My wife, Karen, and I just returned from our longest trip of 49 plus years together. We flew to Amsterdam and traveled by small cruise ship the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers and the interconnecting canals of Europe. We visited Germany, Austria, and Hungary, ending in Budapest, over 1250 [...]
Today I write an unusual column. I always try to provide you information and opinion to help you make your money work harder, protect you from loss, or be reassured that wise decisions will bear good fruit in the long term. Today I unashamedly ask you to vote for the [...]
With almost a half year of 2023 passed already, let’s take stock of the US financial situation to see whether Mr. Market knows more than the experts and whether the current positive returns can be sustainable through year end. It is usually quite dangerous when anyone opines, This time is [...]
Monday was our national holiday dedicated to remember and honor those who have given their very lives on our behalf. In recent years, we have perhaps also spent more personal attention to memories of our non-military ancestors with regard to the legacy which they gave to us. That seems appropriate [...]
The late great baseball legend, Yogi Berra, is credited with this quotation: It is tough to make predictions, especially about the future! If there were a perfect field for applying this, investing must be it. Our viewpoint (and that of our favorite economists at First Trust Advisors, LP) remains that [...]
The promises of ESG do not match the performance Ours is a world of paradox. Things like facts you recently thought were settled long ago are now suspect or judged to be incorrect based upon eyes of the beholders. (We will not dwell upon the fact that the most recently [...]
In the 20th Century, many important investing principles developed including asset allocation for diversity and the efficient market hypothesis. More recently, politics has risen to cause a shift in the desired measurement of economic welfare. The trendy newcomer is ESG. What is that? ESG is the acronym of Environmental, Social [...]
Years ago now, in 2009 and following, I joined a small minority of economists critical of the Zero Interest Rate Policy chosen by Ben Bernanke and others in charge of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) to cure the Mortgage Bond crisis. The current crisis is a direct consequence of over [...]
As my friend, Ken Woodruff often says, There are two seasons in Iowa and places north. Winter and tough sledding. The groundhog saw his shadow, but there is an end soon coming to physical winter. The current bear market, not so soon. More tough sledding, until the fourth quarter would [...]
For decades, commentators on the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) have referred to the action of raising federal funds interest rates as taking away the punch bowl at the party. After finally arousing from sleep after the inflation fire was already getting out of control, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has [...]
