Once again the Dow failed to hold onto the action zone’s midpoint, dropping 284 points or 2.5%. The 15-51 Indicator lost 1.3%, with construction, industrial, financials, and energy leading the decline. One reason the stock market sold off today was the Federal Reserve’s announcement to employ “Operation Twist” – the act of selling short term duration...Read More

There is an old saying: a problem identified is mostly resolved.  It’s simply impossible to fix an unknown problem. That’s where we start. The problems with the American market are simple. It’s: over-regulated over-taxed, and over-leveraged This can be seen by: lackluster economic growth high unemployment weak currency In a nutshell, the free market has little room to operate,...Read More

“The market” is up about 9% in the past twelve months.  But it doesn’t feel like it. Recent volatility makes it seem like a terrible year. Of course, most mutual funds don’t produce returns close to the DJIA. Mutual funds aren’t built for performance. They’re built to make Wall Street a lot of money.  In LOSE YOUR BROKER NOT YOUR...Read More

Well, we know one thing for certain: When you raise the debt ceiling you are guaranteed to end up with more debt.   Whether or not President Obama’s most recent spending bill is a good idea is not worth debate. Since 2008 the US government has spent an unprecedented amount of money to revive the economy –...Read More

The word “stimulus” has been completely dropped from today’s political vocabulary. “Jobs” is the word of the day. But wasn’t that the point all along? President Obama’s first stimulus package, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, had a specific purpose – to stop unemployment from reaching 8% by investing in “shovel ready” projects....Read More

Sep 09, 2011 I know, a Bernanke-Obama tag team is enough to shake anyone’s confidence. It certainly shook mine. The Dow lost more than 300 points today, which represents a drop of 2.7%. This is the negative mojo I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. Today was no shock to me. I saw both speeches yesterday. Bernanke gave little details about the “tools”...Read More

On a day that found little good in the news, Standard & Poors delivered the biggest blow by downgrading Italy’s sovereign debt, citing “weak economic growth” and a “fragile government.” Add to this the troubles in Greece, Spain, and Portugal – not to mention France and a frustrated Germany. Europe is in big trouble right...Read More

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”— Thomas Paine In my soon to be bestselling book, LOSE YOUR BROKER NOT YOUR MONEY, I reiterate what so many patriots have before me: governments never have enough control over man, over People, and over Markets. The natural instinct of government is to control people and their...Read More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 245 points or 2.47% on a day that boasted these two contradictory WSJ headlines:             Good News Boosts Stocks             Fed’s Beige Book Points to Sluggish Growth First, most markets offer mixed signals to investors consistently. Keep that in mind. Second, market conditions do not change in a single day. In...Read More

How many times have you heard class warfare proposing to tax businesses more, and to raise taxes on “rich” people (those making more than $250,000 per year, according to President Obama) to fill the budget gap in America?  Businesses versus People. Rich versus Poor. And I’m sick of it. First, businesses do not pay taxes...Read More