Inflation is like the Cat in the Hat. It always comes back. There are periods, like the one we are in right now, where inflation has a long absence. And, at minimum there are periods where inflation is present, but doesn’t show up in the official government statistics. But inflation never goes away permanently. It always comes back. This is partly because governments make it come back. In a downturn or a recession — which is just a natural part
Read nowEditor’s Note: We hope you’re having an excellent holiday week. The below “best of” piece from May of this year, on the five risks of retirement, is one of the most important things we’ve written. Enjoy Black Friday and stay safe! “More return with less risk” is a key goal for TradeSmith. That is what our software is meant to help you achieve. This is really important, too — more important than ever, in fact — in the context of
Read nowEditor’s Note: We wish all U.S. readers a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and a warm Season’s Greetings to readers worldwide. Today and Friday we will reach into the vault and share some “best of” pieces. The below piece ran in August of this year. It describes what could drive a slow motion “melt-up” type scenario over the next few years — and feels worth revisiting with the indexes powering to new highs. If this scenario comes to pass, the Dow could
Read nowThe Wall Street Journal posted a headline this week that made Ray Dalio upset. Dalio is a multi-billionaire and the 70-year-old founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, one of the largest macro hedge funds with $150 billion in assets under management. We can see why the WSJ headline made Dalio mad — even though the story appears accurate. (Dalio didn’t deny the substance of the article — he just challenged the optics.) The episode is worth unpacking because it touches on
Read nowCryptocurrency can be complicated. But the case for Bitcoin is simple. It all comes down to one chart: The Bitcoin to US National Debt Ratio. The chart itself is simple too, as you can clearly see below. The chart is actually a little bit unfair — to Bitcoin. But even though the chart has an anti-Bitcoin bias (for reasons we’ll explain shortly), it does a good job of capturing the big picture. The chart presumes a total number of 21
Read nowHere is a pop quiz, or maybe a joke: Q. When is it bitterly disappointing to have an initial public offering (IPO) worth $1.7 trillion? A. When you were really hoping for $2 trillion, and you see it as a national embarrassment to have to take less, and your sense of money was already so distorted you paid $450 million for a possibly fake Da Vinci painting that lives on one of your yachts. We speak of the initial
Read nowImagine getting the following notice from your bank, out of the blue, with no explanation: Your PERSONAL CHECKING / SAVINGS account ending in XXX will be restricted from use in 21 days, and permanently closed 30 days from the date of this notice. After a careful review of your banking relationship, we’ve made the decision to close your account above. As a reminder, your Deposit Account Agreement, which you received when you opened your account, allows either you or
Read nowCannabis investors have a message for Joe Biden: The 1990s called, they want their worldview back. Biden, a U.S. presidential candidate and front runner among Democrats, hurt pot stocks this week by expressing the view that marijuana is a “gateway drug” and shouldn’t be legalized for that reason. The irritated response from cannabis investors and marijuana enthusiasts — and even from a handful of politicians on both sides of the aisle — was to point out that the “gateway drug”
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