Can You Say, “Useless Platitudes?” With the usual onslaught of year-end investing articles, I’ve noticed a sub-genre emerging this year. Namely, advisors who claim that the secret to market-beating performance is “avoiding bear markets” (and implicitly, that parking your money with them is the best way to do that). I suppose the corollary would be,...Read More
My household doesn’t eat ham or bacon, because we avoid eating pig products, which Jewish dietary laws prohibit. But we take some liberties when we eat out, like this morning. So, biting into (apparently) his first piece of real bacon, my 9 nine year-old son excitedly pronounced, “It tastes like Baco’s!” General Mills, owner of...Read More
“The Liquidity Interest Rate Trap” Well I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right, I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair, And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs, Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck...Read More
Regular readers of this blog know that I have a . . . well, quirky sense of humor — plus a love of language, odd constructions thereof, and word plays. In that vein, I’ve written such posts as, “What’s the Past Tense of Sight See?”; “Landmark — or Watermark?”; “Dried vs. MORE Dried Apricots“; and...Read More
Precocious Kids If you have young kids, you don’t need to be told when Winter Break officially began (for us, 3:16 p.m. Central yesterday). My 9 year-old son is already complaining that his 7 year-old sister is a tattle tale (“Mommy, Gabriel’s watching the iPad again when you said not to”). As a parent, I...Read More
The best thing about getting out-of-town for a few days, pre-holidays? (My wife is a physical therapist, who works Christmas Day and New Year’s, so we squeeze in vacations at other times). Empty roads (to and from Chicago), and short lines (or none) for restaurants, museums, etc. The worst? Upon my return, waiting in line...Read More
