economy

Preparing for Profits in a Resource-Constrained World: Part 1 of 2

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} Two months ago or so, a friend directed my attention to Jeremy Grantham’s GMO Quarterly Newsletter for April, 2011 titled “Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever.” … Read more

Not Yet Useful to Correlate the Unemployment Rate to the Outcome of Presidential Elections

I keep hearing the ominous statistic that no sitting U.S. President has ever won an election with unemployment over 7.2%. I finally decided to look more closely at the numbers after I read another version of this statistic that said no U.S. President since the 1930s has ever won an election with unemployment over 7.2%. … Read more

Governor King Still Gives Me Plenty of Reason for Remaining Bearish on the Pound

On June 15, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King spoke at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House. The speech covered very familiar themes for King and the Bank of England. King first acknowledged the squeeze on the economy in the United Kingdom: “The challenge … Read more

Clueless, No Cushion, Not Enough Self-Control: Challenges In Managing Personal Finances

On Friday, PBS Newshour aired a fascinating piece called “‘Sesame Street’ Tells You How to Get to Sunnier Days Financially.” The title is quite deceptive given the valuable and revealing information and research described in this piece. Newshour provides background by citing some earlier studies on the limited financial education of Americans, our extremely low … Read more