Blog Archives

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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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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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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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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How Could The New Tax Laws Impact Housing?

Tax Housing

I typically wouldn’t discuss Tax Reform until it has passed since it would usually be speculative, I am making an exception given that many of the parameters are known and because of its potential impact on housing. The basis of the plan was to cut the corporate tax rate first and then work around the constraints that Senate rules and supposed deficit hawks impose on the process.

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IRS Scandal - 1951

IRS Scandal

The scandal surrounding the Internal Revenue Service and its seeming singling out of conservative, smaller government groups is understandably and deservedly getting a lot of media attention. It confirms everyone’s worst fears about government power used for political purposes to attack perceived enemies and sends a chill down the spines of those who believe in free speech and the right to exercise it.

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Love as the Basis for Customer Service and Marriage

Love Gary and Roneet Carmell

In this third and final post related to The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm, this week I will talk about the ways that Fromm says we can learn how to master the art of love and how it can be applied to serving one’s customers.

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10 Year Stock History Key To Current Monster Returns

Current Monster Returns

I am always interested in investments that perform very well for long periods of time. I periodically look back on stocks that were the best performing over ten year periods to see if there are any common characteristics of stock history that can help me make better investment decisions in the future.

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Haiku Living - Life & Investing Lessons from Limits Set By Haiku

Haiku Investing

I have had a fascination with the unique form of Japanese poetry known as haiku. I’m not quite sure why this is the case other than it just seems so unconventional, interesting, somewhat mysterious, and beautiful and strange at the same time. I think it might also have to do with the wonderful aspects of Japanese culture: Its attention to detail,

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