Category Archives: Uncategorized

People love to rail about the evils of shareholder capitalism.  Very few stop to consider the real source of that evil.  It is rarely the shareholder side of the equation.  It is almost invariably management. The formal name for this … Continue reading →

I’ve been worried about a “boardroom recession.”  The actual numbers show a decent/improving US consumer economy.  If nothing else, billions trillions of consumer stimulus from cheap oil.*  So how to explain the widespread gloom I encountered at a recent institutional investor conference?** … Continue reading →

Bank stocks are way down globally.  An apparent mystery!  Why?  A raft of research and commentary.  Impending recession?  Are oil bust bankruptcies big enough to cause systemic crisis?  The rot of Europe’s “extend and pretend” response to the Euro crisis?  China about … Continue reading →

A conversation today sparked some thoughts around sentiment inflation, negative rates, etc… So I am blatantly recycling them here.  Happy Valentines Day! I just spent the last 3 days at an institutional investors conference and boy are they a bearish … Continue reading →

Lets review the facts. The Iowa caucuses confirm that there are a lot of angry American voters out there – Right and Left. The market tanks 2% the next day. None of my market-focused news/commentary sources draw any connection between “1” and “2” above. … Continue reading →

My much awaited “brilliant” post on the oil price plunge.  Actually a brain flash I wish I’d had 6 months ago. Oil is in a recursive downward spiral until a (very) rational (Saudi) actor decides to stop the cycle. The “stop” signal(s) will … Continue reading →

So I was going to post something brilliant about oil, but today’s NYTimes has a page A12 story that bears watching.   Lawsuits Claim Disney Colluded to Replace U.S. Workers With Immigrants. Cheap tech labor has long enjoyed a governmental blind … Continue reading →

Markets are down to start the year and we’ve got a whole range of fun, new macro worries.  China!  Oil!  Weak retail!  Aieeeee!  I think this will all turn out to be of concern, but not deadly.  6-12 months ago … Continue reading →

First a clarification after my recent post.  I am NOT “flat broke and unemployed.”  At least not yet 🙂  The 2nd half of my post yesterday was a quote from another blogger –  “The Coppola Comment“.  As a follow up to … Continue reading →

I have tried hard to NOT cross-post, but this commentary just nailed it so…  More specifically, he nailed the terrifying over-reliance on central banks and inexcusable, indefensible, incorrigible, and incoherent inertness of fiscal policy.  The idea of stimulus (e.g. borrowing at near-zero … Continue reading →