The 2001 rate cuts caused the bubble that is now a crisis. Here we go again The right decisions are usually the hardest ones: they often require enduring short-term pain for the long-term gain. We learn this as parents early into the job. The Federal Reserve under Mr. Greenspan’s leadership faced a tough decision in [...]
Don’t compound them with bailout for mortgage ‘victims’ The housing bubble that was fueled by multidecade low interest rates priced many people out of their dream homes. But instead of settling for less or renting, people went after their American dream with a vengeance – taking out adjustable-rate, interest-only or, even worse, negative-amortization loans. Good [...]
I just came from a week-long trip in London. I got to tell you, London (and probably all Europe) is tremendously expensive. The numbers on price tags look very familiar: Starbucks (SBUX) Chai Tea Soy (okay, I do like those things) is 3.80, a breakfast (two eggs, a toast and a coffee) in your typical [...]
I’ve been a big fan of First Marblehead’s (FMD) stock for couple months now, and it looks like an incredible value today, trading somewhere around 7-8 times earnings. Though I have to mention this stock is not for the light hearted, as it has a lot of myths surround it. Tom Brown, who I am [...]
We live in the society where, to our detriment, being politically correct is often more important than being correct. So I am going to come out and make a politically incorrect statement – social investing is an oxymoron. There is nothing social about investing. Investing is not about making popular, socially approved choices. It is [...]