You know the saying: The two best days for a boat owner are the day he buys it and the day he sells it. Well I bought a boat a few years ago and it was the best day. So I thought I'd share with you the process I went through to get there and hopefully help you in your own search for a boat. The first thing you need to do is decide that you want a boat. I grew up in Mattapoisett, MA which is a small town on the water near Cape Cod. To know where Mattapoisett is imagine looking down on Cape Cod from the air—Mattapoisett is the armpit. It's a real pretty town right on Buzzard’s … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2015
The Monday Melee: Paris Air Show Extravaganza
The Boeing 787-9. The Paris Air Show: So far the Paris Air Show has been a success for the world's aircraft manufacturers. As The Wall Street Journal notes "The world’s two largest aircraft makers booked roughly $42 billion in deals on the first day of the weeklong aerospace extravaganza. Bombardier Inc., Embraer SA and other plane makers also secured new orders." Boeing and Airbus Ready Themselves for the Show: Air Travel Continues to Rise: What We're Reading: Notable & Quotable: Milton Friedman (The Wall Street Journal) Speech inflation: Why Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, … [Read more...]
This Has Never Ended Well
The latest quarterly update on consumer balance sheets, out yesterday from the Federal Reserve, shows that the net worth of households is closing in on an all-time high relative to income. Inflating asset prices (stocks and homes) are the big driver here. Asset prices can become unhinged from the income they generate temporarily, as my chart proves, but the historical record shows that episodes of income and asset price divergence don’t last long and they are ultimately resolved through a painful busts. … [Read more...]
Mosquito Apartments
Anyone see a problem here? In Hong Kong apartments the size of a parking spot are selling for $516,000 reports the WSJ. The apartment, in a development called High Place, isn’t much bigger than the standard U.S. parking space. It went into contract in May for almost four million Hong Kong dollars (US$516,000.) Even by Hong Kong’s cramped standards, apartments here are getting tinier and tinier. So small are some of the new developments in Hong Kong that they have been given the moniker “mosquito-sized units.” … [Read more...]
How Does Your State’s GDP Stack Up?
There are a number of predictable winners here, and a few states that may surprise you with their GDP growth numbers. Check out the map below. Source: BEA … [Read more...]
Dividend Religion, Hallelujah!
Do you know what a dividend paying stock that yields 3% today and increases its dividend by 10% per year for 10-years will yield? Answer: 7.78% I don’t need more proof than that to get me some dividend religion. … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: The Strong Dollar a Problem?
What did Obama Say? Rumors are circulating that President Obama called the strong dollar a "problem," while speaking to a G7 summit on Sunday. The White House has come out hard against the rumors, but the idea of a strong-dollar problem was strong enough in investors' minds to move the currency market Monday morning. Strong Dollar? While the dollar has strengthened considerably over the last twelve months, the move is not yet large enough to cause concern. You can see on the chart below that the dollar has gained on other currencies, but hasn't reached two standard deviations above mean … [Read more...]
Panic at the IMF
Yesterday, IMF President Christine Lagarde said the Fed should hold off on hiking interest rates until 2016. Apparently Ms. Lagarde and her Keynesian brethren who dominate global policy circles, are so terrified of a 0.25% interest rate hike that they dream up reasons to delay the day of reckoning. Ms. Lagarde justified her policy call by saying inflation is too low and there are “significant uncertainties as to the future resilience of economic growth.” Seems an odd sentiment considering how ineffective Fed policy has been at driving strong growth in the U.S. over recent years. Hopefully … [Read more...]
My First Drum Set and The Killers
If you're a drummer or a musician then you know--you never forget your first drum set or instrument. I started playing drums in the first grade taking private lessons and practicing on a drum pad. Then I moved up to a snare drum. And I would set up buckets around the snare and bang away as if it were a set. When I was in fifth grade my dad and I drove to New Bedford, MA after reading an ad in the newspaper for a drum set. That was a mistake. The second I saw it, one of us was sold. It was a classic Slingerland five-piece set-up with Zildjian cymbals. Slingerland was the set made famous by … [Read more...]
Auto Sales Soar
Automobile sales are soaring. In May, auto sales hit a new cycle high and an almost 10-year high. Soaring auto sales are a bullish signal for the economy, but auto stocks seem to disagree. The S&P 1500 automobiles index has been trending down since 2013. What is the performance of auto stocks telling us about the economy? Stock prices are forward looking. Investors may be saying that the current run rate of sales in the auto sector is about as good as it gets. If that is true, a cyclical downturn in auto sales may be closer than some expect or alternatively competition in the sector is … [Read more...]