Published on February 2nd, 2021 “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett   “You always pass failure on your way to success.” – Mickey Rooney   “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” – James Joyce1   “Failure is success in progress.” – Albert Einstein2   “Success consists…

Published on January 26th, 2021 Conglomerates are parent companies that own a number of large subsidiaries. They became popular back in the 1960s with corporations like ITT, LTV and GE, to name a few. In recent years, behemoth American conglomerates have spun off, sold off and pared down.1  …

Published on January 19th, 2021 Inflation was already on the rise before we learned about the omicron variant. Now on top of supply-chain shortages and transportation disruptions, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently observed that a resurgence of COVID-19 cases could reduce the consumer-driven boom we’ve enjoyed for the…

Published on January 12th, 2021 The general outlook for equities is positive toward the end of the year and into 2022. Stocks performed relatively well through the autumn earnings season and, as a general rule, the fourth quarter tends to be the best one for stock performance. While the…

Published on January 5th, 2021 Not surprisingly, some of the most notable investors in America founded well-known investment companies. For example, John Templeton, whom in 1999 “Money” magazine called “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century” founded Templeton Funds, best known for its international fund lineup. Thomas…

Published on December 29th, 2021 Across the board, we’re seeing the capitalist principles of supply and demand both drive and curb U.S. economic activity. As more people have emerged from their hermit-like existence throughout the past year and a half, consumer spending is shifting from goods to services. For…

Published on December 22nd, 2021 This past August, close to 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs — the most ever in just one month (since the government began collecting data two decades ago).1 But there isn’t just one reason people are quitting their jobs. There are dozens. Some who…

Published on December 15th, 2021 It is interesting to evaluate how various economic events throughout time affect different demographics. For example, the 2007-2009 Great Recession saw higher losses in male-oriented jobs, such as construction and manufacturing. The pandemic-induced recession of 2020 was quite the opposite, affecting women to such…

Published on December 8th, 2021 Low inventory, low-interest rates, and pandemic-induced retirements have been driving a very tight, competitive residential real estate market for several years. In the third quarter of 2020 alone, nearly 27 million Baby Boomers decided to retire rather than return to a work environment that…

Published on December 1st, 2021 The Federal Reserve wields a fair amount of power in the U.S., with reverberations that can affect the broader global economy. The Fed’s job is to monitor and adapt monetary policy to support favorable economic conditions, and it pays particular attention to the effects…