May 4, 2021 Real Estate Heading for a Crash In 1989, while visiting relatives in California, someone asked me what I thought of their red-hot real estate market.  I cited an affordability study showing that only 10% of Californians could afford the average home (technically it was the median price, where half of homes are priced higher and half priced lower, rather than a true average

April 1, 2021 What’s Up with Inflation? Rising interest rates have put inflation back in the news, with the Federal Reserve and Treasury department saying “Don’t worry.  This inflation is only temporary.”  That may be possible, but betting on it could be hazardous to your financial health. Inflation can ruin the value of anything denominated in dollars such as bonds, annuities and CDs and savings accounts. 

March 2, 2021 The Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2020 In a year of oddities, one of the more curious mysteries of 2020 was why on earth people would feel the need to hoard toilet paper during a Covid lockdown? As crazy as human behavior can become, it just didn’t make much sense. Mr. Haverly, in 8th grade, may have been the best teacher I ever

February 2, 2021 Hi-Ho Sliver Away: Is This the Largest Pump and Dump Scheme Ever? Crazy investor behavior is the single most dependable feature of late-stage bubbles. We see plenty of it now, as fund manager Jeremy Grantham recently stated. Day traders, many of whom trade on a site called Robinhood and communicate on social media site Reddit, coordinated their actions last week and ganged up

January 5, 2021 New Year Predictions Looking ahead is a valuable tool for successful investors, but it is dangerous to look farther ahead than one can reasonably see.  While it is good to keep an eye out for a curve while driving, it does no good trying to see around that curve, and trying can distract you from the real task at hand which is keeping