Do we give our four-year-olds vodka and guns to play with? Even Alan Greenspan and Bill O’Reilly now think we need government to increase regulation. Greenspan was shocked that capitalism failed to regulate itself. Ha. Does he have kids? Come on. It’s just amazing how people and even countries can fail to learn from other’s […]

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The current economy gives great opportunities for investing. It’s practically buy one get one free! But don’t give your money to the fund managers. Instead, invest in index funds. Low-cost index funds. It pays in the long run, and that’s what you’re in for when it comes to retirement. My employer has an S&P 500 […]

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Thank you Fareed!

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Went sailing today with some colleagues in the Annapolis bay. Great fun..!
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-mag

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Scott Adams alludes to one of the major changes that affects our investing and thereby the economy as a whole. It’s a lot easier to act with herd mentality when anybody can execute their market orders  with a moment’s notice…

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-10-16/
-mag

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And here I thought the republicans were the big tax-cutters.

The Obama Plan

The McCain Plan

HOUSEHOLD EARNINGS
% OF POPULATION
AVERAGE CHANGE IN TAXES
AVERAGE FEDERAL TAX RATE
AVERAGE CHANGE IN TAXES
AVERAGE FEDERAL TAX RATE

Less than $18,981
20%
-$567
-0.7%
-$21
4.4%

$18,982 to $37,595
20%
-$892
3.5%
-$118
10.2%

$37,596 to $66,354
20%
-$1,118
14.7%
-$325
16.2%

$66,355 to $111,645
20%
-$1,264
18.4%
-$994
18.7%

$111,645 to $160,972
10%
-$2,135
21.1%
-$2,584
20.8%

$160,973 to $226,918
5%
-$2,796
23.0%
-$4,437
22.1%

$226,919 to $603,402
4%
+$121
26.6%
-$8,159
24.0%

$603,403 and up
1%
+$93,709
34.4%
-$48,862
27.0%

Source: Yahoo Finance
-mag

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The 11-12% jump for the Dow and Nasdaq today shows how ridiculously short-minded the American investor has become. We are way past the quarterly reporting period addiction and so deep into instant gratification that we go into an insane buying frenzy on a daily or hourly notice. And I’m not talking about Wall Street investors […]

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The Universe, the solar system, the earth and its seasons, the moon and the tides, night and day… cycles are a natural phenomenon. The economy behaves in a similar way. Because of how our collective psychology work, we experience cycles in the economy. Markets go up and down, and right now we are experiencing what […]

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From CNN today:
“It’s ($10,150,603,734,720) a very big symbol. It’s a complete failure of the system. It’s the most powerful country in the world with a conservative government for the last eight years, and it’s running the biggest debt ever.”
/Svet Stauber, Switzerland

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Laura Rowley comments on Robert H. Frank’s book “Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class.”
Consider housing. “Top earners have more money, so they build bigger mansions,” Frank notes. “The middle-class doesn’t care, but the new mansions shift the frame of reference that defines what people just below the top consider desirable or necessary. […]

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Laura Rowley: Wilcox argues that savers who are dutifully contributing to their 401(k) plans face a real risk, because they won’t pay taxes on the money until they retire. “It’s easy for me to imagine 10 years from now a political candidate saying, ‘We have all these people with $3 million in their 401(k) plans […]

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a) Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, ACORN, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) & Democrats in general that made it easier for poor people to become homeowners and then blocked the republicans from changing that policy. (NY Times Article, Video)
b) George Bush, John McCain, Paul Wolfowitz & Republicans in general that spent all our money on […]

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Re-establish trust.

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Top Guns Trading recommends too look for three indicators:
1. LIBOR needs to get back to normal in order for the banking logjam to break.
2. T-bill rates must rise before we can say things have calmed down.
3. 30-day commercial paper (non-bank) must get back down below 3%.
http://www.topgunstrading.com/section_detail.php?service=ma&section=t442

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I think it is pitiful how our elected officials in general and our presidential candidates in particular go to extremes in order to mislead the public. It is un-presidential and below them. Is it too much to ask for some *real* Straight Talk? Do they think they can’t win with out this crap? Is winning […]

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A big problem right now is the advent of online employee-controlled 401ks. Regular folks can and do go in and change allocations from stocks or mutual funds to bonds overnight when they reach their pain threshold which only means that  the next day another few million people will reach their pain threshold… and […]

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