Insights

Ron White of Blue Collar comedy fame has claimed that “people learn things” when he drinks. As an example, he cites the time a cab driver learned that when Ron says, “I gotta yak,” it doesn’t mean he has a hairy buffalo tied up in his backyard.

For months now, markets have been made well aware that the Fed would end QE2 on June 30. During the same period, we’ve heard from all kinds of pundits that rates will have to rise once such a large buyer of Treasuries is taken out of the markets.

The economy continues to grow, but — using the Fed's language — at a "measured pace" ...

Watching the quotes flit by on my Bloomberg last Wednesday regarding the FOMC meeting, I must admit to being quite bored. This was a very unusual and unsettling feeling as I typically enjoy market events — whether good or bad.

Last week, a client asked me to describe what I thought would happen if Treasuries defaulted. Naturally and somewhat defensively, I launched into all the reasons I thought this wouldn’t happen. But that wasn’t the point of the question. The point was “what if it did?”

A few years ago, I was driving in San Francisco when someone ran a red light, hitting me in the driver's side. Luckily, we both were uninjured, but this had become such an epidemic throughout the city that the mayor eventually took action.

In the late 1500s, the first tulip bulbs came to Holland from Turkey, setting in motion events that would lead to what was perhaps the first full-fledged bubble in world history.

With the news last week that Standard & Poor's put the United States of America on "negative outlook" regarding its AAA rating still lingering in the air, I'm wondering why this is so important.