Astute Investor

Caution!!!!! It is beginning and it’s already here. Inflation that is. It brings up mental images of a Godzilla-like creature stomping down our streets and striking terror in all of us. While maybe not that bad, but it is certainly here and coming for you. We might actually call this the Second Phase of Inflation.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick of all the virus and vaccine talk. People get a little nuts when the subject comes up. Everyone has a strong opinion about it, it’s pretty equally divided, and nobody is changing their mind. It seems that people are really touchy about this subject. This has been true for a while, but it is still true. Everybody needs to chill out a little.

If you have ever studied the history of the US Federal Reserve, you would have learned that the Fed is supposed to be independent. Sometimes it is, to a degree, and sometimes it isn’t. The current Fed is constrained by politics.  What is the worst thing in the world for the Fed? People losing their jobs.

There has been a lot of talk lately about commission-free trades by some firms. Now, I like free stuff as much as anybody, but is “free” really free? You need to know about this. There are a number of firms jumping on this bandwagon, and one that has been in the news a lot for about three years is the online brokerage firm Robinhood. Many others are doing the same thing, but Robinhood seems to be getting the most publicity.

In 1883, Yale Professor of Political Economy and Sociology William Graham Sumner wrote an essay that could easily have been written for today. He wrote against the so-called “progressives” of his day and defended what was then called “classical liberalism.”

When I was a young stockbroker and commodities trader in the late 1970s, I became aware of a mathematical formula called Fibonacci ratios. What a great Italian name! It just rolls off the tongue like it should be a great Italian dish or a fine wine instead of mathematics.

Well, we all knew this was coming—I mean, the people running around like crazies screaming about hyperinflation and what you need to do to protect yourself. Usually, it means that you need to buy gold, silver, Bitcoin, or some other thing that will “protect you” from the inflation boogeyman. Please stop, take a deep breath,…

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “When should I start taking my social security?” Like most people, I’m sure you paid a lot into the system over your working lifetime, and you want to get the maximum amount for the longest period of time. So, do you take the benefits early,…

Most people think that information is a good thing and more is better. While generally true, there comes a point when too much news can be harmful to your investment performance, unless it’s coming from me, of course. Between numerous financial news outlets, both in print and on TV, there is no shortage of financial…

There has been a considerable amount of talk lately about potential higher inflation coming, and the anticipation of that has been reflected in the bond market. In early 2020, before any of us had ever heard the word Covid or Pandemic, the yield on the U.S. 10 year Treasury bond was approximately 1.75 percent. As…