Perspectives
“Fortune Favors The Bold” But Not The Gullible: The Ongoing Bitcoin Implosion
The current bankruptcy of bitcoin exchange FTX is sending shockwaves throughout the bitcoin industry. Billions of dollars of bitcoin investments cannot be accounted for. Celebrities like Tom Brady and Matt Damon have been exposed as paid hacks who sold their...
Is The Growth Stock Correction Over? Not Yet
With the sale of Twitter to Elon Musk last week, a syndicate of banks had previously offered to loan Mr. Musk $13 billion to help pay for the $44 billion deal. The intentions of the banks were to turn around and sell the debt to the investing public as bonds...
Perception Vs. Reality. Why Bonds Are Not A Safe Haven
Advocates of formulaic investing along the lines of 60 percent stocks, 40 percent bonds are not doing so well these days. Year to date, bond indexes are down about 13 percent. This is the second consecutive year of negative returns from fixed income. While this may be...
What Happens To Stocks When Interest Rates Rise? A Historical Pattern Gives Us A Clue
Like today, in 1979 the perception was that inflation was out of control. The hapless administration of G. William Miller at the Federal Reserve had left its reputation for control of the purchasing power of the US Dollar in tatters. Every time...
Oil Refinery Economics: How A Shortage Of Refineries Cause An Increase In Gas Prices
Economics 101 - Law of Supply and Demand: legislating oil refineries decreases supply With the exception of a small refinery launched in North Dakota in 2014, no new oil refineries have been built in the United States since 1976. In 1972, Richard Nixon...
Market Decline Accelerates: How To Find The Bottom
At this writing, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 16.8 percent year-to-date. Within this fact, several stocks have gone down less and some have gone down a great deal more. For those who would rather invest in the future than the present, an analysis...
What Happens When Markets Fluctuate: Maintaining Balance While Others Are Not
After the cascading decline of year-to-date, the market indexes are down 10 percent in terms of the Dow Jones Industrial Averages, 13 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500, and 23 percent for the NASDAQ Over-the-Counter Market. Relatively recent market...
1938 Redux: Who Will Gain And Lose From Ukraine
Someone once wrote, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” The current Russian invasion of Ukraine has been compared to the 1938 German invasion of Czechoslovakia. Like Nazi Germany, Russia made a series of escalating demands on Ukraine and...
Ukraine, Russian, And The End Of Free Trade
As this is written, the invasion of Ukraine continues to evolve. While talks are scheduled, there is little hope of a diplomatic solution. A product of the Ukraine war waged by Russia is an international condemnation of the conduct of the Russian government in...