Controlling Behavior and Tradeoffs

This is a long but good article on how our internal wiring may work against us as we try to make rational/good financial decisions. Scroll down to next to last paragraph where he speaks of tradeoffs . Good stuff.

Financial Balance

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Long Term Housing View

Saw this interesting view on long term housing trends. A good systematic approach looking at demographics and household formations. Hope this proves right. Many asset markets overcorrect so this could be a good perspective.

The Role of Business in Society

I saw this excellent commencement address from Carl Schramm to business graduates at Pepperdine University. He builds the case for creating new businesses as a noble public service. As he says "government and non-profits are not self sustaining. They must rely on the underlying wealth created by business". Very well done !

An Educated Perspective

The next issue of our, bi -weekly newsletter, STAT is available. You can access it here If you'd like to receive our email newsletter, you can click the "Sign up for our Email Newsletter" link on the right of this page.

Inflation Reality

Professor Niall Ferguson authored an excellent article in Newsweek on realistic inflation computations versus the official estimates. As he points out, the rules behind the calculations have changed or "been improved" 2 dozen times since 1978. If current inflation were calculated using the 1978 methodology it would be...10%!! Simply move the decimal point on "core " inflation one place to the right and you have the real number.

Annuities...NOT!

The potent promises from annuities pull many unwitting victims into their fold. A good article ran today on the problems with annuities. On a macro level, what do you think the insurance company is doing with the you that you can't? On a micro level, the horrendous costs usually including surrender charges for many years , make them a non-starter for most investors.