Answer: Pretty Damn Good (If I Say So Myself) January: stocks soar. February: stocks dive. March: stocks soar April: stocks dive. I think you get the idea . . . –Ross Kaplan, “2015 Stock Market Prediction” (12/29/2015) I made that only somewhat whimsical prediction almost exactly a year ago today (367 days, to be precise)....Read More
The King Queen Has No Clothes (Other Than Black) “U.S. Probes Theranos Complaints” —Headline; The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 21, 2015) If you’re not familiar with blood testing start-up Theranos, here’s the Reader’s Digest version: wunderkind founder Elizabeth Holmes drops out of Stanford at 19 years old, comes up with a revolutionary (and vastly cheaper)...Read More
How to Tell if a Seller (or at Least Their Agent) is Around in Late December Just because a house isn’t officially “TNAS” (“Temporarily Not Available for Showing”) doesn’t mean that the owner is around — and available to do a deal, if the Buyer likes the house and wants to make an offer. In...Read More
Investing — or Squandering — “the Energy Dividend” “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” –Stanford economist Paul Romer In the early ’90’s, politicians referred to the savings from reduced defense spending — made possible by the end of the Cold War — as “the Peace Dividend.” Thanks to the crashing price of oil (plus...Read More
Deal Makers & Deal Breakers I don’t know about other housing markets, but at least in the Twin Cities, it’s not customary to include floor plans in MLS listings. In fact, I’d estimate that fewer than 1% of all listings have them. The two exceptions I’m aware of: 1) new construction, especially upper bracket and...Read More