It’s Jobs Friday, and CNBC has been hyping it all week. A big jobs number is expected, and everyone is on edge. But as I watched the report today, I found myself questioning why I even bother. The print blew away expectations with 272,000 jobs added, yet unemployment rose to 4%. This is pure Fugazi—fake […]
I try to catch all the stupidity in the investment world, but I can’t get everything. I’m not trying to be harsh, just giving a bit of tough love. It’s like coaching kids: you give positive reinforcement, but sometimes a swift kick in the pants is necessary. Today, I learned a new term from a […]
Read Part 1 here. Anyone wonder why cars are so expensive these days? General Motors recently announced their plans to invest over a billion dollars in two Michigan plants to manufacture next-generation heavy-duty trucks. Weren’t they planning to go fully electric by 2035? Why would they be investing heavily in the production of combustion-engine vehicles? […]
Interest rate manipulation by the Federal Reserve consistently raises eyebrows and confuses observers. I often receive queries about this issue after each Fed meeting, and here is our answer: Speculating what the Fed is going to do next is an exercise in futility. The investment world and media loves the proverbial dog and pony show […]
Business news is getting to be quite tedious. One the more important points we have tried to get across to our listeners and clients over the past few decades is that conventional wisdom is poison. Maybe I am showing my age, but it has seemingly gotten much more tedious as well. The daily parade of […]
Judge Smails: Ty what did you shoot today? Ty: Oh Judge, I don’t keep score. Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers? Ty: By height. From the 1980 film Caddyshack Are you one of the countless people that have a difficult time understanding what the so-called wizards of smart in main-stream-media […]
Don’t doubt me. I cannot revel in self-righteous, pat-myself-on-the-back behavior after witnessing another prediction of mine becoming reality. In my opinion, it is in particularly bad taste and bottom barrel decorum to celebrate when bad things are happening even if I did give everyone a heads-up. We are living in an alternative universe when it […]
“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” Lorenzo Anello (Played by Robert De Niro from the film A Bronx Tale) If I were to tell you in 1975, 1985, 1995, or 2005 that in 2016 the United States of America would be an energy powerhouse exporting oil and natural gas around the globe. […]
Jonathan Swift modeled his classic novel Gulliver’s Travels to satirize life in his time. The Lilliputians and their Kingdom of Lilliput were a study of what life was like in England. In the novel, the Lilliputians were all of six inches in stature, however possessing all the haughty pretention and self-importance of full-sized men. Adjectives […]
APRIL 2014 “Reaganomics means you start a business in your garage; Obamanomics means you move into your parents garage.” Senator Ted Cruz I did an interview post election back in November 2008 and was asked what I thought Americans could expect as far economic growth under President-Elect Barrack Obama. The metaphor I used to describe […]