Stock prices and yields are key indicators of economic vitality. In healthy markets they move together higher during expansions, and lower during downturns. These are both choreographed moves from central government planners as well as natural results from free market activity. Investors are naturally pulled towards higher rewards – and nothing outperforms the stock market...Read More

Last week Dow Jones announced that Apple will replace battered telecom giant AT&T in the Industrial Average. The change will take place on March 19, 2015, and while most theories regarding the change point to the impending 4-to-1 stock-split of another Dow component (Visa), I suggest a very different motive: Poor Performance. See below. There is...Read More

Several weeks ago President Obama gave his State of the Union speech and according to him all is hunky-dory. He touted the fastest growing economy since the tech boom, the strongest labor market since 1999, and shrinking deficits for the first time since the Great Recession. Either Obama is living in a different world than...Read More

Gold has quietly risen 12% from its 52-week low reached just a few months ago, on November 5, 2014. In that time yields have dropped a whopping 24%, also with little fanfare. But stocks, again, stole the headlines. Volatility is the theme. The Dow Average has been up a point or down a point more...Read More

Two Wall Street Journal articles recently crossed the wire that reinforce the overriding themes in my book: mutual funds stink, and no one can do a better job managing your financial assets than you can because no one cares more for your financial well-being than you do. Let the following stream of consciousness serve as...Read More

Stocks got slammed this week on the good news that oil prices continued to drop. Oil is now just $57 per barrel, down 50% from a year ago. Yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.8% in the week and 15-51 Strength lost 2.9%. Gold added 2.6% and yields dropped sharply, again. The 10 Year...Read More

There is little doubt that the recent drop in fuel prices has significantly affected economic activity to the upside. Gas prices around my market have dropped more than a dollar per gallon. That gives consumers an extra $100 to $200 per month to distribute to other sectors of the market economy – and with the...Read More

Those who haven’t yet appreciated the recently released statements by Jonathon Gruber should know that the chief architect of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare, or the ACA) testified that law could only be passed by means of fraud, deception, and “the stupidity of the American voter.” How Gruber’s provocative admission isn’t plastered all over...Read More

Volatility has once again found the stock market – and again, contradictory new reports are at the core. On Wednesday, October 22, 2014, the Wall Street Journal online posted an article entitled, Clouds Darken for America’s Blue-Chip Stocks, citing weak results for traditional powerhouse stocks like AT&T, Coca-Cola, IBM, Wal-Mart, and General Electric. The article went...Read More

Reoccurring themes in the markets continued to play out again this week: the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9% – and labor participation didn’t change a bit; it’s still at 40 year lows. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted lower global output warning “high debt, high unemployment…and mounting risks in the financial sector could spell years...Read More