The World Bank Spreads Ebola Hysteria

“World Bank estimates Ebola could cost West Africa 32.6 billion dollars.” So ran a typical headline from the organization’s October 10 meeting, based in turn on a 71-page report issued three days earlier—a report that actually estimated a broad range … Read More

The Ebola Epidemic Is Dying

We continue to hear the Ebola epidemic is “spiraling out of control,” “growing exponentially,” and so on. This after the first round of warnings in September in which the World Health Organization (WHO) has called it the “worst health crisis … Read More

Steve Forbes: ‘Great Countries Don’t Have Weak Currencies’

Steve Forbes’ new book Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy and What We Can Do About It recapitulates the old and true ideas at precisely the right moment, just as we’ve seen America’s easiest Fed policy correspond … Read More

Long-Term Investors Have Been Waiting For This Sell-Off

Ebola, ISIS, Europe, China, Russia, retail sales, manufacturing. Take your pick. Wednesday’s sell-off in the market is being blamed on all of them. But it doesn’t really matter what you blame it on. The bottom line is that the sell-off … Read More

Recent Jobs Number So 2007

Imagine how you would feel if you were in the following situation.  You’re taking a trip on the U.S. Economy Bus .  There are 319 million people on the bus with you.  It has been a rough ride so far, … Read More

GoPro: Not a Pretty Picture for Shorts

Some stocks go up and some stocks go down. But some stocks go up no matter what–even when the market takes a big plunge. Take GoPro, Inc. (GPRO), the maker of wearable cameras. The company’s various products are … Read More

Decline In Participation Belies Strong Jobs Report

The Employment Situation report for the month of September looks great on the surface. The unemployment rate plunged to 5.9% from 6.1% in August; nonfarm payrolls climbed by 248,000, well ahead of the consensus expectation; … Read More

Treasury’s New Rules Ensure That Foreign Profits Remain Foreign

President Obama recently implied that American corporations executing tax inversions were unpatriotic. Just yesterday, the Treasury Department announced new rules that would make it more difficult for American companies to invert. These rules have prompted a sell-off in several key … Read More

Islamic State: Are We Going to Destroy Another of Iran’s Enemies?

On September 10th, President Obama outlined his general plan for “degrading and ultimately destroying” the organization which calls itself Islamic State. Among analysts and commentators of the Islamic State crisis in Iraq and Syria, there has been an unusual consensus: … Read More

The Fed Is More Hawkish Than It Seems

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) finished its two-day meeting and released its statement. Going into this meeting, the big debate among economists had to do with the wording of the statement. Specifically, they wondered if the Fed would remove … Read More

How To Make Money From A Weaker Euro Using ETFs

The U.S. economy has been growing at an anemic rate; yet compared to Europe, it is doing great. If they are not there already, many economies in Europe are on the brink of recession. In fact, the largest euro-zone economies, … Read More

Reports of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

According to NATO estimates, there are at least 1,000 Russian military personnel currently operating in Ukraine. A rebel official from Luhansk has stated that there are 3,000 to 4,000 Russian soldiers “on leave” from the Russian army assisting his forces. … Read More

Four Things Putin Won In Ukraine

President Putin has been the central figure of the crisis in Ukraine, and the most watched figure in international politics for the last 6 months. Given his status, it would be prudent to consider exactly what he has achieved in … Read More

Buffett’s Hypocrisy on Taxes Comes Through Again

The Burger King/Tim Hortons merger is big news largely because it comes soon after President Obama chastised American companies for trying to perform so-called tax inversions. Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew strongly implied that tax inversions were not economically … Read More

The Recent Rise in Volatility Could Be Lasting

It’s been an exciting three weeks in the stock market. Prior to Friday’s rally, the major averages were down about 4% from their mid-July highs. At the same time, the S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) surged 51%. I’ve written at … Read More

Russia Sanctions: “Biting” or Toothless?

Background:

• The US sanctions of July 16th primarily targeted the ability of Russian companies to raise capital denominated in US dollars. Targeted companies will not have access to US capital markets for loans with 90-day or longer maturities.

• The … Read More

How Samuel Huntington Predicted Ukraine

The civil war in Ukraine, the civil war in Iraq, and the relaxation of US sanctions against Iran have demonstrated that political instability is now a very serious factor for international markets. US decline has given the various great … Read More

Are Churches Economically Consequential?

The big question I’ve been mulling around recently is this: Are churches economically consequential? Should they be? Look at the typical American church and ask, if that church disappeared from the community it’s in, how affected would that community be? … Read More

Lean In, or Butt Out

One of the promising things I saw about women getting more involved in the top leadership echelons of business is that they would bring something new and better: greater caution about risky behavior, more relational sensitivity — that they would … Read More

Recent College Graduates Slacking in Income Growth

Time to throw out all the brochure-based projections. Recent college grads now have lower income growth rates than the general public. Isn’t the whole point that, yes, you deferred earning for 5 years and, yes, you start at a lower … Read More

The Suicide of the Dollar: How A Legally Dubious 9 Billion Dollar Punishment from Eric Holder Endangers Us All

The Justice Department under Eric Holder just imposed a massive 9 billion dollar penalty on French company BNP Paribas, for violating trade sanctions which France does not recognize. These huge, 9bn-type fines imposed by the Obama administration on … Read More

Success = f(EFFORT, ability)

Track is my favorite sport. My earliest memories go back to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City where Bob Beamon soared almost two feet beyond the existing world record in the long jump; and Jim Ryun, arguably the … Read More

Was Katrina Disaster God’s Judgement on Corruption?

Ray Nagin, former mayor of New Orleans, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison last week.

Do you remember the debates about whether the Katrina disaster was a judgment on New Orleans? Some on the religious … Read More

What Hobby Lobby Means for Big Healthcare Firms

Abortifacient Manufacturers, in Light of Hobby Lobby Case

On Monday, June 30th, the Supreme Court overruled an Obamacare mandate that forced family-owned corporations, such as Hobby Lobby, to pay for “emergency contraceptives” and birth control for their employees.

This paper … Read More