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 [...]
Everyone except media companies selling advertising will be pleased that today marks the end of the frenzied cycle of campaigning for a few days. True behind-the-scenes strategists might even take off a day before launching the 2016 presidential election campaign. It is back to work, onward and upward, for the [...]
My forecast first: the sky is not falling and we will carry on. Regular economic principles will trump fear and behavioral financial principles, and the stock market will continue its bullish trend during the fourth quarter. I did not want you to have to sit with bated breath until the [...]
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 [...]
Last week, AbbVie (symbol ABBV) announced it will change its corporate citizenship to the United Kingdom along with news of its acquisition of Shire (SHPG), a specialty biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Ireland. AbbVie is the research part split off in 2013 from Abbott Laboratories, the large cap Chicago based healthcare [...]
3.6% cost of living adjustment beginning in January 2012 The Social Security Administration announced yesterday (10/19/11) that Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 3.6% cost of living adjustment beginning in January 2012. This amounts to a $43 per month raise for the average recipient, bring their average annual benefit to [...]
Independence, MO On Tuesday the U.S. government debt limit was officially raised. This obviously could have and should have been avoided by proper actions by Congress and all of the presidents since at least Lyndon Johnson. When I graduated from high school in 1970, my share of the debt was [...]
