The New Year’s off to a great start. Oil prices are down (great for the consumer and for businesses), interest rates are lower (great for the economy), GDP is up (we’re out of the recession), Q4 earnings have come in very good (companies are out of the woods), 2010 guidance has been very positive (good [...]

So here’s the deal; the Dow was down 270 points today and everybody (except you of course) is freaking out. I’ll waste just a few words on what may or may not be the catalyst, then finish with a little healthy perspective… You’ll hear all over the news that sovereign debt is the culprit. In [...]

A Missed Opportunity I’m afraid our President is on the verge of blowing a Reagan/Clinton-style opportunity of a lifetime. When Mr. Obama won the Whitehouse I mouthed off to my friends that he was a shoe-in two-termer. I mean you couldn’t ask for a better scenario; the man inherited an economy in shambles and his [...]

Facing the coming mid-term elections and feeling a poll-inspired sense of desperation, our chosen few are in dire need of a villain. They need to champion themselves against a bad-guy and, in the absence of any, they will indeed manufacture one. Today their synthetic scoundrel would be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – his crime being [...]

A few random thoughts inspired by last week’s events: A new guy’s hired to run the show. Business plunges fifty percent (i.e., he fails miserably). The board fires the new guy. The parent company received “taxpayer” bail out money. The new guy walks away with a $45 million parting bonus. How come (according to the [...]

As I suggested the other day, my aim here, when we’re talking politics, is to cut through the CRAPP (constant reckless abuse of political power), which is (primarily) what’s been troubling the market this week. Now Washington has made it clear in recent months that banks need to get back to the business of lending. [...]