2008 was a lousy year in the stock market, and it ended in a major scandal when Bernie Madoff was arrested in December. 2022 was also a lousy year in the stock market, and it also ended in a major scandal when Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was arrested in December. Of course, there are differences. Madoff orchestrated history’s largest Ponzi scheme, while SBF of FTX fame…
There is no such thing as a Santa Clause Rally, officially, but it has become almost traditional, and we have even come to expect it. The week between Christmas and New Year’s has traditionally enjoyed a robust stock market (except 2018). The conventional wisdom is that selling to take tax losses has been exhausted by Christmas and that wise investors step in to buy the…
The USS George Washington has a crew of 6,012. Three crew members committed suicide in April. Of course, these are not ordinary humans who had enough life already. They are highly/expensively trained assets of the US Navy and needed for our national security. Yes, they do matter more than most people who commit suicide . . . assuming anybody really matters. One of my favorite…
My nomination for the most over-worked noun of 2022 is . . . RECESSION. Pundits fear-monger about it constantly. However, there are different types of recession. Know your recession! Most people confuse the GREAT RECESSION of 2008/9 with normal recessions. It was not! That was a global financial crisis which morphed into a really bad recession. Don’t confuse a financial crisis with a recession! Officially,…
On the tenth anniversary of the horrible massacre at Sandy Hook, it would be appropriate for gun-lovers like myself to admit that Jesus Christ did not come down from Heaven to write the Second Amendment. Of course, it would also be helpful if the “other side” would identify social programs to be trimmed enough to pay for the enhanced treatment of those people with mental…
It is that time of year to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. Having just returned from a trip to attend a funeral, I was shocked that it cost $795 to dig a hole . . . just two feet wide and two feet deep. Even with no crypt, a ceramic looking pot to hold the cremation urn cost $495. A grave marker was another…
The price of gas is slightly less today than 12 months ago, and the Democrats are heaping praise on President Biden, which he doesn’t deserve. The price of gas was much higher 6 months ago, and the Republicans heaped scorn on President Biden, which he didn’t deserve. No president, Democrat or Republican, has much control over gas prices, especially in the short run. They are…
In 1872, Lewis Carroll wrote the sequel of “Alice in Wonderland” in which Alice crawls through a mirror and discovers everything is reversed. I think about that whenever Wall Street discovers good news is bad news. The most recent jobs report was stronger than expected, which caused big losses in the stock market. What? That seems illogical! The same thing happened with the latest GDP…
When I was young, I enjoyed playing sports in general and baseball in particular. I knew all the teams and had at least a thousand baseball cards of the players. Coaches always said sports was good for me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. You know, “idle hands are the Devil’s tools”, plus it builds character and respect for rules, yada yada . . . When I…
As a longtime member of the National Association of Business Economics, I look forward to their survey of members. Normally, I am satisfied with their conclusions but think their latest is overly-pessimistic. Nonetheless, here are some of their current thoughts: My biggest disagreement with NABE is that they see the Fed as too-aggressive. While it was slow to recognize inflationary pressures, they have certainly moved…
