The Philosophical Investor's Blog

Mind Your Legacy and a Pet Peeve

Mark Hurd Legacy

I was going to write about some interesting charts that caught my attention such as this one.

Average of five key Philly Fed subindexes

And while this divergence definitely caught my eye and makes me wonder if the recent rise in yields (nearly 0.25% over the last couple of weeks on the 10-Year Treasury) is foreshadowing economic improvement like this chart seems to suggest,

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Barcelona and the Beautiful People

Gary Carmell Barcelona Vacation Pictures

Barcelona has been on my bucket list. I was heading to Europe for another reason but decided to tack on visiting the city to the beginning of my trip. I flew through Istanbul and since I’m a big fan of naps I thought I would take this picture to show my support for this activity (or inactivity).

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A Memorable Cab Driver and Eavesdropping in Austin

cab driver Austin

I was in Austin a couple of weeks ago and had a very interesting cab driver who looked like one of the wild and crazy guys from the classic Saturday Night Live skits played by Dan Ackroyd and Steve Martin as the two brothers from Czechoslovakia.

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A Reunion of Reflection

Central School 8th Grade Class of 1979

This post will be a little self-indulgent, as it will not touch on anything related to real estate, interest rates, or economics. It is inspired by my recent attendance at the 40th reunion of my eighth-grade class.

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Economic Gain, Treasury Pain

Treasury Yield

It’s been a brutal couple of weeks for Treasuries as the following headline from Bloomberg attests to on September 13th.

Bloomberg Treasury Dive

10-year yields bottomed on a closing basis on September 3rd at 1.47% and have shot back up to 1.90% as of September 13th.

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Sickness, Grit, Reliability, and Variable Rate Loans

mental toughness

Roneet used to say that you have to be healthy in order to be sick. She was spot on. I, fortunately, don’t get sick very much but last week was one in which I was fighting my annual cold. It usually lasts five to seven days and then I’m back to good health.

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The Road to Zero?

road to zero percent interest

The market didn’t react very well to Jerome Powell’s characterization of Wednesday’s interest rate reduction as a “mid-cycle adjustment.” Investors took that to be a bearish easing of monetary policy. The stock market dropped, the bond market took a future interest rate reduction off of the table,

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Find a Game and Get in the Game

Failure to Launch or Find Yourself

I was talking to my daughter about a few college graduates that seem to me as if they fall into the category of “failure to launch”. Well, maybe they have launched but they have not reached escape velocity to reach an orbit of independence (and I don’t just mean financially) and growth.

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Benefits of Philanthropy - Give it Away Now..or Later

Carnegie Hall

I was in New York City in 2015 and stayed near Carnegie Hall which is fitting since I wrote about Andrew Carnegie last week and plan to continue with discussing him again this week. Carnegie Hall is one of the great legacies he left behind.

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From Anger To Well Being - Harnessing Hurt

Anger Tennis

Awhile back I wrote about the book called The Surprising Purpose of Anger: Beyond Anger Management: Finding the Gift. I went back and reviewed the book again because I’ve been playing tennis recently and quite frankly I have felt personal disappointment because I have been unnecessarily hard on myself and angry when I make unforced errors to the point where my behavior can be unbecoming.

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