ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
July 28, 2024 | A Sticky Last Mile
“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’” “’I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” ―Lewis Carroll This week we find our […]
July 21, 2024 | Going, Not Gone
The ability to choose our goods and services is fundamental to economics. The freer we are to make choices, the more the economy should prosper. That’s because our choices tell producers what works. Modern science muddies this pleasantly clear water. Behavioral economists talk about a phenomenon called “decision fatigue.” It turns out we humans would […]
July 14, 2024 | Attitude Adjustments
We are in the time of year when Americans pack transatlantic airliners for their European vacations. I had actually hoped to be one of them. That didn’t work out but we can still talk about events in Europe. And we probably should, because potentially major changes are happening. Maybe I should say more changes are happening. Europe has already […]
July 7, 2024 | Meditations on Independence
I am writing this letter on the afternoon of July 4th, so it is natural to think about our government and independence. I want to comment on the Chevron case which is blowing up my X (Twitter) feed as well as my news feeds, both for and against. It is both less and more than […]
June 30, 2024 | Debtors and Creditors
The giant federal debt we’ve been talking about isn’t just borrowed money. It is also lent money. Loans are two-party transactions. One side receives temporary use of cash which it agrees to repay with interest. The other gives up the current use of that cash in exchange for receiving interest. Ideally, it works out for both… […]
June 23, 2024 | This Time Is (Not) Different
The old saw about doing the same thing and expecting a different result is less simple than it seems. Sometimes you need a few attempts to get it right. Nevertheless, when you see a long succession of smart people doing the same thing and getting the same bad result, it’s fair to wonder what they […]
June 16, 2024 | The Coming Supercyclical Crisis
You know I’m highly concerned about government debt in the developed world, particularly the US. I’ve said for years a crisis is coming. We’ve blown right past all our chances to avoid it. Now all we can do is imagine what the crisis will look like… and how much it will hurt. This is necessarily […]
June 9, 2024 | Geopolitical Breakdown
’m writing you from Cape Town, South Africa, where I’ve been warmly welcomed and reminded how much I enjoy international travel (well, except for jet lag!). Our world has so many wonders most people never get to experience. Of course, “there’s no place like home,” but seeing other places makes me happy, too. Yet this […]
June 2, 2024 | Inflationary Perceptions
A quandary of writing a weekly letter is I notice myself saying the same things repeatedly. Something comes to mind as I write, I start to include it, and then I vaguely remember, “Wait, didn’t I say that last month/quarter/year?” I check and sure enough, it’s right there. Should I say it again? There’s no […]