The Dominance and Size of the Federal Reserve
Before I start this evening, thanks to all my readers who commented on my post yesterday. It was my biggest response ever. I sent to the reporter my summary of your comments....
Read MoreAuthor: David Merkel
What Stories Aren’t Being Told?
I did not start blogging in order to start a media career, but sometimes the media finds its way to my door. I received a call today from a reporter for one of the major television networks, and after talking a while, she...
Read MoreMisunderstanding Inflation
Monetary inflation leads to inflation in goods, services, and/or assets. We just went through a decade (and then some) where there was low product price inflation, but there was significant inflation in asset values. What...
Read MoreOn Life Settlements
Well, thank you Rolfe Winkler and Reuters. I go off-line on Sundays because it is the Sabbath, so I don’t review the web or catch e-mail, but when Rolfe e-mailed me and I saw it on Monday morning, I felt I had to...
Read MoreWaiting for the Death of the Chicago School, and the Keynesian School also, Redux
So Paul Krugman gets a lot of ink, and everyone goes gaga for it. I don’t buy his arguments for two reasons: He misdiagnoses the cause of the current crisis. He thinks it is too much of the “free...
Read MoreTickers for the Latest Portfolio Reshaping
Fortunately my portfolio management methods don’t revolve around frequent trading. One of my kids came up to me recently and said, “What did you do today, Dad?” I said, “I made one...
Read MoreBook Review: Finding Alpha
I found this book both easy and hard to review. Easy, because it adopts two of my biases: Modern portfolio theory doesn’t work, and the equity premium is near zero. Hard, because the book needed a better...
Read MoreTen Points on Commercial Real Estate Lending
Before I begin this evening, I would like to give a big praise to Calculated Risk. CR and his readers do a great job of highlighting stories in economics and real estate; I get a lot of data from that blog. Some...
Read MoreAnimal Spririts Eating Green Shoots
I have never liked Keynes concept of “animal spirits.” (I reread that piece, and though it is long, I think it is worth another read. I try not to say that about my own stuff too often.) Businessmen are...
Read MoreAvoid Risk; Make Money.
Sometimes a single article can change my direction for publishing for an evening. So it was for this article, Hedge Fund Keeps Reins on Risk. I had not heard of Graham Capital Management until today, but given what I...
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TraderPlanet’s Quick Guide to Candlesticks
