You’ll want to pay attention to this weekend’s election in Iceland where “a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians and Web geeks”, or the Pirate Party, may soon be king, reports The Washington Post. In a year where Brexit, Edward Snowden, and Donald Trump roll off the tongue, politics as usual is history. Citizens of the world feel their political system is not only rigged, but that the system is rigged against them. On a recent flight home from Paris, I re-watched the movie The Big Short based on the book of the same title by Michael Lewis (author of my favorites Moneyball and Liar’s … [Read more...]
Monday 6:30am: It’s A Brand New Day
You’ll get your first view of U.S. third-quarter economic growth this week. The U.S. economy advanced at a pathetic 1.1% rate through the first half of the year. The Atlanta Fed cut its estimate to 2.4% from 2.8%. In any event, looking at an eighth straight quarter of growth below 3% is not very exciting. I like to think about GDP at the basic level, as though it’s a paycheck. Imagine two workers, A and B over their 40-year careers. If A can increase his salary by 4%, then after 40-years he will have increased it five times vs worker B’s doubling it after growing at only 2%. Time, and a … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: Survival is Your Friend
“I was married for thirty years, with three children and a house to manage and doing lots of charity work. Then came the divorce…” a reader wrote to me. I called her up this week and we talked. Our conversation wasn’t about her divorce. In fact it only came up once. We talked more about the success of her family and the financial independence they have achieved. But as she tells it, when she talks with them about their childhood they tell her it wasn’t always the best. I asked her what she meant by that. She said, "We didn’t have a lot of extra money for expensive vacations.” She explained, … [Read more...]
There is Only One Vanguard
We are often asked why we like Vanguard and Fidelity. Below is an excerpt from the February 2014 issue of Richard C. Young's Intelligence Report in which Dick Young explains his history with Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group. As we all know, there is only one Vanguard. P.P.S. In 2014, investors poured $216 billion into the Vanguard Group, which today is #1 in index-tracking products. I have been with Vanguard from the start. Vanguard founder Jack Bogle was at Wellington Management back in the early seventies in Boston. Wellington was an institutional account of mine in the years I was … [Read more...]
Debate #3: What Stood out the Most
No sooner did I turn the TV off after the third debate and my phone lit up with this Boston Globe breathless alert: “Donald Trump refuses to say if he’ll accept election results!” I wouldn’t have been surprised if the next alert was: “And he called Hillary ‘such a nasty woman!’” Those are the two most talked about issues by the media post debate. Not the fact that this is all about the Supreme Court, which Donald Trump clearly pointed out and that if Hillary wins we can kiss the Second Amendment goodbye. What was disappointing about this one was how much more Donald Trump could have done. He … [Read more...]
How Millennials Really Feel about this Election
Nearly a third of Millennials back the idea of socialism, and fewer than half support capitalism. That's terrifying for the future of this country! But there is evidence to suggest that Millennials simply don't know very much about either concept. Using more descriptive labels like "free-market system" and "government-managed economy," in place of capitalism and socialism respectively, Millenials were much more likely to choose free markets over government. Christopher Koopman explains the distressing story here in The Wall Street Journal. For many, capitalism isn’t about free enterprise, nor … [Read more...]
Cyber Attacks: Are You Safe with Vanguard?
October is Cyber Security awareness month. There's probably no online account more important for you to protect than your retirement nest egg. It's your life's savings, and everything you've been working toward for decades. See here how Vanguard protects clients' data and accounts from cyber attack. … [Read more...]
Why Hillary is Not Worthy of Your Vote: Part II
It’s not every day that you see an anti-Hillary op-ed in the WSJ from, of all people and places, a professor at Yale. That’s what caught my attention in the excellent article by David Gelernter, computer science professor at Yale which I posted for you yesterday. Imagine the teeth grinding and emails from the the staff at Yale. How could he write that? This morning, as if on cue, the president of Yale Peter Salovey has a piece in the WSJ titled “Yale Believes In Free Speech—and So Do I.” It might as well be titled “My Job Is On the Line, David Gelernter Is Crazy!” Here's some of what … [Read more...]
October is Cyber Security Month: Advice from Fidelity
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which I discovered logging in to my account this morning at Fidelity Investments. I thought you’d like to read their recommendations. The easiest part of protecting yourself is choosing a rugged, unique password. By rugged I mean a password that isn't something easily guessed by a hacker's word-list. Examples of easily guessed passwords that are used often are things like "password," "1234," "default," or "1111." Read more below from Fidelity about protecting your accounts with a strong password. Do not reuse passwords Make sure you use … [Read more...]
Ukrainian Firm Develops Handheld Automatic Grenade Launcher
Kiev-based company Precision Systems has developed a new, handheld version of the Russian-made KBP AGS-17 30 mm automatic grenade launcher, which was displayed for the first time at Ukraine's AviaSvit/Arms and Security show, held in Kiev from 11 to 14 October. Speaking to IHS Jane's at the show, company officials said this handheld variant, designated the RGSh30, was developed "in order to create a grenade launcher that could respond to the needs of Ukrainian units and special forces operating in the Donbas". They added that this smaller and more portable derivative of the Russian model has … [Read more...]
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