I've gotten some calls asking about the newest brainstorm out of our government called the MyRA.

The first problem is that I have difficulty in even pronouncing it. I mean, who came up with the idea for the name? It's kinda cutsie but come on.

Lest I be accused of being unfair let me say that almost anything that encourages savings has my vote. Our country has about the worst savers in the world so almost anything will help.

But I'm like Congress; I really have not read everything, so bear with me.

OK, an account can be opened with as little as $25. You can add as little as $5. There are no fees. Your investment is guaranteed. It is like a Roth IRA to the extent that when you access your funds for retirement they come out tax free. This plan basically is for people whose employer has no retirement plan.

OK, you really can't gripe so far. However, there is no incentive for this plan.

In my mind, you treat it like a Roth, but you should allow people who take advantage of a tax deduction like a traditional IRA. I mean these are mostly, I think, people who have never saved before. They need incentives.

Also, the guaranteed rate of return could be around the inflation rate so these new investors are not going to make much, if any, return after inflation. Last year I think the return they would have earned 1.47 percent.

Let's say that people actually participate, and they accumulate $15,000, which I don't foresee. They then have to move the money into a Roth-like vehicle where the investment is no longer guaranteed.

I don't get that. If we want to help this sector of our people, let us help them keep their money safe. These people, to a large extent I think, will be participating because they can't lose any money. They are not sophisticated investors.

I've read that about 80 percent of our citizens live paycheck to paycheck. If that's true, then getting people to use a MyRA just is not going to happen.

I have not read anything which forces employers to participate in taking the money from paychecks for the MyRA. Without that, and some of the things I've talked about above, in my view this thing has no teeth and won't work to get significant numbers of people to participate.

Good idea, bad implementation. Gosh, sounds like our government.

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I am writing this in the middle of the week so when you read it my statistics could mean nothing, but bear with me.

Let's just chat about January. We lost over 5 percent in the Dow Jones industrial average but you know last May and June we also lost 5 percent.

Losing 5 percent is not new. The S&P 500 lost about 3.5 percent. Small and midsized companies, as usual, suffered a little more.

Bond prices seem to have firmed up. When are interest rates going up?

No clue.

Right now I think that our recovery seems to be a little fragile, and it would not surprise me to see continued firmness in bonds.

If the stock market continues to be weak, then expect to see bond prices increase as people sell stocks and buy bonds.

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I do have an opinion about something. I have been watching the Jos. A. Bank and Men's Warehouse soap opera. Men's Warehouse wants to buy Jos. A. Bank, which in my mind makes some sense. I'm reading that investors like the idea. Remember, I'm not a retail guy; I am just talking out loud.

Recently, and things may have changed by the time you read this, Jos. A. Bank has decided to buy Eddie Bauer. To me this is nothing more than a ploy to keep Men's Warehouse away and probably has nothing to do with good business sense. Sometimes it amazes me what boards of directors will do. Sometimes they act like little children, “If you do this to me, then I am going to do this to you.”

I have heard that Eddie Bauer, a company whose products I like, is not doing that well. If that is true, then why is Jos. A. Bank pursuing them?

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The wife came into the Man Cave the other day and noticed my new printed artwork that she had not seen. I found it at a fashionable gallery.

It says: “If you are going to drink all day, you have to start in the morning.”

She didn't think it was funny.

Howie Pentony is a Saxonburg client portfolio manager.