(From 8/25/2015) About last week’s column, one of my friends said he agreed with me. Which parts thereof, I am not sure. I stressed the improving American household financial health and in particular, housing growth and debt reduction for everyone but the federal government. I also said I thought the [...]
The Greeks have thumbed their collective nose at the EU leaders. They are tired of being kicked around and by golly, they aren’t going to take it anymore! The word tantrum comes to mind, but since they are mostly adults—why would any young people stay in Greece?—and they have the [...]
Last Monday at the international Million Dollar Round Table annual meeting, New York Times columnist and author, Tom Friedman talked about his soon-to-be-published book. His talk entitled The World Is Flat 3.0 had something for everyone. His original work, The World Is Flat, published in 2005 stressed that many past [...]
I have not written on the topic of disability lately, but there may be a new way to protect against its long term financial ravages. As of January 1, 2015, Treasury and the IRS have published final regulations (79 FR 26838) allowing a defined contribution retirement plan (think 401k) to [...]
My longtime Rotarian friend, Dick Puhr, late sportswriter par excellence for this newspaper, used to write an occasional column he called Dissa and Datta, if I remember correctly. Today I am following his lead with some information and opinion on a variety of topics, but all related to economics and [...]
Mr. Market is often fickle in the short term. I have already complained about the roller coaster rhythms of 2014 leading many (including me) to be too cautious, as it turned out. Last weekend, a Kansas RIA colleague and I were consoling each other about being judged by the exact [...]
First let me say that nothing in life, not even life, is guaranteed to any of us. And of course, let’s all say it together: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Period. End of story. But then tell me, What is a better predictor of the future than [...]
Regular readers of this column know I often discuss the four year presidential cycles and their effect upon stock market performance. Although I knew intellectually that 2014 had every statistical right to be difficult and negative—the worst of each cycle—that does not seem to help much if one is perfectionistic. [...]
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 [...]
