It’s been 10 years since I devoted a week to the theme of The Rot Within(September 17, 2007). Back in 2007, I listed 16 systemic sources of rot in our society, politics and economy; none have been fixed. Instead, the gaping…
One person’s bubble is another person’s “fair market value.” What is clearly an outrageously overvalued asset perched at nosebleed levels of central-bank fueled speculative euphoria is to the owner an asset at “fair market value.” But beneath the euphoric confidence…
It’s an article of quasi-religious faith in tech circles that a few of the hundreds of start-ups touting their “disruptive” potential will blossom into super-profitable giants like Google and Facebook, or fast-growing companies like AirBnB that may not yet have…
Panicked by the possibility of declines that undermine the official narrative that all is well, authorities the world over are purchasing assets like stocks, bonds and mortgages directly. Central banks are explicitly taking on the role of buyers of last…
The actual line from Shakespeare’s Macbeth is double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble but for the purposes of analyzing what happens when authorities prop up market bubbles by directly buying assets, bubble, bubble, toil and trouble…
Those who say there are only two sure things in life, death and taxes, should add a third sure thing: realtors and stock market mavens will deny there’s a bubble even when it’s obvious to everyone the bubble has already…
My advice is to focus not on retiring comfortably, but on working comfortably. You’ve probably seen articles and adverts discussing how much money you’ll need to “retire comfortably.” The trick of course is the definition of comfortable. The general idea…
Blowing speculative bubbles cannot possibly lead to organic growth because speculative bubbles fatally undermine the real economy. An astute reader recently posed an insightful question: we all know who benefits from asset bubbles in stocks, bonds and real estate–owners of…