“When we were first starting out our mortgage rate was ten percent, not a two percent adjustable.” --says any parent who bought a home in the 1970s Remember when you understood how the banking system worked? They lent you money, you bought a home, paid them back for what felt like the rest of your life and dreamed of a mortgage burning party. The bank was happy, you had a roof over your head and they spread more money around town. In other words, the fractional banking system worked. Today? Sure, houses are being bought and sold. But who’s really … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2018
Musk on Tesla’s Near-Death Experience
Bloomberg's John Bowker reports on an Axios interview Tesla CEO Elon Musk in which he said that Tesla, at one point, had only a few weeks to live. He writes: Elon Musk has revealed how close Tesla Inc. came to collapse during the frantic and costly effort to ramp up production of the Model 3 sedan: Little more than a couple of months. “The company was bleeding money like crazy, and if we didn’t solve these problems in a very short period of time, we would die,” Musk told the news service Axios in an interview aired Sunday on HBO. When asked how close Tesla was to failing, he replied: “I … [Read more...]
Cryptocosm and Life After Google Part IV
You’re witnessing what happens when markets dry-up as shown here with bitcoin (see chart below). I've been warning readers about what George Gilder calls the "cryptocosm." (Read Parts I, II and III). If you have been hitching your wagon to cryptocurrencies, you might have been enduring a rude awakening this week. Steven Russolillo, writing at The Wall Street Journal, calls it bitcoin's "Week from Hell." He explains Now, another worry has emerged: Cryptocurrency miners, the outfits that solve complex equations to generate new digital coins, seem to be losing interest. The amount of … [Read more...]
Top 10 “Retirement Killers”
There are a number of ways to mess up your retirement plan, but some are more dangerous than others. At MarketWatch, Brett Arends lists the top 10 "retirement killers." His list comes from an NBER research paper called "Saving Regret," written by Axel H. Börsch-Supan, Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Michael D. Hurd, and Susann Rohwedder. Arends explains the survey, writing: A survey of “Saving Regret” targeted 1,600 Americans aged 60 to 79 to ask them about whether they had saved enough money — and if not, why not. The survey was conducted by researchers from the RAND Corporation and the Max Planck … [Read more...]
Are You a Shepherd or a Gunfighter?
Before you answer, remember that at least 50% of gunfighters end up dead. Are you the type of person who will dutifully grow your investment portfolio over the years by shepherding it in the right direction? Or will you risk it all in one high risk gunfight after another until your number is called? Consider what I wrote here, thirty years ago in December of 1988. It’s a comparison of some high-level shepherding vs. some inexperienced gun slinging. Do you know the two most powerful words in investing? If you’ve been with me through the years, you know the answer. But for all of my … [Read more...]
Maximize Your Retirement by Leaving Income Taxes Behind
If you have a solid retirement portfolio, chances are you are paying federal taxes on the income it generates. If you're unlucky enough to live in a state with its own income taxes, you could be paying even more. There is one foolproof way to get more from your retirement revenue streams, and that is to move to a state which doesn't force you to pay taxes on your income. I have written a number of posts on how you can determine where best to live in retirement. Here's a sample: Your Retirement Life: Looking for Tax Freedom? Here’s Where to Find It Your Retirement Life: How Do You … [Read more...]
Are Stablecoins the Best of Both Worlds?
By tying blockchain technology to fiat currencies, stablecoins are trying to be the solution to cryptocurrency volatility. Hannah Murphy reports for the Financial Times: While stablecoins are less enticing investments for risk-hungry speculators than other cryptocurrencies, proponents argue users get the best of both worlds: the low volatility of fiat currencies together with the advantages of digital currencies, such as fast international payments, availability to anyone with an internet connection and no need to go through the banking system. And many believe their potential goes beyond … [Read more...]
Your Retirement Life: You Can Keep Working
I've discussed before the threat of working in "retirement" involuntarily because you haven't saved enough, and must rejoin the workforce to make ends meet. (Read Part I, II, III, and IV of my series on How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?). Working through your golden years because you can't afford to stop is an unfortunate reality for too many Americans, but there are some people who, for reasons beyond finances, may find working past retirement age beneficial. Some people enjoy the routine and the social interaction of their jobs. For them, living 30 years of retirement with no plans … [Read more...]
Novartis Leads from the Front on Cancer Treatment
Novartis is working on pioneering advanced new cancer therapies, rather than looking for incremental improvements in existing drugs. Denise Roland explains Novartis' strategy at The Wall Street Journal, writing: Novartis AG’s NVS +0.43% recent acquisition streak is pivoting the company toward new treatments that bear little resemblance to traditional drugs. The Swiss company has spent nearly $15 billion in the past year to build its presence in cutting-edge areas of medical research, including gene therapy, or treatments that introduce new DNA into the body, and radiopharmaceuticals, which … [Read more...]
My Concentration Is on Full Faith & Credit Pledge U.S. Treasuries
As Wall Street tumbles, my concentration is on full faith and credit pledge U.S. treasuries. Reuters' Caroline Valetkevitch reports on the market: The Nasdaq fell 3 percent on Monday as investors dumped Apple, internet and other technology shares. Shares of Apple Inc fell after the Wall Street Journal reported the company had cut production orders in recent weeks for all three iPhone models launched in September. The iPhone maker’s stock dropped 4.0 percent to $185.86 and is now down 19.9 percent from its Oct. 3 record closing high in the wake of a disappointing holiday quarter sales … [Read more...]
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