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"Inside every investor there is a speculator struggling to get out." This gnomic observation was made to me a third of a century ago - more in sorrow than in cynicism - by my very first assistant branch manager, the soon-to-be-famous George L. Ball. And it goes a long way toward explaining the current, quite horrifying vogue for hedge funds....keep reading

The predictable collectivist demagoguery about "tax cuts for the rich" greeted the president's proposal for (among other things) accelerated and permanent cuts in marginal tax rates....keep reading

After appearing to sputter for a year and a half, the U.S. economic recovery blasted off in the third quarter, and on into the fall -- putting up numbers not just beyond consensus expectations but beyond anyone's expectations....keep reading

Your editor walks into an office supply store on Court Street in Brooklyn which is .....keep reading

Burns, Archilochus, Lipset...keep reading

The third quarter flow-of-funds report from the Federal Reserve was released on December 6. I mention this because you didn't see the smallest vestige of it in the mainstream media, for one simple but very compelling reason: it is, as usual, unalloyed good news....keep reading

Dear readers, Your intrepid editor is feeling just a bit lonely this spring. My e-mail traffic, which came in torrents from September's economic collapse through the panic bottom of early March, has all but dried up. Isn't anybody worried about the end of the world any more? Doesn't anybody want a little advice?...keep reading

Chart...keep reading

Squibs...keep reading

...From Boutte, La., to Pass Christian, Miss., Wal-Mart frequently beat FEMA by days...keep reading

Squibs...keep reading

On November 9, 1989, as the whole world watched, the Berlin Wall -- the most potent, most hated symbol of Soviet communist totalitarianism -- was torn down, first by the people of East Berlin, and then with the help of their jubilant compatriots from the west. In that sublime moment, the modern world was born....keep reading

Elsewhere in this edition, you'll find an "Ask Nick" question that I received during the second week in March, just before President Bush's ultimatum to the Iraqi regime and the subsequent military incursion....keep reading

A very important first anniversary is coming up in July, and I daresay this is the only periodical you read which will make any mention of it at all....keep reading

This newsletter doesn't make "calls," as such. It tries to give readers a sense of value, and a feeling for where asset classes and markets may be in the cycle, but doesn't often foam at the mouth or pound the table...at least I hope it doesn't....keep reading

This issue contains two "Ask Nick" inquiries -- together with my responses, which I can only hope weren't too cranky -- from very diligent, well-meaning subscribers, who consider themselves (I'm pretty sure) adherents to my work....keep reading

1. I can strongly recommend David Wessel's In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's ...
2. Advisors susceptible to the idea of a Chinese economic miracle--with the ...

(America has) an unmatched research and higher-education establishment that continues to drive excellence....keep reading

1. I can't overstate my admiration for Henry M. Paulson, Jr.'s On The Brink: Inside ...
2. James K. Polk should never have been president, and scant months before the ...
3. Bill Miller's February 9 Financial Times op-ed piece, "Investors show 'perverse' ...

It's been a constant drumbeat in this newsletter that journalism has consistently ignored--and continues to underestimate--the massive and by some measures unprecedented current levels of corporate liquidity. At year-end 2009, the 382 non-financial firms in the S&P 500 were holding $932 billion in cash and equivalents, up eight percent from the third quarter, and 31% above year-end 2008. As it would eventually have had to do, this tsunami of liquidity has begun to assert itself strongly in three areas, each of which is powerfully supportive of equity prices....keep reading