. He hurriedly left.

However, moderate Islamists from two groups _ the Wasat, or Centrist party, and supporters of presidential hopeful Abdel-Monaem Abul Fetouh _ said they would take part in a big protest dubbed “National Salvation” planned for Tuesday.

Throughout the day, the sounds of gunfire crackled around Tahrir Square, and a constant stream of injured protesters _ bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by tear gas _ were brought on motorbikes into makeshift clinics on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.

A morgue official said the toll had climbed to 24 dead since the violence began Saturday _ a jump from the toll of five dead around nightfall Sunday, reflecting the ferocity of fighting. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the numbers.

Since Mubarak fell and the military took over, Egypt’s revolution has been mired in frustration and confusion. Activists and many in the public accuse the generals of seeking to hold on to power, and they fear that the military will dominate the next government no matter who wins the election. Many Egyptians are also frustrated by the failure of the military and the caretaker government to conduct any real reforms, halt widespread insecurity or salvage a rapidly worsening economy.

The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.

On Monday, a group of 133 diplomats from the Foreign Ministry took the rare step of issuing a petition demanding that the military commit to hold presidential elections and transfer power by 2012.

“What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants to hold on to his seat,” said protester Mohammed Sayyed, referring to Tantawi.

Sayyed carried two rocks as he took cover from tear gas in a sidestreet off Tahrir Square. He wore a bandage on his head after being hit by what he said was a rubber bullet.

“I will keep coming back until they kill me,” he said. “The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better.”

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Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is expected to resign after parliament’s lower chamber passes European-demanded reforms, amid continued debate among the embattled leader’s allies over who should take his place.

While respected economist Mario Monti is clearly the top choice of Italy’s president and international markets to steer the country out of its debt crisis, members of Berlusconi’s own Peoples of Liberty Party and allied Northern League remain split low fee payday advance.

It isn’t clear if the opposition will be enough to scuttle President Giorgio Napolitano’s apparent plan to ask Monti to try to form a government once Berlusconi resigns, which is expected Saturday afternoon after the Chamber of Deputies approves economic reforms.

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The Abu Dhabi company building a branch of the Guggenheim museum in the Emirati capital said Sunday it has temporarily dropped plans to award a major construction contract, raising questions about the future of the high profile project.

The state-run Tourism Development and Investment Co. said it recalled the tender for concrete work on the Frank Gehry-designed museum because it is reviewing its strategy for handing out jobs to contractors. It didn’t say when it would again seek bids.

The Guggenheim is one of the showcase museums TDIC is building on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, a planned cultural district overlooking the Persian Gulf. The island is also slated to contain a national museum, performing arts center and a branch of the Louvre.

A spokeswoman insisted Sunday that the Guggenheim project is still moving ahead, but didn’t provide details.

TDIC has previously said it would open the museum by 2013.

Some preliminary groundwork for the 450,000-square-foot museum has been completed. The construction contract now on hold would have involved major work on the museum’s base and other parts of the building.

TDIC has not released the value of that deal free credit score.

TDIC is one of several companies set up by Abu Dhabi to diversify the economy and drive development in the emirate, which borders Dubai to the south.

The money-losing company relies heavily on direct cash infusions from the oil-rich Abu Dhabi government, but it also has turned to banks to fund some of its operations.

TDIC executives traveled to Europe and Asia over the summer to meet with potential investors about the possibility of issuing new bonds, but then put off those fundraising plans.

The Guggenheim project has been a flashpoint for controversy.

In March, more than 130 international artists and writers promised to boycott the museum unless authorities do more to protect workers’ rights at the site. That followed an earlier report by Human Rights Watch that outlined alleged abuses against migrant workers on the project.

TDIC has said it is committed to protecting workers’ rights and has taken on board many of Human Rights Watch’s recommendations.

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The Obama administration restructured a half-billion dollar federal loan to a troubled solar energy company in such a way that private investors _ including a fundraiser for President Barack Obama _ moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of a default, government records show.

Administration officials defended the loan restructuring, saying that without an infusion of cash earlier this year, solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. would likely have faced immediate bankruptcy, putting more than 1,000 people out of work.

Even with the federal help, Solyndra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month and laid off its 1,100 employees.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model. Obama visited the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters last year, and Vice President Joe Biden spoke by satellite at its groundbreaking.

Since then, the implosion of the company and revelations that the administration hurried Office of Management and Budget officials to finish their review of the loan in time for the September 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for Obama as he sells his new job-creation program around the country.

An Associated Press review of regulatory filings shows that Solyndra was hemorrhaging hundreds of millions of dollars for years before the Obama administration signed off on the original $535 million loan guarantee in September 2009. The company eventually got $528 million.

Given the company’s shaky financial condition, Republican lawmakers say the decision to restructure the loan raises questions about whether the administration protected political supporters at taxpayers’ expense.

“You should have protected the taxpayers and made some forceful actions here after this analysis,” Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., told a top Energy Department official this week. “Because you should have seen the problems. And you should have said, `Taxpayers need to be protected and this has got to stop.’ `’

The loan restructuring is one element congressional investigators are focusing on as they look into the federal loan guarantee Solyndra received under the economic stimulus law.

Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors _ Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP _ stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government.

Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House. Kaiser raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s 2008 campaign, federal election records show. Kaiser has made at least 16 visits to the president’s aides since 2009, according to White House visitor logs.

Madrone Partners is affiliated with the Walton family, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Rob Walton, the eldest son of Sam Walton, contributed $2,500 last year to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The AP review also found that officials at Solyndra had been seeking a second round of loans from the Energy Department to expand the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. The request for a second loan was denied.

“We have incurred significant net losses since our inception, including a net loss of $114.1 million in 2007, $232.1 million in 2008 and $119.8 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2009, and we had an accumulated deficit of $505 million at Oct. 3, 2009,” the company said in a December 2009 filing to the SEC. “We expect to continue to incur significant operating and net losses and negative cash flow from operations for the foreseeable future.”

Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said Friday that the company’s financial losses were not uncommon for a high-tech startup and were a major reason Solyndra applied for the federal loan. The loan program is intended to help promising companies that cannot receive financing through private banks because of high risk.

Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department’s loan program, said DOE officials faced a stark choice late last year and early this year: Refuse to allow the loan restructuring, “thereby ensuring that Solyndra would close its doors immediately” or allow the company to accept emergency financing, “thereby giving it and its almost 1,000 workers a fighting chance at success, and the government a higher expected recovery on its loan.”

The decision by Energy Secretary Steven Chu was not an easy one, Silver told the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but appeared to be the right action at the time.

“Without DOE’s agreement to restructure Solyndra’s loan, the company likely would have faced bankruptcy much earlier _ in December 2010″ or soon after, Silver said. “Restructuring gave them a fighting chance to compete and succeed, and kept approximately 1,000 workers from losing their jobs.”

Republicans were not impressed.

“If their model was weak to begin with, and then the market gets worse, doesn’t that mean that maybe we should have just not thrown good money after bad?” asked Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va. “Because now we’re in a worse position in the bankruptcy courts to get our money back.”

GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann called the Solyndra loan an example of “crony capitalism” that benefited political donors.

“It’s wrong to abuse executive authority with unilateral actions” Bachmann said at a campaign event Friday in California. “And of course the other problem with Solyndra is the fact that it appears there was crony capitalism, that there were political donors that benefited by this $535 million loan.”

Newly released emails show the White House was worried about the likely effect of a default by Solyndra on Obama’s re-election campaign.

“The optics of a Solyndra default will be bad,” an OMB official wrote in a Jan. 31 email to a colleague. “The timing will likely coincide with the 2012 campaign season heating up.”

The budget official, whose name is blacked out in the email, wondered whether Solyndra should be allowed to restructure its loan.

“Questions will be asked as to why the administration made a bad investment, not just once (which could hopefully be explained as part of the challenge of supporting innovative technologies), but twice (which could easily be portrayed as bad judgment, or worse),” the email says.

Associated Press writer Gillian Flaccus in Costa Mesa, Calif., contributed to this story.

Follow Jack Gillum at http://twitter.com/jackgillum and Matthew Daly at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

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An early stock market rally faded Wednesday, leaving indexes with small losses in early afternoon trading. The price of gold slumped 4 percent as investors became less fearful.

A sharp increase in orders for long-lasting goods in July eased fears that the U.S. was headed for another recession. Companies placed more orders for aircraft, automobiles and other durable goods in July. Orders rose 4 percent, the biggest increase since March.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 37 points, or 0.3 percent, at 11,140, erasing a morning jump of 115 points. It gained 322 points the day before.

The stock market often makes big swings in late August with fewer traders at their desks, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG. Lower trading volumes often make for a more volatile market.

“It’s kind of crazy. I blinked and in 15 minutes the market had turned,” Greenhaus said. “But in the last two weeks of August, wild swings like this are not out of the ordinary.”

Two days after trading above $1,900 an ounce for the first time, gold fell $72 to $1,788 as investors became less skittish. Gold has risen 8 percent since Aug. 5, when the stock market entered a two-week period of heavy turbulence.

The S&P 500 index fell 4 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,158. It gained 38 points Tuesday, also its best day since Aug. 11. The Nasdaq fell 21 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,424.

Bank of America Corp. rose 8 percent, the most of any stock in the Dow average, after analysts said a four-day slide that erased 15 percent of the bank’s value had been overdone. Toll Brothers rose 4 percent after the homebuilder reported quarterly income that trounced analysts’ estimates.

Stocks have made huge moves this month after Europe’s debt crisis flared up again and as signs emerged that the U.S. might slip back into recession. The Dow has moved by more than 300 points seven days in August. A 200-point jump early Monday dwindled to a 36-point gain by the close of trading.

Indexes jumped sharply Tuesday as investors brushed off a pair of weak economic reports and an earthquake that shook the East Coast. Even after Tuesday’s rally, the Dow is down 8 percent in August. The S&P 500 index has lost 11 percent, putting it on track for its worst August since 1998.

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As the economic recovery sputters forward, banks locally and nationally continue to bleed revenue in such mainstays as commercial lending and, of course, mortgages. So they are increasingly catering to the only customers who have survived the Great Recession relatively unscathed: rich folks.

Customers with more than $1 million in liquid assets (not including the house, or two) can expect some extra coddling these days, as banks are adding services and staff to their wealth management divisions.

The new focus for many banks stems largely from a simple lack of other options

Retailers never give up fighting the bad guys.

They’re adopting new technologies to protect against credit card fraud and counterfeit bills. Distribution centers are putting smaller, harder-to-detect GPS devices in cargo shipments. Ink-dispensing and alarm-setting bulky tags still keep some goods from walking out the door. There’s even an alarm tag that can go into the meat soaker pad under a packaged T-bone steak.

“Oh yes, food and alcohol are high-theft items,” said Karen Bomber, marketing director at Tyco Retail Solutions, one of the companies pushing its wares last week at the retail industry’s loss prevention conference in Grapevine, Texas.

Retail theft keeps rising. Last year, retailers lost $37.14 billion, or 1.58 percent of sales, up from 1.44 percent in 2009, according to the National Retail Federation and Richard Hollinger, University of Florida professor of criminology payday loan no faxing.

The biggest share of those losses, 44 percent, was from employee theft. Shoplifting was second, with 33 percent, Hollinger said. Administrative errors, vendor fraud and unknown causes made up the rest.

The results are based on survey responses from 124 companies. Almost 19 percent of employee theft cases involved collusion between internal and external sources, he said.

New technology is about to make some efforts to stop retail theft obsolete, though it won’t happen overnight. Take credit cards, said Joe LaRocca, the National Retail Federation’s loss prevention staff expert. “We’ve spent 20 years adding holograms, expiration dates, setting up authentication numbers to call before a new card can be used

Newfoundland is the clear winner in the race to improve business productivity across Canada, says a study by the C.D. Howe Institute.

Newfoundland and Labrador registered the biggest productivity gain among the provinces over the 25-year study period as the maritime economy shifted its focus from fishing to oil and gas development.

As a result, it posted strong improvements in household incomes and education levels, along with significant advances in the adoption of new technologies, the Toronto-based public policy think tank said Thursday.

In a report on the study, Lagging Behind: Productivity and the Good Fortune of Canadian Provinces, author Serge Coulombe said growing labour productivity is the most important determinant of future economic welfare.

On that scale, he said Canada is falling behind its major trading partners, particularly the United States and the European Union.

Productivity is a measure of how much an employee produces in an hour of work, and lower efficiency limits how fast an economy can grow without sparking inflation.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has said companies need to use a rising currency to boost investment and regain competitiveness lost to a global recession and emerging-market rivals.

But increasing labour productivity does not mean working harder for less money, a common canard, said Coulombe. Rather, he said it means more investment in human capital (education or other learning); in physical capital (plants or other infrastructure); or in technology.

Highlights of the provincial track records include:

The fastest productivity growth during the period was in Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by Saskatchewan and Ontario. The slowest productivity growth was in British Columbia, followed by New Brunswick.

British Columbia lags in productivity growth mainly because of anemic physical capital accumulation, said Coulombe, an economics professor at the University of Ottawa.

Alberta has had among the lowest growth rates for human capital and labour productivity, reflecting increasing reliance on extracting resources from the oil sands, which requires more labour and capital per dollar of output than did past oil and gas reserves, he said paydayloans.

C.D. Howe urged policymakers to boost national research and development while allowing provinces to apply R&D policies to province-specific issues in the natural resources sector.

For resource-based economies, saving non-renewable resources revenues in

ask the expert

Robert Guller, owner

BEB Management

314-542-4000

rguller@bebmanagement.com

How can commercial real estate investors identify and reposition distressed real estate in today’s troubled market?

There is no shortage of bargain-priced buildings these days. And it’s tempting to buy when the price seems too good to pass up. But it takes more than a low entry point to make an investment profitable.

An investor’s first task is to assess the property’s problems, then determine how his skills can address them. Does the investor have the experience to deal with an environmental cleanup, the knowledge to unwind a messy title or the cash and tax credit know-how to tackle a major renovation? To make a profit, the investor needs to improve a building faster, cheaper and smarter than other investors.

Next, the investor needs to consider target tenants. How can a building be repositioned to attract them? A good strategy is to reach out to professionals who understand the investor’s vision and allow them to suggest ways to get there No teletrak payday loan. Will the distressed building need a few more conference rooms or will it need a whole new building façade?

Finally, the investor needs financial resources. A strategic and tactical repositioning can be expensive. In today’s tight debt markets, the investor will need a deep and flexible source of equity. The investor must be prepared to put a good amount of capital on the line. In addition, the investor must also be sure she can withstand little, or even negative, cash flow.

As with all investment adventures, nothing risked is nothing gained. But if an investor finds a building with a low purchase price that allows the new owner to leverage unique skills, the investor might be able to risk a little less and gain a lot more.

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One might suspect that riverboat gamblers would favor exchange-traded funds as their investment of choice.

If they felt lucky about gold, for example, they’d be enjoying the 29 percent gain that the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) Exchange-Traded Fund has provided over the past 12 months.

If they bet heavily on the allure of faraway places, it would’ve netted them a 22 percent increase from Vanguard MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (VWO) in that same one-year period.

The problem is that most investors are not eager to gamble with their assets. Thoughts of ETFs invested in commodities, single countries, single currencies, emerging markets, biotechnology or alternative energy are not necessarily comforting to the average investor.

Screaming headlines about dramatic gains and losses in highly focused ETFs have heightened the impression that only the brave of heart can consider these upstart vehicles.

The reality is that there are plenty of grown-up ETF choices for conservative investors, and the majority of invested ETF money isn’t in the most exotic choices anyway.

“Be mindful that, compared with five or 10 years ago, there are much sharper tools on the ETF landscape today,” said Anthony Rochte, senior managing director for State Street Global Advisors in Boston. “ETFs are simply indexed portfolios, and with about $1 trillion invested in them, there is no shortage to choose from.”

ETFs hold baskets of stocks, bonds or commodities and are traded throughout the day on an exchange like stocks, rather than once a day like mutual funds. Average folks give ETFs a try because of some advantages over mutual funds such as lower expense ratios and no year-end capital gains tax bills.

Although the image of ETFs is a little on the wild side, you can still construct a conservative portfolio around them.

“The fact is that there really isn’t a mutual fund that touches commodities like ETFs do,” acknowledged Ron DeLegge, editor of ETFguide.com in San Diego. “But a conservative investor should have the broadest exposure to the widest asset classes on the planet, which is also possible.”

Rochte and DeLegge both mention SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), a product of State Street Global Advisors, as an example of an ETF suitable for conservative investors. Its 14 percent increase over the past 12 months isn’t as eye-popping as some volatile sector ETFs’ gains, but it emphasizes value-oriented, high-yield stocks that over time should have greater capital appreciation than investment-grade bonds with similar yields.

This fund screens the S&P 1500 Composite Index for companies that have consistently increased dividends the past 25 years, then weights them by dividend yield. Nearly one-third of its 60-stock portfolio is in consumer goods stocks, with other concentrations in financial services, utilities and industrial materials. The biggest stock holdings in its portfolio are CenturyLink Inc., Pitney Bowes Inc., Leggett & Platt Inc., HCP Inc. and Consolidated Edison Inc.

Dividend hunting is an important tool for conservative investors. In ETFs, as in mutual funds, one can emphasize widely diversified large-cap value and blue-chip stocks or widely diversified bonds, said Paul Justice, director of ETF research for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

“You can build an entire conservative portfolio with ETFs through the largest providers such as Vanguard, iShares and State Street,” said Justice. “You can also build an entirely diversified equity portfolio and cover the whole globe.”

For U.S. equities, Justice recommends Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Index ETF (MGC) for the biggest stocks, Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO) for mid-caps and Vanguard Small Cap ETF (VB) for small-caps. The easiest way to get exposure to all stocks domestically and internationally is through an ETF such as Vanguard Total World Stock Index ETF (VT). All of these have low expense ratios.

Yet ETFs aren’t perfect for everything.

“If you are making frequent contributions and perhaps are in a tax-deferred account, a mutual fund makes more sense than an ETF (which incurs commission charges with each trade) because it was structured to maximize that experience,” explained Justice. “Mutual funds are also the way to go if you’re seeking active fund management, since most ETFs are index funds.”

There are about 6,700 mutual funds and 1,200 ETFs, noted Justice, but ETFs cover many more types of asset classes than do mutual funds. These unique vehicles are on the rise: Three years ago there were only about 700 ETFs, he said.

Bond ETFs track major fixed-income indexes through a representative sample, whether that’s Treasuries, corporate bonds or municipal bonds. They are a good location for some assets in the short-term because of liquidity and low cost.

Short-term fixed-income ETFs, such as the SPDR Barclays Capital 1-3 month T-Bill ETF (BIL), have gained popularity as investors seek safety. While this provides quick access to the Treasury market and the ability to get out on any day that the stock market is trading, the yield is currently near zero.

Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (BIV), which holds government and corporate bonds with average credit quality of “A” and an average duration of six years, has a one-year return of 7.5 percent. The iShares Barclays Aggregate Bond Fund (AGG), which holds government and government-sponsored bonds with an average quality of “A” and a duration of about 4.5 years, has a one-year return of 5 percent.

These are not your riverboat gambler’s ETFs.

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