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With Halloween in the rearview mirror now, it makes you wonder: why do we like to be scared so much in the first place? Experts will tell you there are several reasons, but basically fear works on our bodies like a stimulant. When we get frightened, a lot starts to occur in us physically. Our […]
It’s hard to stay focused on a lot of things, including the markets, in the face of the human tragedy like what we’ve witnessed from Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath over the last few weeks in South Texas, in the greater Houston area, and into Louisiana. For the people who lived through it, the storm […]
Let’s quickly touch on economic and capital markets news and then move to a feature on Amazon, which just celebrated its 20 year anniversary as a publicly listed company last month. US ECONOMY The U.S. economy is growing, but not at a rate strong enough to please policy makers. GDP growth in the first quarter […]
According to traditional etymology, the month of April derives its name from the Latin verb aperire which means “to open”. This makes sense as April is known as the month when trees and flowers begin to bloom in earnest. The blooming that dominated this April 2016 economy involved geopolitics as much as horticulture, however. Tensions […]
Spring Has Sprung. The experts will tell you that springtime began on March 20th for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s the day each spring when the Sun shines directly on the equator and the day is evenly divided between day time and night time. Another way to think of this […]
As Chinese New Year celebrations wind down, it’s fitting to recall an expression that has been attributed to the Chinese for generations. The expression “May you live in interesting times” has an origin that is, ironically, interesting itself. Regardless of its origin, upon closer examination, the expression seems not to be a blessing at all, […]
Albert Camus, the French philosopher and author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, probably had October on his mind when he wrote: “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Camus died in January of 1960, so his last October among the living was in 1959. If he’d have […]
This is Part Two of a two-part series on the Student Debt Crisis now facing America. In Part One, we looked at how bad the problem really is and how we got here. In this second installment, we’ll look at proposed student loan debt solutions and how with some good planning you can avoid becoming […]
This is Part One of a two-part series on the Student Loan Debt Crisis now facing America. In this piece, we’ll look at how bad the problem really is and how we got here. In Part Two, we’ll look at proposed fixes and how with some good planning you can avoid or at least take […]
The New Protectionism: Who Does It Help? Who Does It Hurt?
The United States recently imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines from China, a move likely to drive up the prices of these goods. Although their American manufacturers will probably see increased unit sales and revenues, U.S.-based makers of other products that ship around the world might not share that wealth because other countries […]