The Loyal Opposition

According to Wikipedia “In parliamentary systems of government, the term loyal opposition is applied collectively to the opposition parties in the legislature that indicate that the non-governing parties may oppose the actions of the sitting cabinet while remaining loyal to the source of the government’s power.” This suggests that the majority party also owes a … Continued

NASDAQ Outage

I was stunned last week by this event. Not the event itself but rather coverage of it. To help me keep abreast of market activity during the day I keep CNBC on in my office (albeit on mute after nine am). However, I was driving in my car listening to CNBC when the outage was … Continued

The Boys of Summer

With today’s blog submission I thought I would give everyone a little break from the investment scene and focus in these dog days of summer on America’s favorite pastime, baseball. My motivation is our local hometown crew, the Detroit Tigers, and my comments stem from my lifelong love of baseball. Indeed, the Detroit Tigers are … Continued

Other People’s Money

There seems to be an increase in the cavalier treatment of other people’s money (OPM) by a wide variety of individuals and organizations, including corporate executives, politicians and some investment advisors. One would think that corporate executives could remember that every dollar they spend actually belongs to the shareholders. Politicians need to remember that all … Continued

Other People’s Money

There seems to be an increase in the cavalier treatment of other people’s money (OPM) by a wide variety of individuals and organizations, including corporate executives, politicians and some investment advisors. One would think that corporate executives could remember that every dollar they spend actually belongs to the shareholders. Politicians need to remember that all … Continued

Risk

Investors tend to think of risk in terms of their investment portfolios. However, for many Americans their largest investment is their home. Americans seem to have a penchant for building, and rebuilding, in obviously high risk locations: abutting wilderness areas, in established paths of hurricanes, tornados and other forms of severe weather, and recognized flood … Continued

Detroit was an Investment Too Good to Be True

Our investment committee found a recent WSJ article regarding the impact of Detroit’s bankruptcy on a number of European banks quite interesting. The article gave some detail surrounding Detroit bonds structured by UBS and sold to a number of European banks in 2005. At the time, Detroit was struggling to fund its pension obligations and … Continued