You might have noticed in recent years that the prevalence of payday loan storefronts has started to wane. According to the most recent information from the Missouri Division of Finance, since 2015 approximately one-third of active payday loan businesses in the state have closed. Even better, over the past decade [...]
Knowing how polarized we have become as a nation I usually make a concerted effort to avoid overtly political issues in my columns. But, as an unapologetic capitalist I felt the need to comment on the recent congressional approval of a $15 federal minimum wage and its potential economic impact. [...]
Last week, some family members and I drove to northern California and back. Never doing things the easy way, we drove 1900 plus miles in the first two days, enjoyed two days with extended family members, and drove 1900 plus miles on Friday and Saturday. Like the terrible joke about [...]
It was a little over a year ago that I opined on the sad news that a beloved part of my own childhood Toys R Us would be permanently shutting its doors. Recently, Sears declared bankruptcy and it would appear that another priceless piece of my childhood might soon be [...]
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards, observed Soren Kirkegaard, 19th Century Danish philosopher. Therefore, we must examine at least briefly what occurred during 2018 in the worldwide financial markets. As noted in prior columns, probabilities were high that it would produce a stock market [...]
Wow, what a year this has been! I traditionally fill this space at Thanksgiving time with the same sort of thoughts you will see today. I will not dwell on the fact that it seems the last celebration was about six months ago, but that is just my relative age [...]
2018 has now seen two periods of rapid declines in the stock market. Are the good times really over for good? We don’t think so, but are definitely watching the key factors we focus on to hopefully tell us if things have changed. Over the last several years we have [...]
In present times, one must know where to seek out good news. Based upon the old saying, If it bleeds, it leads, we have more than a bumper crop of awful things to contemplate. So, being an incorrigible optimist, let me share some items of which I learned recently. We [...]
Fears of a major trade war are causing another selloff in global markets this week. China, late on Sunday, said it would increase tariffs on 128 U.S. products in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more [...]
The water cooler topic of the week has probably been the dramatic movements downward in the stock market. It’s been a wild ride, that’s for sure. While scary, we hope to provide proper perspective. Market volatility has been historically low now for the better part of the past year. Not [...]
