• February 28, 2016

ZIRP & NIRP: Killing Retirement As We Know It

“Baby boomers who are counting on the stock market are in trouble.”

– Robert Kiyosaki

“Pension and health care costs for our employees are going to bankrupt this city.”

– Michael Bloomberg

• February 22, 2016

The Fed Prepares to Dive

“No one will lend at a negative interest rate; potential creditors will simply choose to hold cash, which pays zero nominal interest.”

– Ben Bernanke, 2009

“I think negative rates are something the Fed will and probably should consider if the situation arises.”

– Ben Bernanke, December 2015

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”

– Yogi Berra

• February 6, 2016

$100 Trillion Up in Smoke

“We aren’t addicted to oil, but our cars are.”
– James Woolsey

“The greatest asset, even in this country, is not oil and gas. It’s integrity.”
– George Foreman

• February 3, 2016

A Little Chaos Is a Good Thing

A Special Edition of Thoughts from the Frontline

Longtime readers know that I rarely delve into partisan politics. That’s not the usual focus of this letter. While I am sure that most readers suspect that I generally lean Republican, I try not to let that enter into our macroeconomic and investment discussions. And I’m not really going to change that policy today. What I do want to talk about are the rather arcane topics of how the delegates to a national convention are chosen and what a...

• February 1, 2016

Tokyo Doubles Down

“When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”

“I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democratic, but I want to be serious... I am for secret, dark debates.”

“Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?”

“If it's a Yes, we will say ‘on we go,’ and if it’s a No we will say ‘we continue.’”

“We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”

– All quotes from...