"Big Kid" Returns go to Direct Investors
Thursday, January 10
When most people think about investments, their minds immediately drift to vehicles such as mutual funds, hedge funds, bond funds, REIT’s, and other methods of pooled investments that are either managed or pegged against an index. Many noted academics such as Burton Malkiel have rightly observed...
Why a "Gold Standard" is Not the Answer (Part Three of a Three Part Series)
Tuesday, January 08
Recent debt problems in the United States and across the world at large have brought the notion of a “gold standard” for the currency back into vogue. The allure of a gold standard is easy to see, since it means that there is a commodity backing for the currency. Many people believe that peggin...
Anatomy of the Bubble Machine (Part Two of a Three Part Series)
Sunday, January 06
When examining market bubbles, it is critical to understand exactly what they represent. Fundamentally speaking, a market bubble emerges when expectations about the future growth for a certain asset grow so high that people sacrifice future production and consumption for the sake of investing in...
Bubbles and Crashes (Part One of a Three Part Series)
Saturday, January 05
Much has been made of bubbles in recent years. The late 1990’s saw the technology bubble, quickly followed by a real estate bubble that resulted from easy-money policies designed to stimulate recovery from the technology recession. Each time that a bubble emerges, it follows a relatively consis...
Success is Just an Intelligent Plan Away
Friday, January 04
One of the most critical things for any person to do in their personal, professional, or financial life is to make intelligent plans. When we simply ‘wing it’ for an extended period of time, it results in our missing opportunities because we weren’t prepared. It is most certainly true that we c...
The Double Entendre of a US Credit Downgrade
Thursday, January 03
Recent news has been dominated by the decision on the part of Standard and Poor’s to downgrade the credit rating of the United States government, due to their persistent budget deficit and lack of progress in pulling government spending under control. In response to this decision that was announ...