Bitcoin has made an absolutely remarkable run over the last decade. It may have gone up higher and faster than any other asset class, ever. It was trading under $5000 at the onset of the 2020 covid lockdowns, before running over $60,000 less than a year later. Today, I’d like [...]
If you have friends from the 41st latitude, they will tell you there are two seasons—6 months of winter and 6 of tough sledding. That tough sledding part is what we are experiencing in financial markets in 2022. It will probably last through September. After all, this is the mid-term [...]
If you’re reading this column there is a good chance you’re hoping I have an answer to the question everyone is asking right now. What is going on! I will do my best do provide some context to recent market volatility. In the mid-2000’s, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) was [...]
With all of the negative excitement of 2021, I doubt if there are many of us who are too sad to begin a new year with hopes of improvement. Given the effects of illness and rise of other uncertainties, I know that most of you would not have predicted such [...]
The year 2021 was another challenging year with the pandemic raging on beyond what most optimistically believed with vaccines coming on the scene. Can 2022 be the year most thought 2021 was supposed to be? I can’t think of a more difficult time to predict what’s ahead with so many [...]
A few years ago, I wrote in this space about whether it made sense to buy US manufactured tools and products even at higher prices than imports. Time has marched on. I now wonder about our future as a viable independent nation. By way of example, let’s examine computers, especially [...]
Many of you know that each year I use this week to share a column with a Thanksgiving theme. It is my favorite American holiday since it originated in our land in the 1600s. In former years, it kicked off the official Christmas shopping season, but that has already begun. [...]
Regardless of how many times I see it, I am always astounded to find bread and milk shelves laid bare prior to a forecasted snowstorm. In the 40 something years I have lived in the metro, I cannot remember a single occasion when two days after inclement weather I was [...]
Last week I discussed the problem of holding bonds during a period of rising inflation. Not only does the older rate of income paid fall short of keeping up with the cost of buying goods and services, but the value of the bonds in your portfolio falls. The worst case [...]
The Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell tells us that the present surge of inflation is transitory. But whatever its duration, it is wreaking havoc on the budgets of many American families. Just in terms of gasoline, a two wage-earning couple could easily be spending an additional $100-$150 per month [...]
