Early last week the L.A. Times ran a feature penned by columnist Kathy Kristof that amounts to little more than encomium for John Bogle and a pile of Bogle quotes distilled into personal finance pabulum in which the mutual fund demigod pushes the same old line. And what does Bogle have to say?  “The short version: [...]

As the sullied tapestry of the proposed healthcare reform has unfurled over the last year, by all accounts the average American has become much more politically engaged.  Heightened partisan animosity among people and politicians (who may be an exception to the former classification), yes; but not without a salutary byproduct: whatever their position and approach, [...]

For a trader who believes analytical austerity is a practice to foster and goal to strive after, I end up with a remarkable amount of lines on my charts.  Lines are a representation of insight, and aside from naked candles and open outcry are the market in the purest form I know.  But, they’re static: [...]

Something happens when you move out. And marry. And have kids. Your parents and other members of your immediate (nevermind extended and the further outliers with whom you’ve an acquaintance by some nominal genetic coincidence) family become other. Their habits are not yours. Their preferences in food, music, film, topics and manner of conversation (or [...]

“It’s going to be a while before we’re confident we’re going to have a strong, sustainable recovery in place,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, according to a transcript of an interview with “CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS” show. I’m sure it was a syntactical goof on Timmy’s part, but let’s break it down anyway, because [...]

Rather than reciting the litany of reasons I’ve been MIA the past couple of months, I’ll simply note that the usual responsibilities of work, marriage, children, good weather and the more casual alternative to blogging that is Twitter all converged in late March to push me out of the blogging game for a spell. That’s [...]

At least, according to the tortured and dangerously ill-informed calculus of Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)  As I mentioned a few weeks ago Defazio reintroduced a bill under H.R. 1068 on 02/13/2009 proposing a 0.25% “financial-transaction tax” that had fallen off the table when the previous Congressional session closed. In that post, I enjoined any U.S.-based [...]

In the habits of fragmentary treatment and erratic frequency characteristic of this blog – especially when I find myself here on Saturdays – we continue the analysis of whatever vaguely market-related subject happens to capture my attention within an indeterminate period previous to writing. This time, it’s Ayn Rand. I alluded to Ein some weeks [...]