There's a little bit more caution coming into the investment outlook mostly because of fears of higher interest rates in the U.S. and Europe and now Japan.

We had to guess each year what interest rates would do in the coming year, which is difficult to do in today's markets, and budget for that,

It's definitely the case that pension funds have been reducing their allocation to equities and that's been driven mostly by legislative pressures to reduce their deficits and to match more closely their assets with projected liabilities.

Emerging market stocks were hit hard today, along with their bonds. Lingering fears over higher U.S. interest rates triggered profit-taking again, one day after we saw some good rallies.

The higher that rates go from here, the more the bond market needs to respond to them. The bond market should finally respond to upward pressure on long-term rates.

We haven't raised membership fees in two years. Yes, there will be higher rates in 2007 than 2004, but perhaps only one-and-a-half percent higher. One of our goals (with the new pool) is not just to cover our expenses, but run it at a profit.