The Philosophical Investor's Blog

Trumpling on the Dollar

dollar

Maybe I’m writing about the dollar because I’m traveling abroad soon so it affects my pocketbook. It could also be due to the rather shockingly overt talking down of the dollar by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in Davos.

Mnuchin in Davos Dollar

“Obviously a weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade and opportunities,”

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Is the Fed Using the Right Measure? Relative vs. Absolute

measure

Like many other investors I am a big fan of Seeking Alpha as it is a terrific resource to research companies, markets, and to get a wide variety views regarding important economic, societal, and business trends. One of the most prolific writers there who I follow is Jeffrey Snider.

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A Week in the Life of Schizophrenic Bond Investors

Schizophrenic Bond Investor

What a difference a week makes. Last week I wrote about how the Fed starting to unwind its balance sheet shouldn’t cause us much worry in terms of triggering a meaningful increase in interest rates. Of course, yields spiked higher over a few days to seemingly contradict my sanguine outlook.

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The End of QE I, II, & III - The Fed Portfolio Reduction

Fed reduces bonds

The Fed’s balance sheet is comprised of approximately $2.5 trillion in Treasury securities and $1.8 trillion in mortgage backed securities.  The following graph shows how its balance sheet has grown since 2009 through 2014 when it stopped its bond-buying program.

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Best Advice You'll Ever Read - Keys to a Fulfilling Life

Best Advice Philosophical Investor

With this being a Labor Day week I thought I would take it a little easier and outsource this week’s investment wisdom to a Wall Street legend, Byron Wien. He put together some of the most important lessons of his first 80 years and they represent some of the best advice I have ever read.

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Housing - Under-Supplied, Over-Supplied, or In Balance?

Housing

It is notoriously difficult to separate the signal from the noise when it comes to investing. What information is truly meaningful enough to take action that can lead to making money or avoiding loss versus useless information that leads to decisions which bluff us in or out and lead to lost opportunity or losing money? 

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What Will High-Income Blue Staters Do? New Tax Regime

high income new tax laws

Now that there is a new tax regime in place I thought I would discuss it one more time with some additional thoughts. It does appear that while most parts of the country will not be significantly impacted by the mortgage interest deduction being reduced to $750,000 for future home purchases,

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Balanced Investing: The Financial Benefit of Home Ownership

balanced investing

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”
~ Mark Twain

Balanced Investing – Home Ownership and My Fascination with Logarithms

It was a pretty busy week so this one will be rather quick. For some reason, I was intrigued by logarithms growing up.

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Our Rapidly Aging World - From Japan to India to America

AgingOne of the principal reasons I have been in the camp of interest rates remaining low for many years to come relates to demographics. I have always thought that Japan is the canary in the coal mine in terms of being on the leading edge of a rapidly aging society and how this filters through to lower interest rates.

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Ben Bernanke Can't Refinance - Mortgage Credit Market Too Tight?

Is Mortgage Credit Too Tight – Ask Ben Bernanke

I must admit that I found it quite interesting (and entertaining) to read that Ben Bernanke could not refinance his house in Washington D.C. According to the article,

Bernanke already has refinanced twice. When the former Fed chair and his wife Anna bought their Capitol Hill rowhouse in May 2004,

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