Bad day for stocks, Monday. A bad day. Not a terrible day. Not a crash day. Just a bad day. The Dow fell 140 points. This was baaaad...because it shows that the stock market does not really buy Bernanke’s storyline. You’ll recall that when we left off last week, Ben Bernanke assured ...read more

One advantage older investors have is that we have been there, done that, and seen about everything -- usually several times. It came as no surprise to me whatever -- other than the timing -- to hear that Brazil has decided to forbid foreign ownership of land and may confiscate ...read more

Africa has had many false dawns. So there are good reasons to be skeptical of yet another rising sun, full of promise. But this dawn has been a long time in the making and has different foundations than before. Already, we’re seeing some amazing changes. These changes began as Africa opened ...read more

Because of failure to heed the limitations of the U.S. Constitution, which has produced runaway federal spending, our nation sits on the precipice of disaster. Former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, co-chairmen of President Obama’s debt and deficit ...read more

If Henry David Thoreau was right when he wrote, “That government is best which governs least,” then Australia got itself the best government in the world on Saturday. Of course technically speaking, Australia didn’t elect a government. And that government which is not a government cannot govern at all. Thus, “not ...read more

Media coverage of the oil spill’s effect on the Gulf focusing on tourist income lost by the waterfront towns – with footage of empty beaches, restaurants and T-shirt shops – dominates the news. Interviews with devastated business owners are heart rending. But they always end with references to somehow hanging ...read more

In the usual bombardment of suspect statistics subject to revision next month there are a couple with considerable prospects for amusement, only partially because Messires Obama, Geithner, and Bernanke did not enjoy them if they even bothered to look. We here in the Bar seldom believe official numbers these days, ...read more

If Goldman Sachs is publicly bullish on gold, is that a good thing or bad thing for gold bulls? Wall Street's notorious trading house published a report on gold last week setting a price target of US$1,300 in the next six months. The report cited several factors. But before we get ...read more

Bloody riots in the streets demonstrated how Greek government employees felt about being paid for twelve months' "work" a year instead of receiving fourteen "monthly" paychecks a year on the way to fully-paid retirement at age 55, as I recall. It makes one wonder how the 40% of those employed ...read more

Stefan Zweig pegged it right after all. In the late 1930s, the Austrian playwright and writer sought relief from war-torn Europe and settled in Brazil. He loved it. In 1941, he moved there and wrote his book Brazil: Land of the Future. Brazil, he thought, “was destined to become one ...read more