“Never mistake a wish for a certainty.” -Maggie Smith, as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey POINTS TO PONDER 1. Irrespective of the punk jobs number last week, it does appear US consumer spending ended 2013 on a robust… Read More

“If the experience of the past few years teaches us anything, it is that we should be cautious in our forecasts.” – BEN BERNANKE, in his final official speech last week. Time rolls on! One of my friends has a less than elegant… Read More

“It is the long-term investor, he who most promotes the public interest, who will in practice come in for the most criticism. For it is in the essence of his behavior that he should be eccentric, unconventional and rash in the eyes of average opinion.” – JOHN… Read More

The Merriest Christmas On Record Louis Gave The United Nations recently released a heartening update on its “millennium goals” for the developing world, with many of its 2015 targets on the way to being met, or indeed already met. The target to halve the number… Read More

“It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” -CHARLES DARWIN POINTS TO PONDER 1. Although the US energy renaissance is now well known, it is nonetheless impressive to view the degree… Read More

“Unfortunately, Mr. Paul has maintained his consistency by ignoring reality, clinging to his ideology even as the facts have demonstrated that ideology’s wrongness…” -PAUL KRUGMAN, referring to Ron Paul “The Fed never admits it, and the Congress disregards it out of ignorance, but the serious harm done… Read More

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” -GEORGE BERNARD SHAW ‘Tis the Season. There’s just something about the holidays that makes it difficult to dwell on things… Read More

“We have nothing to fear but the notion that there is nothing to fear.”   -ED  YARDENI, Noted economist and stock market strategist “The less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we should conduct our own affairs.” -WARREN BUFFETT “It’s the… Read More

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” -RONALD REAGAN “Monetary policy cannot be coherent unless fiscal policy is.”   TOM SARGENT, Nobel-laureate economist… Read More

“Stock market bubbles don’t grow out of thin air. They have a solid basis in reality, but reality as distorted by a misconception.”  -GEORGE SOROS, billionaire investor “The problem with bubbles is that they force one to decide whether to look like an idiot before the peak, or an idiot… Read More