AUGUST 2012 In his 1935 State of the Union message, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed social security, unemployment insurance, and aid to dependent children to help the deserving poor, but he added an ominous warning… “The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief induces a spiritual […]
June, 2012 NEW YORK (TheStreet) — There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt. — John Adams Back in February, Senator Paul Ryan from Wisconsin challenged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, asking why the Obama administration is not making any attempt to solve the long-term debt […]
MAY 2012 Newt Gingrich recently ended his bid for the White House. His unwillingness to depart reminded me of a scene from the original Wall Street film when Gordon Gecko dresses down the naive Bud Fox: “What are you, 12th man on the deal team, last to know?” Really Newt? You couldn’t have figured out that you […]
MAY 2012 http://www.thestreet.com/story/11543096/1/wanted-a-greek-god-of-finance.html
APRIL 2012 The President of the United States has decided to take his traveling circus of illusion on the road to pitch his version of a Brave Fair World and the magic of his Buffet Tax that will make this all possible. Every millionaire would be subject to the new rule and according to all […]
APRIL 2012 The high priests of the Social Security and Medicare “trust funds” (whatever happened to lockbox?) issued new warnings about the solvency of the “trust funds” they oversee. The Social Security Disability Insurance trust fund will be gone, depleted, kaput in 2016, which is two years earlier than expected. Thank you, masters of the obvious! A record […]
APRIL 2012 I’ve often found counterintuitive notions offer solutions. One of the first, and important of these notions was made by Christopher Columbus. Because he knew the earth was round, he came up with the radical notion of sailing west to reach the east. Then there’s the thinking behind vaccinations — a little disease can […]
MARCH 2012 The list is long and growing. There’s the “Amish Bernie Madoff”, accused of bilking residents of quiet Amish and Mennonite towns in Ohio. There’s Raj Rajaratnam, former hedge fund manager, now a convicted criminal for insider trading. Then there’s Marc Drier, a once prominent lawyer, convicted of defrauding hedge funds, investors and clients […]
MARCH 2012 On April 1, our ally Japan is playing a cruel little April Fools’ Day joke on us: The country is lowering its corporate tax rate from 39.5% to 35%. This will give the United States the dubious and awkward distinction of having, at 39.2%, the highest integrated federal/state tax rate among the developed […]
MARCH 2012 I sure do love the management team at Apple. It’s not because I own shares in the company (this has nothing to do with whether my clients or myself own shares), but because of the lessons they can teach all of us, especially our friends in Washington, D.C. about removing uncertainty from the investment landscape. Specifically, […]