Investment Commentary

Misdirection The goal of an illusionist is to focus audience attention on something which is not what the magician is actually doing. Crowd senses are preoccupied by intentional stimuli away…

POLITICAL RISKS AND MULTIPLE CONTRACTION In early December, S&P Global, Inc., the credit agency stated that “the strength of institutions and quality of policy making can no longer be taken…

WE DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMIN’ It was a complete “sweep” – the Presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives.  The Republicans won it all as well as more…

IS THE WIND CHANGING DIRECTION??? On September 22nd, the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) released their Sentiment Survey, which the reader will find below. CHART 1 The bullish sentiment…

Negative Interest Rates Or We’ll Pay You to Borrow from Us! Imagine being a home owner in Aalborg, Denmark and receiving an interest check from your mortgage holder paying to you, the…

TRANSITIONS CAN BE TOUGH…… The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994. Most economists would hail the agreement as a breakthrough, which has helped propel the…

The New Year Upon Us…….. With the “rough waters” of 2015 behind us, investors must now look to 2016 and how to navigate the crosscurrents of world politics and economics…

AMERICAN CONSUMER FISCAL FITNESS AND OTHER MUSINGS….. Worries here, worries there, worries are everywhere and investor sentiment is low, very low. As we are security analysts, not psychoanalysts, it is…

RECOVERING……. For the second year in a row, the U.S. economy has had to rescue itself from a desperately hard winter whose climate put economic activity into a “deep freeze”. …

LET’S FOCUS ON THE DOLLAR……… Since late last year, the U.S. “greenback” has been on a bit of a “streak”.  The pace of appreciation has picked up in 2015.  Articles…