The IRS Calling?
Last week my wife and I had the opportunity to enjoy Thanksgiving with our son and his family in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had expected that with less attention and trading, the stock indexes would fall back a bit. But it was full speed ahead for stocks and lower [...]
Giving Thanks for People
I have been writing a Thanksgiving column long enough now to be a tradition. Since pilgrim time, and again since 1863, Thanksgiving in these United States is a great tradition itself. It is our best holiday now especially because, other than perhaps decorations and flower arrangements, there are no expensive [...]
Market and Politics
Is there a link between the markets and our next President? Is it really the economy, stupid? Could it be that utilizing polls or stock market indicators to gain an edge won’t give us an answer this time? After all, polls leading into the most anticipated Presidential debate of our [...]
Financial Willpower
Much has been written about the increasing waistline of the average American but not as much time has been spent on the state of our financial wellbeing. Just as food with saturated fats and our sedentary culture are harming our health, our consistently low savings rate with corresponding high debt [...]
International Exposure Benefit?
Decades ago following World War II, these United States were about the only part of the globe left without major damage to the industrial infrastructure. With it and the workforce remaining, we were blessed to be able to produce a fantastic amount of everything known to man and send it [...]
Retirement Is a Modern Idea
Work until you die or can’t was the mantra for thousands of years. It wasn’t until 1889 that the modern idea of retirement was introduced in the form of pensions by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. President Roosevelt didn’t sign The Social Security Act into law until 1935. The life [...]
Small Changes
Many people use the beginning of a new school year like the New Year’s holiday, as an opportunity to think about ways that they can improve their lives through new and changed habits. Let me suggest that rather than making a drastic change that you focus on some small things [...]
High Compared to What?
Last week Alphabet Inc., better known as Google’s parent company (GOOG), registered a new high in its 12 year history topping $784 three consecutive days. At its offering, you could have bought a share for $50. Google does make a profit in case you wondered. But more people probably wonder [...]
Psychology and Investing
. In the past sixteen years, US investors have experienced two of the worst or most difficult financial market First an investor should decide between two basic viewpoints about markets. During the 1960’s, Dr. Eugene Fama developed the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) as his doctoral dissertation. For [...]
Investing Both Directions
Monday the S&P 500 finally topped its previous high. Yesterday, it added another .7 percent to 2152. It has been a tumultuous fourteen months since the prior high of May 21, 2015. This large cap index dropped over 12 percent to its August low, rose over 12 [...]