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If there is an axiom that is growing out of the equity market's behavior since the bottom in 2002, perhaps it is this: that the less volatile markets become, the more people overreact to even small episodes of volatility....keep reading

During January, in newspapers and magazines across the country, a very well-known money management firm -- which markets primarily though not at all exclusively to the do-it-yourself investor -- was running a full-page advertisement....keep reading

1. Despite the Steelers' very convincing Super Bowl victory, Pittsburgh remains ...
2. I heard -- and initially chose to disbelieve -- good things about a book by ...
3. I've always been a huge fan of Barton Biggs; he's a first rate intellect, an ...

Thomas, Chapin...keep reading

1. I'm a huge fan of Charles R. Morris, and have recommended a number of his ...
2. I most heartily recommend Greg Behrman's The Most Noble Adventure: The ...
3. Longtime readers of this newsletter will know that I believe that globalizing ...
4. And speaking of art, be sure to own a copy of Robert M. Edsel's Rescuing da ...

The oracles at the National Bureau of Economic Research have carefully consulted their macroeconomic chicken entrails, and delivered themselves of the conclusion that economic activity -- after an unprecedented 120-month expansion -- peaked in March 2001, and has been contracting since....keep reading

As this is written, on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, the stock market has just had its best rally in many a month on the realization that an armed conflict in Iraq might actually be very short....keep reading

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Squibs...keep reading

The people have spoken. Reasonable observers may and will differ over just exactly what they said, but whatever it was, they've spoken....keep reading

Other than as notations on the calendar, centuries don't necessarily begin nor end precisely on a given date. And they don't necessarily last exactly a hundred years....keep reading

The dollar's performance during this cyclical downturn provides evidence that the international financial system is operating on a de facto dollar standard....keep reading

Resources...keep reading

1. Another Holman Jenkins op-ed gem: "The Rational Herd," in the November 23 ...
2. I very much enjoyed a new book by the economist David R. Henderson and the ...

In the July 2006 issue of this newsletter -- written, of course, just past mid-June, when stock markets around the globe were completing their mini-meltdown -- I made very heavy water of the spectacular upsurge in companies buying back their own stock....keep reading

1. Fed governor Kevin Warsh's September 25 talk to the 12th annual International ...
2. Advisors constantly put upon by client concerns over the "trade deficit," ...
3. A three-year moratorium on corporate taxes, or a two-year, 50% reduction in ...
4. The second and final volume of Steven F. Hayward's epic history of the United ...
5. JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon is the premier banker of his time, and ...
6. The Nazis, in addition to being the most systematic mass murderers in history, ...

No historical comparisons are ever completely accurate, if only because no historical epoch is exactly like any other....keep reading

Squibs...keep reading

This essay is meant to be read in conjunction with my column in the October issue of Financial Advisor magazine. That piece, called "Thinking In Time," essentially argues the inability of current events "crises" to stop the relentless progress of free market capitalism, and highlights the folly of getting out of the equity market in response to such "crises."...keep reading

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