The value of NFL franchises has boomed the last fifteen years. However not all the games are selling out which means that television blackouts will be enforced in more markets. Which means that people will not be able to watch the games, at least for free. Is that a good strategy? Tennis enjoyed a resurgence…

THe Obama Administration slapped import duties on Chinese tires over the weekend.  Are you aware of the Smoot  Hawley tariffs of the 1930s? Those tariffs were protectionist measures that added to the global slow down in trade back then.  Now not only do such measures slow trade but anger one of the largest buyers of…

The rubber ball bounce from 666 to 1000 in the S & P has encouraged small investors.  Elliott Wave Theory suggests that this move up was merely a Wave Two of a Five Wave Pattern. The more devastating Wave Three is yet to begin.  So far the S & P drooped from 1500 to 666…

Floyd Norris  comments on the changes in accounting rules. The FASB and IASB have different rules. As Norris points out, political pressure has led to the Boards backing off at times to as he puts it,  by forcing banks to disclose what their dodgy assets are actually worth, as opposed to what the banks think they…

I have preached almost endlessly that you will be graduating into a world very different from the 1990s.  Take a look a this socionomics view of the size of houses. Or tour any neighborhood of sixty to seventy year old houses built after WW II, the size is about 1000-1200 sf. My parents house bought in…

It took less than 20 hours of work per week to buy the S & P in the mid 1970s.  Now it takes over 50 hours. This means we are no where near the bottom of this stock sell off yet.    I believe you will be graduating into an environment like the 1970s. Volatility…

I have distributed an article from Barrons on Sears Holdings. We study accounting  to interpret what is likely to happen in financial markets. That is the use of fundamental analysis. Technical analysis consists of using charts to analyze future price movements. Here the purple line is the Exchange Traded Fund for Retail, XRT.  I overlaid…

George Will continues his profiles of what was the Golden State, the world's 8th largest economy.  Or as Investors Business Daily puts it, Detroit with sunshine. AS he says, CA lags only New York in outward migration of residents and more would leave it they could sell their houses.  Here he profiles another candidate in…

Despite what you hear from all politicians, the world is undergoing a BEAR market.  Bull markets are all about expansion. Since 1982 or the longer view, 1932, we have been accumulating, as George Carlin would say, STUFF. We now have so much stuff that we created another entire industry, the mini warehouse, to store out…

The Road Ahead   The best analogy for 2000-2016  is likely the period from 1966 to 1982. No, I don’t mean a revival of the Beach Boys but music,  mood, and markets will undergo substantial change. Let’s take a look. The Dow Industrials peaked for the firs time at 1,000 back in 1965 amid a…