I saw an interesting documentary last night:  A Crude Awakening.  The film lays out a somewhat frightening scenario regarding oil consumption versus demand.  The consensus is that our oil production is or will soon be on the decline, whereas demand is skyrocketing.  Since our civilization relies so heavily on the cheap energy present in oil, […]

Unless you have steadfastly avoided the news for the past year, you have probably heard about the “credit crunch” affecting the US financial system. This crunch, a result of years of speculative lending fueled by innovative but untested securitization strategies and massive leverage, is finding its way into the wallets […]

Consider this scenario:  The domestic manufacturing sector is all but gone.  Housing prices crash and billions of dollars of unrealized equity evaporate almost overnight.  Consumer spending drops and the US service economy, driven by consumer spending and propped up by foreign investment and trade deficits, crashes.  Foreign investors see the weakness and stop buying dollar […]

I recently finished reading the 9th edition of Burton Malkiel’s classic text A Random Walk Down Wall Street.  First published in 1973, this book is a classic text that deserves a place on any investor’s bookshelf. 
Malkiel presents two possible security valuation models - one based on a firm foundation of value and one based on […]

While I don’t do a ton of shopping online (I hardly shop anywhere at all, to be honest), I have been trying to take advantage of Ebates rewards when possible.  A referral bonus that posted today brings my total income from the site over $100. 
If you aren’t familiar with Ebates, the site offers rebates on online […]

I spent the afternoon today at a meeting of the local investment club.  Despite being the youngest person in the room by at least 45 years, I enjoy the meetings and feel that I can both learn from and contribute to the group.
The speaker today was an “advisor” from Edward Jones, who gave one of […]

In a previous post, I detailed my thoughts on investing for retirement in Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). I just finished reading Burton Malkiel’s masterpiece A Random Walk Down Wall Street and am more certain than ever that a buy-and-hold strategy using low-cost index funds in a Roth IRA is the wisest retirement strategy for a […]

While the United States equity market is a juggernaut comprising almost 55% of all global equity, it is not the only kid on the block. The rest of the world participates in the purchase and sale of securities, many of which are available to the American investor. What are the pros and cons […]