Rational approaches to hydraulic fracturing
I have been an ardent believer in the opportunity unleashed by American ingenuity and risk taking in the oil patch. Hydraulic fracturing has brought forth a wealth of clean burning natural gas, reducing the need for coal in electricity production. HOWEVER, this process has the potential to cause environmental damage. Those who reject the use of fossil fuels have falsely [...]
Wall Street’s new-fangled CDs
A Certified Financial Planner, pledged to act as a fiduciary would likely have protected the investors described in this article by never showing this product. We have never done so! Pass this on to a friend! From the Wall Street Journal, “Wall Street Re-Engineers the CD—and Returns Suffer” - ‘Structured’ certificates of deposit leave many investors with lower yields and [...]
Will we ever have to bail out the banks again?
The subject of this interview is the fellow who made a fortune shorting the big banks going into the financial meltdown of 2008. He is not a naive cheerleader for the banking industry, so his current opinion, which reflects my own carried weight. As many clients know, we have been investing in preferred stock issued by regulated banks for over [...]
What to know about Money-Market Funds
From the Wall Street Journal, "5 Things Investors Should Know About New Rules on Money-Market Funds - Brace for the possibility of fluctuating share prices and temporary blocks on redemptions" by Daisy Maxey, August 9, 2016 Investors in money-market funds should prepare now for extensive new rules in mid-October that promise to fundamentally change the $2.7 trillion industry, fund managers [...]
Japan’s decreasing population
From the Los Angeles Times, "As Japan's population shrinks, bears and boars roam where schools and shrines once thrived" by Julie Making, July 11, 2016 The red-roofed temple at the top of the hill closed about a decade ago, and now Yoshihiro Shibata can’t even remember its name, though the 54-year-old dairy farmer has lived in this picturesque village all [...]
Brexit and You
After a constructive quarter for our clients, it appeared all would be undone as we neared quarter end and voters in the U.K. made the historic decision to back out of the European Union. Notables such as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, George Soros and Bill Gross worried that we may be entering an era [...]