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Today’s Headlines Are Tomorrow’s Footnotes

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I have been reading a collection of investment articles that were written back in the early 1990s. Here’s the gist of those articles. The bull market had gone on for about 10+ years to that point. The markets were coming off of a five-year span of ‘unprecedented volatility’ as was noted a few times. There were negative reports everywhere about the economy and how things were stalling out. People eagerly… Read More

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Quick Thought on the National Debt

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Recently, I have seen the graphic below floating around and heard various comments about how dire the situation is and wanted to provide one quick rebuttal (for lack of a better word). But first, let me show you the apocalypse du jour graphic. This chart shows the National Debt growing from less than $1 trillion in 1971 up to our current debt of approximately $23 trillion. Alarming, right? Maybe. That’s… Read More

Why Are We Still Listening?

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A great graphic made it’s way around the internet via the Wall Street Journal. The graphic shows the predictions from 50 economists on the direction of interest rates. How did they do? NOT A SINGLE ECONOMIST WAS EVEN IN THE BALLPARK! Every single day, pundits go on TV saying what they believe will happen with complete confidence that their prediction is going to be correct. Apparently, accuracy is hard to… Read More

The World is Changing For the Better & Why It Matters To You

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I wanted to draw your attention to a few graphs, all of which come from OurWorldInData.org via this article, “The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it” by Max Roser. I have a simple question for you at the end. Question to Ponder: Despite “what we think we know” about the world, these are the prevailing trends. For me, this begs the question… Read More

You have to think really hard to be pessimistic right now

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As I insinuated in my post three weeks ago, the media has a dichotomistic (made that word up) way of looking at the market. We’re either nowhere near the top or it’s all going to hell in a handbasket. The middle ground is pretty much nonexistent because it doesn’t sell advertising. So, each day, they choose one of two templates - pander to fear or cater to greed. Given the typical information… Read More