Normally, I prefer to discuss the economy or to tell other people's stories, but this time is a little bit different. This time I have news to share with you that I think is very exciting and I hope you will too. Here is the press release for my new book, being released next month.
Read MoreIn my column on the stock market a year ago, I referenced the above long-quoted observation that I had come to know from my earliest days as a neophyte on Wall Street. That epigram, commonly called the “January Barometer,” refers to the year’s direction of the S&P500 stock index. The measure has been uncannily accurate, correctly forecasting nearly 90% of the time since 1950. It worked in spades last year, and with a strong stock market now behind us in January this year, one could anticipate that 2024 might well be another positive year for stock market returns.
Read MoreI recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Albert Bourla, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pfizer. The event took place at the Bruce Museum—a Connecticut-based museum of both science and art—an appropriate setting to hear from a man of science, who had recently published a book, Moonshot, with the subtitle: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible.
Read MoreI’m an early riser—sometimes an exceedingly early riser—and it is in those pre-dawn hours that I have found a new and pleasurable pastime. It’s best enjoyed in an environment of solitude because it takes a certain amount of concentration.
Read MoreAn unpretentious coastal town off US Route I-95, in the southwest corner of the smallest state in the country, with a year-round population of about 20,000—it’s not likely that you’ve heard of the place unless you’re a New Englander.
Read MoreFriends are the flowers in the garden of life—they come in many varieties and they blossom when the conditions are right. Some take their time to show their colors, while others burst into bloom as if by magic. Occasionally, there are those who hibernate, but when they re-emerge, they are the same flower.
Read MoreOne day, when I was seven years old and had just learned how to do long subtraction, I took a piece of lined paper and wrote the number 2000 at the top of the page. Beneath it, I wrote the number 1948, put a minus sign to the left of it, a line under it, and did the subtraction. The result was fifty-two. That was how I discovered, to my horror, that I would be fifty-two years old at the beginning of the next century.
Read MoreIn 1980, shortly after being hired at Citicorp Investment Management, Inc. (CIMI was how we referred to ourselves), I was introduced to Bob Davis, a full-blooded Texan, who ran the company’s investment office in Houston. We had important things in common—primarily, our youth (we were both thirty-two at the time) our passion for the world of investing, and our endless drive.
Read MoreAmericans are among the most generous people in the world. Charities Aid Foundation, a UK-based charity compiling data from 140 countries, creates an annual country-by-country index of charitable giving. It is constructed from three forms of activity: donating money, volunteering time, and helping strangers. In 2022, the United States ranked #3, closely behind Indonesia and Kenya, two countries where religion plays a strong role in the culture of giving.
Read MoreThree months ago, at the end of December, President Biden signed into law a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package that covered the gamut from defense appropriations, to funding for Ukraine’s military in its war with Russia, to emergency disaster assistance for the west and southwest areas of the country impacted by natural disasters. Buried deep inside that 4000 page document was also a two-year extension of a number of telehealth provisions for Medicare patients. Some may react by saying, “That’s great.” However, I say, “Why was that extension for only two years? Why not forever?”
Read MoreSome of the greatest scandals in the world of investments have involved insider trading, which is taking advantage of significant non-public information to reap personal profits from stock transactions. Anyone who has worked in the financial industry can appreciate and understand the validity of both the letter and the spirit of the regulations surrounding inside information.
Read MoreIt may seem like an understatement to say that 2022 was an unpleasant year in the stock market when the total return on the S&P500 was a negative 18.1%, but as down markets go, there have been far worse. Remember 2008 when the index declined a whopping 36.5%?
Read MoreIt’s been well over a dozen years since the last sustained “bear market” in this country, defined as a twenty percent correction in stock prices from a recent high. The COVID-related crash in March of 2020 was technically a bear market, but its duration was so short and the subsequent bull market so strong, that it created little to none of the anxiety associated with a traditional bear market.
Read MoreThere was a time, not more than three years ago, when the waitlist to purchase a commuter parking space at the local train station (in my suburb of New York City) was between eighteen and twenty-four months. By 6:15am on any Monday through Friday, the parking lot that clung to both sides of the tracks had not a single empty space.
Read MoreIt’s of value to remember the quote from the great American statesman, Senator John McCain, who, in 2015 upon returning from a visit to Ukraine, said, “Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.”
There is a wise and witty lady who lives in Annapolis, Maryland. Her name is Marion. She has a keen mind, a wicked sense of humor and is proud to let you know that she is ninety years old. She had recently been exposed to COVID and alerted her family and friends that she would be getting tested, promising to share the results as soon as they were available.
Read MoreA great friend of mine in London, Katie Brewer, has a podcast entitled "Bandwidth Conversations," on which she interviews artists, performers and rock stars of life.
Read MoreWhen I was a little girl, the Old Testament story about Methuselah was one I found fascinating. It was a true story—I knew that because I’d been taught that the Bible was the word of God and represented truth.
Read MoreThere would have been flights to book, people to invite, and maybe even a little haggling: “Why can’t Aunt Lydia come to our house this year? She was with you last year.”
Read MoreBy almost any measure, the level of employment in this country has recovered miraculously since the frightening days of the onset of COVID. From an impressive low of 3.5% in February of 2020, unemployment spiked to a frightening 14.8% just two months later.
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