Did the Fed “Buy Itself a Landslide?” “Dear Jack: Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.” —JFK quoting a made-up telegram from his father, Joseph Kennedy, after he first won election to Congress. As far as I’m concerned — and I know a lot of...Read More
Where Are Interest Rates Headed in 2014? There’s no mileage in being contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian. But, it’s uncanny — at least to me — how often conventional wisdom has a way being foiled. In that regard . . . there certainly seems to be a broad consensus at the moment...Read More
Addicted to (Spoiled By?) Ultra-Low Interest Rates Two years ago, when the shortage of housing inventory in the Twin Cities first became apparent, the leading theory was that underwater homeowners literally couldn’t afford to sell.* Now that local housing prices have rebounded significantly, that theory . . . umm, holds less water. With current Twin Cities housing inventory the...Read More
“If you’re going to take a bath . . . fill the tub.” –old business(?) advice Under previous Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the Fed quite clearly conducted monetary policy so as to support the stock market (many commentators — myself included — think they overdid it; see, “2013 Person of the...Read More
Stock Market Non-Predictions, Over-Predictions, and Other Tricks of the Trade “Predictions are hard, especially about the future.” –Yogi Berra Apparently, there are two ways to be beat a polygraph (lie detector) test: 1) be a truly “cool cucumber,” who is absolutely non-reactive to every conceivable question; or 2) wildly overreact to every question, so that...Read More
“For Better” . . . For Now “The person, group, idea or object that for better or for worse . . . has done the most to influence the events of the year.” –Time magazine’s criteria for selecting its “Person of the Year.” My selection for 2013 person of the year is Federal Reserve Chair...Read More
