Stock investors are still acting as though Janet Yellen will be good for the economy… or at least good for stock prices. Gold investors must think so too. But will she be? Yellen has no business or investment experience. Her entire career has been spent in academia and public policy institutions. She has never started …
“Dad, I’ve got to do something,” begins a panicky letter from one of the children. “When I changed my job status, I lost my health insurance. The best policy I can find is $550 a month. What should I do?” “Don’t buy the insurance,” we suggested. “It’s a waste of money.” “Just don’t get sick,” …
Stocks settled down recently. The Dow dropped 40 points. Either the market had already priced in “QE forever”… or investors are starting to wonder. Maybe an economy with falling household incomes is not a good place to own stocks. Maybe an economy that is barely growing doesn’t justify the highest stock prices of all time. …
Our “Crash Alert” flag warns of a crash in U.S. stocks. Readers are advised to proceed with caution. But since the start of September, the news for stocks has not been bad. If you want to buy stocks, the financial press and Wall Street can give you plenty of reasons to do so. There is …
Today, we take time out from our regularly scheduled programming to thank the people who rule us. To the TSA agents at airports… to the IRS agents who audit our tax returns… to the NSA agents who are reading our mail… and to zombies everywhere… To all of you, we’d like to say a heartfelt, …
New York seems to have more than its fair share of knuckleheads. Paul Krugman and Tom Friedman are both stalwart columnists in The New York Times. And there’s staff writer James Surowiecki at The New Yorker. More about that in a minute… First, investors are taking it easy… distracted by barbeques, family reunions, and the …
In the ancient world, when people got themselves into debt, they were often forced to sell their daughters into prostitution and their sons into slavery. More about that in a minute… First, a quick look at the financial markets. Looks like gold might have put in a bottom. We figured it would be around $1,100 …
Where things stood at the close of last week: Dow down 105, gold up $9 an ounce. Nothing worthy of comment, in other words. Those who think the world is warming up should visit Edinburgh. It is a city made of stone. Yellow stone. Brown stone. Almost-black stone. Almost every building is built of stone. …
There are many theories to explain government. Most are nothing but scams, justifications, and puffery. One tries to put something over on the common man… the other claims it was for his own good… and the third pretends that he’d be lost without it. Most are not really “theories” at all… but prescriptions, blueprints for …
The writings of H.L. Mencken — the Sage of Baltimore, the home of Agora Inc. — have been a constant companion for me since the start of my writing life. The brilliance, the language, the insight, the derring-do opinionating, the history, the astounding literacy — it’s all here, and it all flows seemingly without limit. …