Financial writer Morgan Housel once contrasted the financial lives of two very different people: One was Grace Groner, who was born in rural Illinois in 1909, started working as a secretary during the Great Depression, bought used clothing and never owned a car. The other was Richard Fuscone, who attended Dartmouth, got an MBA from […]
News & Insights
What To Do With All That Cash…
The Tax Reform Act passed last December was good news for Corporate America. Tax rates on profits earned at home dropped from 35% to 21% and levies on lower taxed foreign earnings were significantly reduced. But the biggest near-term positive impact may come from the provision that reduced taxes on cash balances held abroad to […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Investing Is a Social Exercise
In one of his great papers on the ten attributes of great investors, Michael Mauboussin writes that “investing is an inherently social exercise” (“Thirty Years: Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors, Michael J. Mauboussin, Dan Callahan, Darius Majd, Credit Suisse, August 4, 2016). That’s both fact and warning. The fact is that investing […]
The 2-Minute Thought: A Censored Market Commentary
To understand the following passage, please see the numbered guide to the missing words below: Few would 1 that the behavior of financial markets sometimes defies common sense. There are downright absurd stories like Long Island Iced Tea seeing its stock soar nearly 300% in December after a 2 move to change its name to “Long […]
A Wall Street Update: Back to Reality…
Ernest Hemingway once said about bankruptcy, it happens “gradually and then suddenly.” Well on Wall Street we got a rude awakening recently as we moved from little or no volatility last year to multi-day triple digit declines. We were lulled into complacency in 2018 with a gently rising market. Now it’s back to reality. Over […]
“How To Invest In An Overpriced World”…
My apologies to The Wall Street Journal for stealing their headline from an article by Burton Malkiel on how to best position yourself in today’s uncertain times. Malkiel is important to listen to since he is the author of the all-time Investment classic, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. With the market increase in 2018, […]
Making Sense of GE…
What in the world is going on with General Electric? Once one of the world’s most revered companies known for producing managers par excellence, now it looks like a disaster. The Lex column in the Financial Times just called GE “a rolling train wreck of unexpected and expensive blunders.” Its stock is off 40% the […]
What Japan And The Olympics Can Teach Us…
The U.S. economy continued to gain steam last year, increasing at a 2.5% inflation-adjusted rate. Exports grew nicely thanks to the dollar’s 7% decline, and on the consumer front, low unemployment and a buoyant stock market helped boost spending levels. Keeping our economic engine humming at this rate, however, will not be easy. In order […]
The 2-Minute Thought: A Tale of Two Cities: Cape Town and Toyama
Cape Town, South Africa is running out of water. The city has managed to temporarily fend off what it calls “Day Zero,” the day it will turn off the taps to the city’s 4 million people and businesses. But as of now, Day Zero still is coming. Just a few weeks ago, Day Zero was […]
The 2-Minute Thought: Avoiding Crowded Exits
Since volatility and fear have returned to the market, there has been a lot of talk about where you might hide if things get really bad. Suggestions span the gamut: Cash, gold, put options, and various selections of large-cap “safe” stocks are some recent ones I’ve read about. Here’s another thought — not just for […]
The 2-Minute Thought: “My Hopes Are in Cryptocurrency”
Personally, my hopes are not in cryptocurrency. I have no hopes tied up in Bitcoin, Ripple, or Ethereum, though I am interested in seeing how they evolve. But I just read a post by Korean journalist Juwon Park titled, “I Am a 24-Year Old South Korean, and My Hopes Are in Cryptocurrency,” and now I […]
The Trend Is Your Friend…Except At Both Ends…
What does 2018 hold for the market? Anne discusses this in more detail on page 4 but the consensus probably is for MOTS – “More of The Same.” Growth in the Global Economy and higher corporate profits should lead to higher stock prices. Caveat Emptor however, this is the perceived wisdom and we all know […]
