Investors, Savers Between a Rock & a Hard Place I have no idea where the stock market is headed from here (and neither does anyone else). But, in the event that it suffers a sharp break — possibly in connection with the playing out of central bank stimuli — I have no doubt what at...Read More
The “TINA” Stock Market: More Record Highs “As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.” –Former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince; July, 2007 Investors who remember what happened the last time the music stopped are — to put it mildly — ambivalent as they watch major stock indices march ever-higher...Read More
David Stockman: ‘Get Out of the Markets & Hide Out in Cash’ “The United States is broke ” fiscally, morally, intellectually. When the latest bubble pops, there will be nothing to stop the collapse.” –David Stockman, “State-Wrecked: the Corruption of Capitalism in America“; The New York Times (March 30, 2013) The scary prediction above comes...Read More
Waiting For Wall Street to “Pull an OJ” “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” –Joseph Welch, head counsel for the U.S. Army, to Senator Joseph McCarthy; Army-McCarthy Hearings (June 9, 1954) With that one, withering rebuke, Joseph Welch spelled the beginning of the end...Read More
“The Senate’s Muckraker” Against a backdrop of epic Wall Street corruption and captured regulators — just look at the resumes of the top 20 SEC officials, starting with Mary Jo White, nominated by Barack Obama to lead the agency — it’s easy to forget that there also good guys out there. Former Senator Ted Kaufman,...Read More
Taxing (Wall Street) Labor at Capital Gains Rates: “Heads I Win, Tails I Don’t Lose” Of all the disingenuous, self-serving, cockamamie lies arguments served up by the leveraged buyout — er, private equity — crowd to protect the (very) favorable tax treatment on their labor (called “carried interest”), the one that rankles the most is...Read More
