Investor CAFÉ Newsletters
Why I Hate Taxes and Tax Collectors!
“Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure.” — Mark & Jo Ann Skousen, “Persuasion vs. Force” We constantly hear about the need for tax reform but never really get it. The U.S. Tax Code gets more complex every year, whether it’s […]
GO Faster than GDP
U.S. economic activity advanced 5.2% in third quarter 2014, according to U.S. government economic data released today. Gross Output (GO), a broadened measure of U.S. economic activity published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), grew to nearly $31.3 trillion in the third quarter of 2014, a 5.2% jump in real terms (annualized). The GO […]
Wild Ride on Wall Street: When Will it Recover?
Wall Street is going through a period of adjustment with the collapse in oil prices and threat of rising interest rates. But I don’t think the latest instability will derail the bull market in stocks. I’m still 100% invested. Gold is also rallying, but it’s hard to say how long it will last. Certainly, gold […]
The World’s Most Dangerous Tax
I attended the American Economic Association (AEA) meetings in Boston during the past weekend, and the session on possible “secular stagnation” in the United States was standing-room only. Prominent economists, including Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and president of Harvard University, pointed to several negative trends in America: lower productivity, decline in new […]
Incredible Prediction for 2015
“A wise trader never ceases to study general conditions.” — Jesse Livermore Every July at FreedomFest, we bring in the best forecasters in the business to tell us what to expect in the next year. For example, in 2007, right before the financial crisis, three of our top speakers — Peter Schiff, Bert Dohmen and […]
Another First on CNBC, Thanks to Rick Santelli
Rick Santelli, CNBC’s commentator on interest rates, is the father of the “tea party” after his rant in 2009 against the government bailouts. Now he is a new supporter of my Gross Output statistic. A few weeks ago, he said on the air that consumer spending drives the economy because “consumption is two-thirds of the economy.” […]
Janet Santa is Coming to Town: A Christmas Gift for You
“As long as the Fed is targeting another bubble in stocks in the name of a ‘wealth effect,’ we can expect this dance to continue.” –Charles Bilello, Yahoo Finance I was talking to a Citibank analyst last week, and he was convinced that “King Dollar” and the sharp decline in energy prices will be a […]
Is a Stock Market Correction Due?
“I think in 2015 we’ll have our first correction.” — Jeremy Siegel on CNBC With the collapse in oil prices (down 40% in the past two months) and energy service stocks, Wall Street has sold off again. Although it’s too early to tell when the next correction hits the stock market, it could happen at […]
New Government Statistic Predicts Boom Ahead
“For forecasting, the new measure [Gross Output] may be more helpful than the GDP measure, because it provides information of goods in process.” — David Colander (Middlebury College) Gross Output (GO), a broader measure of U.S. economic activity published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, advanced to nearly $30.9 trillion in the second quarter of […]
Neither Easy Money Nor Tight Money
“Ni Democracia ni Dictadura” — Graffiti on wall in Rosario, Argentina I spent a week in Rosario, Argentina, attending and speaking at an Austrian economics conference (www.austrianeconomicsconference.org). About 100 scholars, students and professors gathered at the conference, organized by Frederico Fernandez at the Catholic University. Speakers included Benjamin Powell of Texas Tech University (who spoke about […]
