U.S. universities and colleges welcome Qatar, the host of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, into their student unions, laboratories, and classrooms. With friends like this, who needs enemies? The global media coverage of the campus pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests were not the spontaneous events the media would like us to believe. Instead, they are part of an ongoing and well-financed campaign by the government of Qatar to promote anti-Israel and antisemitic actions while also promoting the ideology of the Islamic fundamentalists in the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Based on multi-year ..read more

  Video From elected officials to college presidents to the nation’s Attorney General, the U.S. has a cowardice problem.  Who dares to fix it? America cultivated the macho man mystique, but it is not evident today in the twisted world of Donald Trump. As the Mashable website said, “The candidate’s vitriol, rants, and crass commentary have changed the rules of political discourse.  From referencing a television host’s menstrual cycle to using vulgar phrases to describe opponents to his encouragement of violence at rallies, Trump’s insults have known no bounds — and have been a ..read more

Knowing the allocations and return differences between stocks and bonds is essential for investors with large portfolios who want maximum diversification. This is the basis, but how do you measure the differences? It’s done by measuring the equity risk premium.  This measures the long-term market relationship between the historical expected return difference between stocks and bonds.  This difference is one measure that helps determine the stock-bond asset allocation in the portfolio. The equity risk premium is the difference between the long-term expected returns between stocks and ..read more

It might sound simple, but a big problem for investors is knowing whether a fund manager or broker is doing a good job.   Defining what’s “good” is problematic because it depends on how the rest of the market performs. For example, 2% is a horrible return in a bull market. However, preserving your capital would be considered excellent in a bear market where most investors are down 20%. In this case, 2% isn’t looking so bad.  Before going any further, let’s get some definitions out of the way: Absolute return is simply the return an asset or portfolio earned over a certain period ..read more

  Younger people are more alienated from political systems and other people than ever before, and this dire situation is changing how businesses and society operate. However, there is another problem: Gen Z often lacks the basic knowledge that older people have about solving problems, cooperating, and socializing. Think about some men who complain that they cannot find a date, the so-called “incels.”   What about the Gen Z’s who think that Judge Judy is a member of the Supreme Court?  Then, college students need help mailing a letter via the U.S. Postal Service.  Or, i ..read more

The version of the Bible sold by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has deleted the section of the Bible that cites adultery as being a significant sin, according to Bible scholars. The omission is a significant revision to the King James version of the Bible that the Trump campaign is selling to the public.  The Trump Bible contains all the other sections of the King James version, plus copies of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Miranda Rights that arresting officers read to a detained person. However, the Trump version deleted the passage on adultery (Mathe ..read more

Trump’s legacy is that he is teaching his millions of followers to ignore laws, disrespect Court authority, local and federal laws, cheat on taxes, and tolerate adultery as acceptable behaviors in the Trump MAGA new America. At first, she looked like any other older woman leaving the beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, except for her “Make America Great Again” sequined hat and worn beach bag.  I was sitting on a bench next to where she locked her bicycle.  We looked at each other, and despite the hat, I said it was an excellent day for the beach.  She nodded.  I asked ho ..read more

Bear markets are an inherent part of market cycles, just as expansions and contractions are a normal part of business cycles. While investors should be concerned about bear markets, especially their duration, there is also an established link between market and business cycles. Understanding both will help investors better understand the cause and duration of bear markets.  Under these circumstances, dollar-cost averaging (DCA) can provide a disciplined investing strategy to re-invest during volatile markets. Making Sense of Business Cycles Economists recognize that the economic cycle und ..read more

ETFs, also known as Exchange Traded Funds, are the past century’s most popular and investor-friendly investment inventions. ETFs are now a $7 trillion market and offer various exposures to all market sectors, equity and bond styles, indexes, and specific categories of investments, such as ESG funds. ETFs allow you to trade the market in a single purchase, have continuous pricing, buy on margin, sell short (on a downtick), and access the market via all types of orders. This video explains how ETFs work and why they belong in your 401(k) or retirement portfolio.  The growth of the ETF mark ..read more

Hedge funds are more popular today than ever before, but they are not well understood by most investors. They are primarily an institutional product, but they are also used by high-net-worth individuals. For average investors, some of these strategies can be replicated using leveraged ETFs. This video explains those strategies, how hedge funds work, their risks, and their use in a diversified portfolio. One category of hedge funds, managed futures, has one of the oldest track records in the hedge fund industry.  Managed futures are actively managed positions in commodities and financial f ..read more