That’s the title of the masterful biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., written by Ron Chernow, who had earlier authored The House of Morgan and The Warburgs.
I highly recommend it for your consideration.
I used to enjoy reading and writing fiction, but after the political, economic and financial upheavals of the past quarter century, it’s easy […]

Anyone who tells you that they have a reliable method for calling market tops–or bottoms–is either a fool or a knave.
Mostly, its a comfort just to know that you called it reasonably close.
The past ten or twelve years has witnessed the steady lowering of term insurance premiums…to the point that you always felt you had […]

I’ve gotten in the habit of listening to audio books while I’m tooling around running errands.
And one of the best that I’ve recently listened to is “Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse” by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
I recommend it without the […]

There are many perplexing phenomena that remain unexplained despite our best efforts at understanding…

How the Monarch Butterflies are able to return to their parents’ exact origin in Mexico, even though they were born in California.
How the U. S. Hockey team beat the Russians in the 1980 Winter Olympics, despite all odds.
Most confounding of all…how is […]

Personal finance would not be so confusing if the investment community junked most of its technical jargon.
Let’s take a look at a term that is very much in the news today:
The Yield Curve
It sounds formidable and exotic, but the reality is something much more prosaic.
The yield curve is simply the plotting of two linked measurements […]

The salvation of our economy is not the money being shoveled out the door by our feckless government.
And it’s not the politically well connected banks and declining legacy businesses scooping up all this ill-begotten money.
No. Our dynamism is a function of the vast constellation of small, entrepreneurial, family owned businesses.
This is the well that produces […]

Keeping with Christine’s theme  of retirement savings…
I’m sure most of you remember “What Color Is Your Parachute?” the career guide written by Richard Bolles years ago, now in its umpteenth edition.
Perhaps the best seller ever in its category.
The newest iteration is “What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want”, […]

The Peter Principle was articulated in the previous century by Dr. Laurence J. Peters, a legendary management consultant and author.
In it’s original interpretation…
“In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
Which may help explain the general lack of political leadership in our country today.
Tell me if this scenario resonates with you…
A […]