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One of the more delightful ironies attendant upon the recent mini-crash in the stock market was the announcement, even as the unwashed were fleeing equities in droves, that U.S. companies spent an all-time record amount of money in 1Q06 buying back their own stock....keep reading

Because the implosion in the 2007--09 period was essentially financial rather than economic (and because it was set off by essentially one industry: single-family homes), we have come, I think, to focus far too much on the financial aspect of American business rather than on the non-financial side....keep reading

It is, I believe, not well understood by the individual investor (nor his advisor) that a lot of the stock market's spectacular performance since the onset of the great secular bull market in 1982 came, however indirectly, from falling interest rates....keep reading

"Pause a moment and think where technology is leading us. Soon all search engines will be voice-activated and will be designed to answer any question, not just spew forth Web sites with associated words....keep reading

There is a certain ritualized, almost kabuki-like dance which takes place in the American Congress whenever oil prices spike....keep reading

In last month's piece about the inevitable postponement of the end of the world -- written as the S&P surged past 1420 -- I rather gleefully recounted many of the signs that the worst was behind us, most of the damage done, and the risk of real recession an idea whose time had come and gone....keep reading

1. With some trepidation, let me recommend an extremely important new book,...
2. Elsewhere in this issue are a few snippets from an article that you would be ...
3. I liked outgoing Fed Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson's March 3 speech at the ...
4. Three absolutely terrific WSJ op-ed pieces from recent weeks: Brian Wesbury's ...

This is, as you know, the last issue of the newsletter which will be printed and mailed. It will henceforth be available only online....keep reading

Save the Date: The Third Behavorial Strategies Conference: 11/11/11...keep reading

Were the stock market to reach its March 2000 peak in five, seven or 10 years -- and assuming dividends, growing at their trendline rate, are paid out -- total equity returns from the S&P 500 would run in the range of 9.3% to 16.1% a year....keep reading

In the first quarter of 2007, the economy grew at only a 1.3% annual rate....keep reading

The nearly seventy percent run in the S&P 500 from its March 2009 lows through mid-January of this year was bound to take some kind of a breather at some point....keep reading

Erratum...keep reading

Resources...keep reading

One of the more baselessly simple-minded devil theories abroad in the land these last few seasons was the one (or should I say is the one) to the effect that retiring baby boomers will become huge net sellers of equities, secularly depressing prices....keep reading

1. I loved a new book, published to mark the 60th anniversary of the event, called...
2. James Surowiecki, of all people -- in The New Yorker, of all places -- has ...
3. Speaking of realclearmarkets.com, it is, for me, simply the single best way to ...
4. And speaking of that, you'll want to invest fifteen minutes in reading Bernanke's ...
5. Finally, Gregg Easterbrook's June 13 WSJ op-ed piece "Life Is Good, So Why ...

1. Elsewhere in this edition, there's an extended quote from George Friedman's ...
2. Lawrence G. McDonald never met Richard Fuld. This is both a measure of ...
3. A couple of readers have asked about or commented on Meltdown (forgive me ...
4. Amid all the cacophany about where we are (or are not) in the economic cycle, ...

I'm deeply suspicious of alleged patterns in financial market behavior. In particular, it seems to me that market anomalies which show up consistently for a while are the engines of their own destruction. That's because when enough people spot the pattern, and begin sending tidal waves of money toward it, the anomaly drowns....keep reading

Throughout the life of this newsletter, I've made it a practice to bring to your attention books that don't bear directly on our profession but rather offer insight into how America became America....keep reading

Beginning immediately, subscribers up for renewal may elect to receive without charge a copy of my new book Behavioral Investment Counseling when it becomes available around Thanksgiving....keep reading