- The Incredible Shrinking Postal Service
January 21, 2013When I went to the post office the other day it felt like a ghost town. There was only one person behind the desk and the place seemed darker than usual...
- Einstein's
General Theory of Investment
October 3, 2012Einstein was a genius known for his simple elegant expressions of complex natural laws. Indeed, what is simpler than E=MC2? While it may be urban legend...
- Social Security Benefits could be a Thing of the Past
May 7, 2012In my youth, my father worked hard every day and looked forward to receiving his Social Security benefits when his time was due. When he finally began...
- Pink Slime, Horse Meat and Horse Hockey Investments
March 15, 2012Years ago we were more entertained by our government's actions because we were younger then and not threatened so much by their policy decisions. But now as we...
- Suppressing Unemployment to Win The Election
January 19, 2012In Presidential politics, when you get beyond the culture wars, wedge issues, religious right, taxing the rich, pro-choice, nuking the gays, the Tea Party Movement, and...
- No Bull Prize in Economics
November 8, 2011The crux of any economic theory starts off with the magic words "first assume that" and then using dazzling logic follows an irrefutable happy conclusion. The...
- The Fed Pays a King's Ransom to China
October 4, 2011America's economy is in shambles. Fiscal policy is totally gridlocked between Democrats who want to see some long term tax increases, and Republicans who only...
- Pigs Fly and Prices Go Nuts
July 18, 2011When business slows down over the summer months, I finally have some time to reflect and do a little economic detective work and, yes, an occasional jig saw puzzel...
- Boomerang Inflation
April 28, 2011"What goes around...comes around" is an old adage with common sense logic. It's just perfect karma for those with an affinity for the concept of eastern thought...
- For a House in a Hamlet, To Buy. or Not to Buy, That is the Question
March 29, 2011There is no question that buying a home can be an emotional experience. Sometimes the desire to own is so strong the "want" to own outweighs the actual "need"...
- The Collapse of America's Labor Force
February 16, 2011America continues to face a true national tragedy as tens of millions of unemployed people have been literally discarded because of big business outsourcing to...
- Obesity and Taxes
October 12, 2010If what I read recently is correct, the cost of medical care linked to obesity in America is approaching $150 billion a year. (At least we're not alone; worldwide...
- An Inflationary Cocktail in the Making
September 30, 2010The interesting part of growing older, that my wife and I have noticed, is the appearance that time speeds up. As each month that passes turns into years, as...
- Americans Are Getting a Lot Less but it's Costing Them More
June 26, 2010Inflation is defined as the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, the purchasing power is falling. I've...
- For the Baby Busters, It's Downsize or Die
June 28, 2010Living realistically is not something anyone wants to do in an election year, and it may be especially difficult for the Baby Boomer generation to grasp, along...
- Where's my Government Check
May 10, 2010My wife and I are getting a little older, so naturally we are beginning to think about where the cash flow will come from when we truly retire. We realize we...
- A Trillion Here, A Trillion There...
April 8, 2010"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money". This phrase about government expenditures has become a classic but with great...
- Jingle Mail, Jingle Mail
December 22, 2009Jingle Mail (also known as strategic mortgage default) is the happy-sounding phrase used by banks and mortgage servicers to describe homeowners who simply walk...
- Twilight Zone Economy
November 9, 2009From 1959 to 1964, Rod Serling created and directed the ground-breaking series "The Twilight Zone" which will never be forgotten by anyone growing up in the 1950's...
- The Housing Tsunami's Second Wave
September 16, 2009Spokesmen for the Obama Administration and the Wall Street establishment refer to the slight up tic in lower-priced housing prices and existing home sales as a...
- Hard Times
July 9, 2009Our measure of how bad is it in this economy for a broad swath of Americans can be analyzed by asking three basic questions: Are people working, are they making...
- Economy: In the Eye of a Hurricane
March 19, 2009The $20 trillion of wealth in America that has gone up in smoke from falling stock prices, real estate, and other asset values, is being engulfed by rapid job...
- Keynes, Upside Down
February 5, 2009Every time I pick up a copy of the prestigious financial press, I can't help but read articles pushing Keynes theories. Writers point or wag a finger at the...
- Uncle Sam May Grab Your Gold If You're Not Careful
December 18, 2008I can't complain. My wife and I have plenty to eat and we own our home outright. With no debt and enough money to carry us for the next few years, we'll make...
- Trillion Dollar Treasury Deficits: Truth and Consequences
September 24, 2008One of my recent articles explained why the US Treasury deficit, without financial bailouts or government stimulus, was heading towards $600 billion a year...
- How Much Will Government Bailouts Actually Cost the American Taxpayer
August 11, 2008Over the last eight years, we have watched in horror as a two-term Republican Administration furthered programs that have effectively thrown lit sticks of dynamite...
- US Tax Revenues Go Missing
July 30, 2008For this article, I will examine what is going to happen to the deficit because of Federal tax revenues. In future articles, we will take a look at other major...
- Is Your Money Safe
June 15, 2008Clearly, individual investors should have been asking whether their money was safe time and time again over the past year, rather than listening to the pundits...
- With Inflation, There's No Free Lunch
June 12, 2008If Americans feel they are being pick-pocketed by inflation, they should take a look overseas. With the United States pushing its trade deficit and dollars on...
- The Fed's Medicine is Toxic
May 23, 2008In medicine, good ethics go as far back as ancient Greek culture. Part of the Hippocratic Oath translates to say..........."I will prescribe regimens for the...
- Tax Rebates Mean Blood in Shark-Infested Water
May 7, 2008The government rebates are coming: Quick, hide from the bill collectors! Creditors and debt collectors alike can smell the money a mile away, and they're mighty...
- The Economy's Summer Holiday Has Already Begun
April 8, 2008Memorial Day is still seven weeks away but economically the summer doldrums have already begun in many parts of the country. Over nine hundred thousand pink...
- The Magic Mirror Economy
March 13, 2008No one can ever be too rich, too thin, or too beautiful. We would all like to look into a mirror that tells us that. But in tough economic times like these...
- Liquidity Looked in the Mirror But Insolvency Stared Back
February 8, 2008We continue to read articles in the financial press and elsewhere by widely-respected mainstream economists who have a tendency to quote mindlessly from Keynes'...
- An Economic Heart Attack Brought on by Sugar and Fat
January 22, 2008The other day I was frankly stunned to see President Bush in a panic. He was flanked by the Secretary of the Treasury and the head of the Federal Reserve as...
- The Economy's Last Hurrah Before That Big Sucking Sound
December 6, 2007As 2007 wounds down, it's time to reflect on how bogus government statistics along with Wall Street media hype have impacted the psychology and perception in...
- When Crumbling Credit Meets Deadly Leverage
October 26, 2007If our country's debt problems in the private sector were simply limited to the $1.5 trillion of subprime mortgages that needed to be repaid, restructured or...
- The Recession is Here
September 13, 2007You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to see the signs of a recession bursting through in economic data, particularly in the August Employment Report. One general...
- Swim With The Sharks But Risk Being Eaten Alive
July 26, 2007Private companies that lend their own money are generally very careful with their loan underwriting, and they know how to collect the money they lend. Most reputable...
- Independence Day is Here, but not for Many Americans
July 3, 2007America may be referred to as the "Home of the Brave" because when the bills arrive it takes a lot of courage to open them up, especially when you must turn around...
- How the Government Creates Jobs
May 24, 2007Our elected officials and Wall Street executives all have a vested interest in keeping the perception of a robust economy alive. The employment data announced...
- Inflation and the Ironic Productivity Tax
March 28, 2007Man is such a lucky creature because machines do all of our work. Our economy and prosperity stand on the shoulders of the geniuses who invented the wheel, lever...
- Subprime Titanic Hits Iceberg: Wall Street Abandons Ship
February 23, 2007On April 14, 1912, the mighty Titanic hit an iceberg and the ship's fate was sealed in just over 2 hours and 40 minutes. The boat's structural design and weight...
- The Dollar Dam is Breaking
December 1, 2006Treasury Secretary, Henry M. Paulson, is rushing off to China next month and will lead a delegation to Beijing for the inaugural meeting of the U.S. — China...
- When the Home Equity Cookie Jar is Empty
November 9, 2006My first experience with a mob of American children was a job I had working in my hometown park while in high school. At one summer party, my job was to hand o...
- Deal or No Deal as the Hedges Clip Investors
September 28, 2006We're living in interesting times. A popular TV program called "Deal or No Deal" — a high-stakes game show of odds and chance — says it all. On the show, cont...
- Inflation Non-Cents
July 30, 2006When was the last time you actually bent down and picked up that penny you dropped? The U.S. penny is on its way to extinction so it's time to bid farewell to...
- Don't Roll the Dice on Wall Street
July 17, 2006Up until just recently the only bargains in the carry trade were achieved by borrowing at lower interest rates in the euro and yen. This can be risky, though,...
- Bernanke Scares Pavlov's Sheep
June 13, 2006This is a partial edited reprint of my article entitled "The Fed and Pavlov's Sheep" that was written and published in May of 2004. The topic is especially...
- Dollars on Sale for 30 Percent Off
May 8, 2006The dollar was once the almighty dollar. It became the world reserve currency. Every investor and government wanted dollars over all other currencies. Those...
- Complacency and the Rain Dance for Money
September 16, 2004One has to appreciate, in theory and in practice, Alan Greenspan's genius, at least in the Machiavellian sense, and how it has been used in the financial market...
- The Cruel Economic Recovery
October 7, 2003Now that Levi Strauss will no longer be making blue jeans in the United States, I can't help but recall the old days when our exports of blue jeans, rock and roll...
- Using the CPI to Rob Americans Blind
April 14, 2004Most Americans have been led to believe that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) actually measures, from one year to the next, the "cost of maintaining a constant...
- Inflation Raising its Ugly Head
September 9, 2005Budget deficits to the left of us, money growth to the right of us, and an oil price shock behind us, will leave only inflation in front of us! Information featured...
- Slaughter of the Housing Speculators
August 18, 2005These days, "Get Rich Quick" has been the mantra for too many people trying to cash in while buying real estate speculatively. With so much "free" money still...
- China's Revaluation: Big Journeys Begin with Small Steps
August 3, 2005Just because the financial markets and press have responded to the revaluation of the Chinese currency with a big yawn, as China continues to take small steps t...
- Goodbye Middle Class; Hello House Poor
July 7, 2005There's no question that home building, home sales with large capital gains, and record mortgage financing drives the economy, creating millions of jobs and generating...
- Hotel Debt California
February 27, 2005The song "Hotel California" by the Eagles is a haunting reminder of what could be in store for the Baby Boom generation. The song's lyrics set the tone...
- Productivity: The Illusion of Prosperity
March 31, 2003The Chairman of the Federal Reserve has used the mantra of "Increasing Productivity" to both justify the creation of the Credit and Stock Market Bubbles, and to...
- What's for Dinner on July 4th? Home Equity!
June 23, 2003The 4th of July should be about celebrating freedom and independence, yet the bankers are the only people jumping for joy. Never in history have Americans...
- Home Values Built on Rotten Foundations
November 4, 2004We have been gleaning facts "brick by brick" in order to write this story on the housing market and what it all means for Wall Street and the economy. The story...
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