Government

For Love or Money
Issue #108: For Love or Money One of the things that have been debated for a very long time is whether people act out of personal conviction (for love) or because of incentives and opportunity for gain (for money). The answer to this question has a tremendous impact on our personal, professional, and financial lives. Most of us tend to [...]
At the Margin
Issue #107: At the Margin One of the most prescient concepts in economics is the notion that “all changes occur at the margins”. Expressed another way, this means that when things change, it happens in small incremental movements. One of the commonly cited axioms of economics is that “rational people think at the margin”. What this means is that our [...]
Automotive Prison?
When many young people endeavor to purchase their first automobile, they face a wide variety of choices. One of the choices available is to lease or buy. If buying, you can purchase the automobile with cash or finance it. It is highly important to make the right decisions when purchasing a car, since the wrong move can turn that shiny [...]
Stock Market Blues
As this post is being published, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed below 10,000 placing an exclamation point on what many people fear to be a foreboding of future economic sluggishness or even the dreaded ‘double dip recession’. Throughout 2010, the stock market has been abnormally volatile, with no clear up or down trend. This phenomenon demonstrates the extent [...]
Is the Stock Market Ship going to Sink?
Issue #106: Is the Stock Market Ship going to Sink? As the year 2010 approaches its fourth quarter, there is a significant likelihood that anticipated 2011 fiscal policies will impact financial markets. The S&P 500 has recently leveled off from a precipitous drop after the financial crisis of 2008 and retreated from its 2010 peak of just over $1,200 that [...]
Creating Wealth on your Current Income
Issue #105: Creating Wealth on your Current Income When most people think of “creating wealth” it conjures up grandiose mental pictures of fabulous riches and exotic celebrities. However, the term “wealth” simply refers to owning valuable assets. There is no particular reason why normal, regular people cannot create wealth using nothing more than their current income and intelligent decisions. The [...]
Fragility and Robustness
Issue #104: Fragility and Robustness The financial crisis of 2008 has brought the impacts of debt and uncertainty into focus for many people (who are not not part of the government). The key to understanding bubbles and the recent financial crisis are the concepts of fragility and robustness. For the purpose of our analysis is to analyze the difference between [...]
Your Most Important Decision
Issue #103: Your Most Important Decision As we go through life, there are many decisions that we will make. Some of these decisions have a greater impact than others, but there is a single decision that frequently has a greater impact than most other decisions combined. This monumental decision is the selection of a spouse to be your partner in [...]
Assembling Success
Issue #102: Assembling Success To people who have attempted business or investment ventures, they quickly discover that simply doing what everybody else does is a recipe for mediocrity. Both the business and investment world are very competitive. Simply handing your money to a stock broker cannot be expected to generate exceptional returns, because every other broker is working to find [...]
Your Helping Hand
Issue #101: Your Helping Hand It is certainly true that many people need a helping hand at some point in their life, but this week I was thinking about where to find a helping hand with your personal success. Not surprisingly, the answer to this question is that your helping hand is attached to the end of your arm. This [...]

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