I had a conversation yesterday with a reader, whom I’ll call John, of this column and apparently many other newspapers. I often get nice comments, but those are usually from friends and acquaintances. John and I had some trouble connecting over the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to [...]
President Obama made a fine decision when he nominated Robert A. McDonald as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs in July. McDonald, a West Point Military Academy graduate and Army Captain serving with the 82nd Airborne Division, has spent his civilian career with Procter & Gamble. He rose quickly from [...]
We are now experiencing in the equity markets what I have expected for a number of months. Earlier this year, there were drops of 3 to 5 percent in February, April and July, but none showed quite as much selling violence as we have just seen in the past week. [...]
Our Missouri state government is concerned about a downtrend in its collection of tax revenues. I decided to check the reported statistics to identify the source for this worry. That did not take very long. On May 20, 2014, Governor Nixon announced he would withhold $35.1 Million in higher and [...]
What can a client receive from a good relationship with a financial advisor? What does that relationship look like? While companies are spending millions on research on Behavioral Finance, I suspect most client consumers spend little or no time and effort to evaluate what they want and need from a [...]
This has been a summer to remember for its pleasant weather thus far. But this week, more normal, higher temperatures are returning. In a similar way, earlier summer stock prices rose to new highs, but last week the indexes jolted us back to reality. Even bull markets do not travel [...]
Today let’s look at a number of issues while the stock part of financial markets continues to perform its dance routine, one step forward and then one back. For the year thus far through Monday the 19th, the S&P 500 was only higher by 1.99 percent, the Dow 30 Industrial [...]
Since Mr. Market is in a mood to take profits, (which I mentioned in this space was likely) let’s look at gaining some practical education about current investing. If you want to invest in stocks or bonds but want diversification for more safety, what choices do you have? In general [...]
Some things never change. In our day of the thoroughly modern Federal Reserve Bank, Mr. Market hangs on every word, every nuance, every implied hint from the Chairperson. What I understand is this: Although the Fed will continue to buy fewer bonds from (lend money to) the US government each [...]
Last week, I discussed the advisability of examining periodic corrections or pull-backs in the stock indexes. Particularly when January results are negative, one should be ready for the end of a bullish trend. From what occurred last week, the weather forecast for stocks looks better again, just like our physical [...]
