• September 30, 2005

Solving an Old Age Problem

What will the world look like in 10-20-30 years? What might future technological advances allow us to do? What will medicine look like? Can we solve the age old problems of food shortages and disease? How will we solve the problems of environmental clean-up? Where will we get our energy? How will we communicate? Travel? Research? Invest?

And speaking of investing, which is the usual subject of my weekly missive, is there an investment theme in all of this? Is there a way we can better...

• September 23, 2005

The Singularity Is Near

This week, after a few brief thoughts on central bank buying of the dollar, and a very interesting observation about dopamine addiction in the US from Jim Williams (this you absolutely must read!), we will start what will be a 2-3 week foray into the future. I am going to use Ray Kurzweil's new book "The Singularity is Near " as the launching point for our discussion. We are going to peer over the next few valleys and look into where technology is taking us over the next 20-30 years....

• September 16, 2005

A Few Good Money Managers

This week I let you peek over my shoulder while I try to find some new money managers. Like the old army ad, I am looking for a few good men and women who have figured out some part of the investment world. How does one go about the task of finding and sorting? How can we figure out who deserves to get our money and who we should set aside? It's not as easy as you would think.

But first, a follow-up to my letters of the past few weeks. I think it is looking less and less like the Fed...

• September 9, 2005

A Critical Juncture

This week we once again look at Fed policy, the economy and some very interesting statistics and commentary from some very thoughtful commentators. We are coming to a critical juncture. Future Fed policy making decisions are rather murky at this point, and we examine why, and why it is important to you.

Also, last week, in response to some ad hoc comments in my weekly letter about why it took so long to get soldiers into New Orleans, I received a thoughtful, articulate response from...

• September 2, 2005

Time to Call an Audible

Nearly all eyes are on the terrible devastation caused by Katrina, and rightly so. I can do little to add to the amount of news you already doubtlessly have, but in today's letter we will look at some of the economic implications from this tragedy, as well as how they fit into the larger picture of what is already unfolding, and specifically Federal Reserve policy. We will look at a lot of individual items up close, and then see if we can then step back and see if we can make some sense...