As long-time clients and readers know, we routinely try to explain that contrary to what many believe, the purpose of the media is NOT to educate and inform but rather the purpose is to sell advertising space. The Trayvon Martin shooting has dominated the news for weeks.  While we still may not know the truth about what happened [...]

We don’t know what the coming “crisis” will be. We only know that there’s always a “crisis” right around the corner.  Just like “Breaking News”, it has to be something.  We’ve been in a bit of a calmer period the last couple of months. Sure, there have been issues out there but none that has [...]

Many of you are familiar with our frequent reminder that we do not believe “it’s different this time”. Indeed, as avid economic and investment historians, one of our strongest beliefs is that history repeats with startling similarity. Though some minor details may change, human behavior is remarkably the same, decade after decade. That said, there [...]

If you like roller coaster rides, 2011 has been your year.  There were some 232 trading days between the start of 2011 and December 1, 2011.  Of those, 36, or a whopping 15.5% were 200+ point days on the Dow – either up or down.  With roughly 21 trading days in the average month, that means [...]