Despite passing a major reform to the Obama-era Dodd-Frank financial regulation, Congress has unfortunately added a few unnecessary, and even risky, clauses to the bill. The one that worries me most classifies investment-grade muni bonds as “high quality liquid assets.” Some, repeat some, muni bonds are high quality assets. Many are not, even some of […]
Erdogan Drives Investors Out of Turkey by Playing Central Banker
Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spooked investors in Turkey by trying to dictate policy to the country’s central bank. With the currency plummeting, his meddling in the central bank process is only making things worse. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board writes: Turkey’s lira fell as much as 5% on Wednesday, and it’s lost […]
What Causes School Shootings? Join the Discussion
My friend Tim Jones, a.k.a. the Stissing Mountain Man, who I profiled for you last month, has a unique take on school shootings. Tim asked on his Facebook feed, what has changed at schools? In the 70s when he attended, students would bring their guns to school and store them in their lockers until they […]
A Warning for the Global Economy
The WSJ Logistics Report raises the red flag on a major warning sign for the global economy. Copper, known as Dr. Copper for having a Ph.D. in economics, has begun falling in price, even while other commodities are rising. Another early indicator of the direction of the world economy, the Baltic Dry Index, has plummeted […]
Wealth Shock! “All of a Sudden Their Wealth is Gone”
You simply cannot afford to take heavy losses in or near retirement. From a financial standpoint the arithmetic of losses is devastating—lose half your portfolio and you need a 100% gain (not likely) to get back to even. Now, a study has been done to show the impact of losing money on one’s health. And […]
Big Government and Globalism: Small Town America in Despair
Small-towns are the casualties of globalism. Industries have been shuttered. Big government, meaning both sides of the aisle, have failed America. Just take a look around on your next road trip. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, explains in the WSJ’s Weekend Interview why he had students visit a failed middle America town: “I wanted […]
Rural Crime Surge Tests Local Police
Rising violent crime in rural areas, likely caused by an increasing use of drugs in those same areas, is stressing local police forces. Shibani Mahtani reports in The Wall Street Journal that local sheriffs and town police are being overwhelmed. This is all the more reason for Americans to get their guns and their training […]
Is Your State’s Pension System about to Collapse?
Katherine Loughead discusses state pension data from The Pew Charitable Trusts at The Tax Foundation. I’ve warned many times that states are under-funding their pensions and using unrealistic expected rates of return to hide their malfeasance (read here, here, here, and here). The low funding ratios are starting to bite. She writes: As of fiscal […]
Your Survival Guy: “My Car was Stolen”
Originally posted on April 27, 2017. “My car was stolen,” is the last thing I want to say to the authorities. Mine wasn’t, thankfully. But how vulnerable am I to car theft? Isn’t it cool that you can start your car with a push of a button? Technology is great. But what happens when the […]
My Concerns as Money Piles Up at Vanguard
Originally posted October 12, 2017. Let the good times roll? Great lyrics from the Cars but it’s a song I can’t get out of my head thinking about the money piling up by the truckload at Vanguard’s back door. We’re talking nearly $300 billion in the first nine months of this year alone. All of […]
The Big Implications of Blockchain
“We’re quite confident that (blockchain) has big, big implications in supply chain, transportation and logistics. In the area where FedEx makes its living, this could be a big deal.” That’s what FedEx CEO Fred Smith told the Consensus 2018 conference in early May. The blockchain technology Smith is excited about was touted by many at […]
Puerto Rico: Self Reliance is the Only Way
The only way Puerto Ricans are seeing their lives improved after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria is if they do it themselves. I’ve written before that survivalists are seeing a real life worst case scenario playing out in Puerto Rico. The lessons that can be taken from Puerto Rico are innumerable. Anyone interested […]