Weekend roundup: Testing Social Security calculators | Investors love GE’s breakup | Should Berkshire Hathaway be split up?

MarketWatch rounds up 10 of its most interesting topics over the past week.

1. Squeezing every dollar out of Social Security

Deciding when to take Social Security retirement benefits can be complicated, especially when it’s not just about you. Harry Sit tests two free calculators that can help you or a family member maximize those payouts.

More on Social Security:

2. Investors vote ‘yes’ on a new GE

Shares of General Electric  were up 8% for one week through Thursday as investors express their approval for the divestiture plans of CEO John Flannery. Here’s what GE can learn from the breakup of Hewlett Packard into HP  and Hewlett Packard Enterprise

3. A breakup may be best for Berkshire

Tim Mullaney points out that despite the amazing long-term investment performance of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway the stock hasn’t outperformed the market over the past 10 years. The company is too big to make concentrated bets, so splitting it up might be best for shareholders.

4. Here’s how you subsidize the U.S. sugar industry

Vincent H. Smith, the director of Agricultural Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, explains how the federal government’s “Stalinst-stye” control and subsidy of the U.S. sugar industry to the tune of $4 billion a year, has led to domestic prices being twice as high as the average world price. This not only costs U.S. consumers money, but it distorts the labor market and leads to polluted waterways in Florida and Mississippi.

5. How a very successful fund manager selects stocks

Tom Vandeventer of the Tocqueville Opportunity Fund names seven companies that can help you build a stock portfolio.

6. Don’t let headlines push you into selling decisions you may regret later

A trade war with China is a valid short-term concern, but China’s rapid economic growth is a multi-decade money-making opportunity for patient investors.

7. The favorite stocks of the best ‘high-conviction’ money managers

Some mutual funds are “closet indexers” with huge portfolios that include shares of hundreds of companies. But others own only about two dozen. Here are the favorite stocks among the top-rated ‘concentrated’ equity funds.

8. How Mexico’s presidential election may affect investors

Mexican citizens will vote for a new president on Sunday. Anneken Tappe explains what the likely election of Andrés Manuel López Obrado might mean for investors.

9. This is how the end of the U.S. housing boom might play out

The long-term increases in housing prices has been driven by limited supply, in contrast to the bubble that lead to the 2008 financial crisis, which was caused by a drastic lowering of loan quality and increase in mortgage borrowing. Here’s how the housing shortage and rising interest rates can lead to a reversal for home prices.

10. HOG’s big move

Harley Davidson  is moving some of its motorcycle production to Europe. A potential trade war isn’t the only reason.

More on Harley Davidson and its industry:

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