On a cloudless day, when you look across Buzzards Bay from my parents' front deck in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, you can see Woods Hole, a cut in the land separating Cape Cod from the Elizabeth Islands. The “Hole” as it’s commonly referred to by boaters can be a weekend rite of passage, literally, as you are met with strong currents, a narrow channel keeping you off the rocks, and often, too close for comfort to fellow boaters. The reward is Vineyard Sound, your gateway to Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. In the winter, the boating traffic is mostly gone, but the … [Read more...]
Put Schools and Communities in Charge of Their Own Safety
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley writes that the worst thing that could happen as a result of the Parkland shooting is a dominating federal mandate that treats all schools and communities as the same. Towns and cities should develop the security measures necessary for them, and schools should have the ultimate say on whether or not a student with bad behavior may attend. He writes: There are more than 14,000 public school districts across the U.S., and attitudes toward guns in schools vary widely. According to the Pew Research Center, only 16% of adults in the Northeast report … [Read more...]
New Fiduciary Rules Force Annuity Sales Plunge
It turns out, when brokers are forced to look out for your interests instead of their own, they end up selling you fewer annuities. I've been a critic of annuities for years (decades?). Loaded with fees and backed by guarantees that are only as good as the banks behind them, annuities are hawked like a snake-oil retirement solution to unsuspecting investors. I wrote back in 2014 that: The issue is that annuities are sold with a full-court press on those that don’t invest for a living. They’re promised rates of return that sound good on paper but will be wiped out if the insurer goes … [Read more...]
Could this Be the Vanguard GNMA Winning Edge?
Update: 7.1.2020: From Wellington: "Effective at the close of business on June 30, 2020, Michael F. Garrett has retired from Wellington Management Company LLP and no longer serves as a portfolio manager for Vanguard GNMA Fund. Brian Conroy and Joseph F. Marvan remain as the portfolio managers of the Fund." Originally posted June 7, 2017. Do you know Michael F. Garrett? There’s no reason that you should, but to me, the Senior Managing Director at Wellington Management Company LLP in Boston, Massachusetts might be one of the most important names in the fixed-income world today. He’s the … [Read more...]
What Gun Business Owners are Telling Me
When I spoke about the current gun debate with some gun shop owners this week, they pointed out that their customers come from both sides of the political aisle. To them, their customers are pro-gun, whether Democrat or Republican. To them, self-defense is their right. It is not a left or right issue. But the hard-left media makes it sound like every Democrat is against guns. It’s just not true. Also, as one of my business-owner friends pointed out, clouding the issue are the two major retailers that have announced they will stop selling assault rifles. The claim is duplicitous at … [Read more...]
Forbes: Weakening Dollar Trend Isn’t Good
“Everyone understands the basic need for fixed weights and measures in daily life: the amount of liquid in a gallon, the number of ounces in a pound, the number of minutes in an hour. None of these amounts fluctuate; they are unchanging,” writes Steve Forbes. Here’s his latest Fact & Comment on the greenback. The dollar. Markets are finally waking up to the implications of the weak dollar, which has been declining for months. The greenback’s slide has been nowhere as bad as it was in the early 2000s, but the trend isn’t good. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin let the cat out of the bag a … [Read more...]
The F-22 and F-35 Can’t Communicate With Each Other
At the center of every good football team is a quarterback who can pick apart defenses before the ball is even hiked. He’s able to read his opponents, adapt, and communicate audibles on the fly. But what if your quarterback couldn’t speak? The F-22 and the F-35 are looked at as the quarterbacks for the U.S. Air Force. But there’s a problem with these quarterbacks of the sky, they can’t communicate with each other without breaking radio silence. The F-22 can’t transmit its sensitive data to any other aircraft except other F-22s. This limits the F-22 from passing along its “God’s Eye View” to … [Read more...]
New Traveler’s Guide To Gun Laws Available
If you are a gun owner and plan on traveling at all with your firearms, you must understand the laws of the states you are passing through and visiting. There's no better resource available for that than the 2018 Traveler's Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States written by J. Scott Kappas, Esq. The staff of the NRA magazine America's 1st Freedom write of the book: The book, just updated for 2018, helps gun owners stay abreast of the most up-to-date laws for each state. Author J. Scott Kappas presents the information by state, and each entry includes a short checklist of the laws for … [Read more...]
Dividends are on the Rise
Dividends are the backbone of the Retirement Compounders. Now Michael Wursthorn reports in The Wall Street Journal that dividends are on the rise. Dividends are on the rise when investors have fewer reasons to buy the stocks that pay them out. More than a fifth of the companies in the S&P 500 have boosted their dividends to shareholders so far this year, while none have slashed their payouts, a first since 2011, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The increases are getting bigger too, with companies on average raising their payouts by 14%, the biggest jump since 2014. The … [Read more...]
Don’t Put Your Greed too far Ahead of Your Fear
This morning The Wall Street Journal tells the story of Harvey Hajiyan, a financial adviser who has been making big bets in the market on margin. In speaking to the Journal, Hajiyan said a phrase that should be a warning bell to any investor "all the strategists agreed." Any time everyone is in agreement on something, you should pick your head up and take note. Someone isn't pricing in risk properly, and if you're just coasting along with the crowd, that someone is you. Use Mr. Hajiyan's tale as a reminder of what happens when investors put greed too far ahead of fear. The Journal's Michael … [Read more...]
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