The Flinchum File

Thoughtful Economic Analysis and Existential Opinions
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Welcome to The Flinchum File

I am an Accredited Investment Fiduciary at Bay Capital Advisors, an investment firm headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA. After retiring from Truist Bank, I started this firm to work more closely with a smaller number of clients, and it has been great! Our client load is about 25% of the national average.

Writing is not for the shy or the meek. It exposes a person’s mind and character. I hope you enjoy the view.

The opinions expressed in The Flinchum File are those of the writer, Jim Flinchum, and do not necessarily reflect those of Bay Capital Advisors, LLC

Re-appointment of Ben Bernanke

Yesterday’s re-appointment of Ben Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve System was wise a decision! Sure, he was slow recognizing the subprime problem, but he showed true innovative genius once he engaged. Although there is never any way to prove it, I am confident he prevented the Great Recession from becoming another Great Depression! But, rewarding a person for a job well-done understates the…

Clap…clap…clap…

Was I the only person applauding Monday when the Dow dropped 186 points? It blew a little froth off the market, which is a good thing! There is a loose but direct relationship between the financial markets and the overall economy. The Conventional Wisdom is this: if the economy improves, the market usually senses this and starts improving 5-8 months sooner. While we have clearly…

Linearism

I just finished reading The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe. It makes the point that generations have a predictable flow, starting with growth (the prophets) followed by maturation (the nomads) and then entropy (the heroes) and finally destruction (the artists). The World War II generation could not have foreseen that “America would soon become so confident and institutionally muscular, yet so conformist…

The Feast Continues…thankfully!

I attended a meeting yesterday and listened to the fear some investors have of China, particularly its ability to crush the dollar by dumping all their dollar-denominated holdings, such as US Treasuries. Their angst is understandable but misplaced. Dumping the Treasuries would create huge losses for themselves and risks sending the world, including themselves, into a genuine depression. Indeed, during a recent visit to the…

Canary in a Coal Mine??

Nassim Taleb is the brilliant author of the “Black Swan”, which described how huge, unpredictable events occur, such as the current market collapse. This morning, he said the current Chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, has performed poorly and should not be re-appointed when his tenure as Fed Chair expires in January. A survey of economists by The Wall Street Journal was also released today,…

No Champagne Yet!

Friday’s jobs report was great . . . or the headline was great, that unemployment dropped from 9.5% to 9.4%. Also, over 700 thousand workers were losing their jobs in January, compared to “only” 244 thousand last month. Still, how can the rate of unemployment decrease when 244 thousand workers lost their jobs?? Simply, hundreds of thousands of people have quit looking for work. They…