Michael Lewis has just published another book—this one in collaboration with six other writers, each of whom is renowned as an author. The title: WHO IS GOVERNMENT?  and the subtitle: The Untold Story of Public Service were intriguing.

The globalization of economies—that of the U.S. as well as most of the rest of the world—began in earnest in the early 1980s when China was entering the global trading sphere. But as early as the 1920s, American companies had already started building manufacturing plants in Europe—both General Motors and Ford Motor Company were in Germany…

For more than a few decades, increases in college tuition have significantly outpaced the rate of inflation in this country. Today, approximately 70% of undergraduate students are entering the job market with some level of debt in the form of a student loan, often as much as $40,000.

The stock market is one, among a number, of leading indicators of the U.S. economy. Other such indicators include: new orders for both nondefense capital goods and also for consumer goods; consumer confidence; building permits for new homes; retail sales; and initial claims for unemployment insurance. The strength or weakness of those pillars of the economy are harbingers of future growth or decline in the GDP.

It is apt today, as we await with anticipation the decision next week regarding a possible reduction in the level of the Fed Funds’ rate, to replace “the Walrus” with “Jerome Powell,” the current chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Fed).

This blog was inspired by the results of the recent democratic election in Mexico. The outcome of the election was not surprising, given that the candidate Claudia Sheinbaum is a protégée of the outgoing and highly popular president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. However, it did represent the first time in the country’s two hundred years of independence, a period during which it has had sixty presidents, that a woman has been elected to the presidency. Of the three largest North American countries (out of a total of 23), Mexico is the second to elect a woman as leader. Canada elected Kim Campbell in 1993 for a short-lived term of but a few months. As we all know, the United States has yet to elect a women as president.

In 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.

In 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.

Americans 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.

Some 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.

It 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%?

It’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.

Have you ever noticed how many public holidays there are in the European Union? They total about fifteen days that are in common among all the member countries. In addition, each country claims an array of other days off to celebrate national events. And in Europe, when the Government is closed for a day, so are most other businesses.

There’s no way to minimize the level of worry and fear permeating the community we live in, and that replicates what is happening in villages, towns, cities and countries around the world.

No one can predict the future, especially in a time of global crisis. In my investment lifetime, there have been five or six such events. All proved to be buying opportunities for stock. History is on the side of long-term investors.