When I was a young boy, my father told me to NEVER discuss religion or politics with other people. What he meant to say was NEVER discuss subjects that make other people react emotionally. If such subjects must be discussed, just don’t be inflammatory. Good Advice! A recent blog entry was about a quote from Ross Perot about abortion, when he answered a reporter’s question…
The short answer on how to handle inflation is simple . . . create a recession and hope you don’t get stagflation. The longer answer is that you have three tools to handle it. First, one cause of inflation is a sustained period when demand exceeds supply. If you cannot increase supply with targeted tax cuts or targeted regulatory relief, you can decrease demand by…
One of the best and most venerable market strategists is Dr. Jeremy Siegel of Wharton. His thoughts are always well-informed and well-crystalized. Today, he thinks we may have seen the worst in inflation. CPI and PPI numbers are backward looking – what has been, not what will be. The Fed has both shut down the growth in money supply and aggressively raised interest rates. Historically,…
If kids ask tough questions, then grown-up kids ask even tougher questions. During a recent visit, my grown-up daughter asked me if I thought the 2024 presidential election would be the last one? Laughing at first, I realized she was actually quite concerned. First, I explained that even dictators stage elections, so if a dictator “wins” in 2024, he would continue the farce. Second, the…
My latest quarterly column for Inside Business can be found here: https://www.pilotonline.com/inside-business/vp-ib-expert-flinchum-0718-20220718-5v6iajiel5eatpjdqzcdpba4hm-story.html
Raise your hand if you were surprised by yesterday’s report that inflation during June was running at a steep 9.1% annualized rate! We all know it has become a problem. We also know how to stop it – bring on a recession! The hesitancy of the Fed to intentionally cause a recession is understandable, as they hope for a “soft landing.” Of course, the slower…
One of my favorite Republican writers has long been Peggy Noonan, who was the primary speechwriter for President Reagan. Last week, she wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal that deserves some thought. She argues that crime is more scary now, not because there is more crime, but because we no longer know the rules to keep ourselves safe. Quoting her: “Previous crime waves…
Blessed to live in a safe, peaceful country without the curse of the Second Amendment, Shinzo Abe was nonetheless gunned down, as he was speaking in a public square. He was a conservative leading a party named the Liberal Democratic Party. His family had a long history of being active in Japanese politics, similar to the Kennedy’s or Bush’s in this country. Abe was blessed…
When I enlisted in the Army long ago, I just wanted to kill those “godless Communists” in Southeast Asia. It was certainly not a business proposition. An article in ABC News last week discussed the recruitment problems of our military forces. To compete with private companies, the Pentagon is debating various options to increase enlistments. It’s the same problem facing the airlines or fast food…
Thank God the first half (H1) of this year is over! Forgetting the horror of Putin’s War on Ukraine and the never-ending clown show in Washington, inflation broke out with a vengeance, interest rates started increasing rapidly . . . and stocks stumbled into a bear market. The Dow Jones dropped 14%, while the S&P lost 20% and the volatile NASDAQ lost almost 30%. Unless…