What Warren Buffett Really Said: Taxes are Going Up
The annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway has been dubbed the “Woodstock of Capitalism”. People flock from all over the...
What Levittown Can Teach Us About Inflation and How to Address It
In 1949 there was, like today, a shortage of affordable housing. Soldiers were returning from abroad eager to start...
When Higher for Longer Becomes Higher Forever: Interest Rates Going Forward
At its most basic, interest rates reflect supply and demand. Supply comes from the amount of money in circulation and...
When Prices Reach a High Nobody Rings a Bell: The Last Days of Bitcoins
March 5, 2024, witnessed a remarkable sight. Bitcoins set an all-time high and then plunged tenpercent in the same day....
Don’t Eat, Don’t Drive, Live out of your Car. The Idiocy of “Core” CPI
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was first devised in 1914 to tell the government how much faster prices were rising in...
How Long Can Valuations Stay High? What History Tells Us
My first employment out of graduate school at Vanderbilt was with the New Yorkfirm of Kidder, Peabody & Company. The...
What’s in Store for ’24? The Challenge of Investment Forecasting
According to the American Institute of Individual Investors (AAII), investors were the mostpessimistic in the last twelve...
How “Public/Private Cooperation” Works in China:Bamboo Capitalism
In western societies, the concept of government helping the private sector is done infrequently.Except for perhaps support...
One Sure Result from Political Turmoil: Higher Interest Rates
The recent dismissal of Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, by members of his own party...
Most Companies Can Cope With Higher Interest Rates. Can the Stock Market?
As the concept of “higher-for-longer” interest rates sink in, there are three areas of concern:consumers, businesses, and...
Ever Landed in a Glider? A “Soft Landing” is Not What you Expect
Wall Street jargon has now embraced aeronautics. Pundits have been busy talkingup how The Federal Reserve will “glide the...
The Untracked Stimulus Program: Spending By Those Over 65
Economists keep scratching their collective heads about the ongoing strength of the economy. With the COVID stimulus funds...
When Human Nature Meets Artificial Intelligence: How Stock Market Fads Begin—And End
Speculators who treat the stock market as a casino love concepts. They are new, unburdened by history, can be projected far...
I Hear Banjo Music: Drifting Towards A Debt Crisis
Sometime in the next 15-45 days, the United States government is going to run out of credit. This is the result of a law,...
The “Mini-Me” Market Rally: 2011-21 Redux
Many index investors, after the drubbing taken in 2022, have looked at their statements for the first quarter of 2023 with...
How A Banking Panic Differs From A Banking Crisis
The closing of three financial institutions in the past week has sent a sense of crisis through the financial world....