That's funny.

BTW, has the virus died down, or what?  I don't hear anything about it on the news now.

I think you're giving him too much credit.  He doesn't seem to be as motivated as his opponents think.

I've been observant of second term presidents since Nixon.  I can't recall any that didn't seem lame.  Yet, it seems Obama might be the lamest since Nixon.  Maybe this is recency bias.

And I'll say that there is very little difference between the two parties, and just about none if you exclude Rand Paul. I agree.  Biggest differences are on hot button issues, most of which involve identity politics and culture wars.  And a lot of that is posturing for votes.  On military policy, ...

I give him a little credit for at least asking the question. 

That's easy for you to say.

There was a long email letter by John Mauldin today, making the case for a prolonged secular rise in the value of the dollar, based on what's being done in other economies and their currencies. He expects long bond yields to go even lower, gold goes nowhere or down, cash remains trash.  For stocks, ...

I was reading a newsletter article which described how there is a virtual iron curtain between red and blue states in the US.  According to Pew polling, various attitudes about politics and choices of media, friends, and locales have become more hard line and more left or right than in past history....

Let's be clear.  In your terms Moda, the federal government is the parasite.  It doesn't have anything it hasn't taken from the states.  States with a lot of federal employees, military, or social security recipients are going to get a lot of federal money.  Beyond that it's all interest group polit...

Not to mention, those states all voluntarily joined together.

AdO: Yes, we are morally responsible for the state of affairs in Iraq. But I can't bring myself to think that means we have to continue to police the place.  All the king's horses, and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again.  Further to other comments, people in the west need to real...

I agree with the naysayers.  Stocks are at all time highs.  Not the time to be going overweight on them.  I realize I'm not giving the company line which is that HB says 4x25.  But if stocks were at lows and gold at highs, I would love your idea from a market timing point of view.  But not now.  It ...

PS:  As a beginner, I would do some money in a 4x25 PP, and some in whatever you might feel more comfortable in.  Call it your variable portfolio or not.  Over a period of years, you'll either see merit in the PP or you won't.  I think people who plunge all in, without enough other investing experie...

Intuition tells us that the round-numbered 4x25 cannot possibly be the optimum allocation.  But there isn't any way to know what the optimum will be.  And 4x25 is respectably battle tested.  Most of us would like to think we are smarter than the average investor, and with enough reasoning or greed a...

They are going to reelect Pat Quinn as governor.  Even though he has knowingly driven them into the iceberg.  Maybe that is giving him too much credit.

Negative T bill rates bother me.  It tells me that foreigners are piling their money into bills for safekeeping.  Which is fine and all.  But they are depressing the yields for those of us who don't want to pay for privilege.  I guess this is a burden of having the world's favorite currency. 

Haven't looked at my acct, the price of gold or read Marketwatch since Thursday. It's like being lost in your own neighborhood. Not sure how long I will last. Kind of miss the end of the world articles but no panic sells either. Like a lot of addictions, it's fun to do those things.  But you have t...

I have a relative in a small smokestack city in central IL.  Several years ago they received an influx of displaced Chicago Public Housing residents.  It ruined their city's schools, for one thing.

In the early years of our marriage, the plan was this:

1) Set the goal for the savings balance for the end of the year.
2) Meet the goal.

The details take care of themselves if you are serious about meeting the goal.

I am trying to recall how I got to my present state of ignorant bliss. I accepted and believe that predictions are useless.  As are investing "stories", such as China is a bubble, we are running out of oil, or whatever.  Once I came to that realization, it was pretty pointless to read or w...

My guess is stocks are due for a bigger fall than gold is due to go up.

Pointedstick wrote:

Then again, it kind of makes sense since they're a government organization. If they accidentally send out phony refund money, nobody actually directly loses, since more money is just conjured up to pay it.

I had the same thought!

Did anyone else watch that?  I mean, we all knew the IRS is not very competent.  But they truly cannot find their asses with both hands.

I think it is a great portfolio for a gloom and doomer who has realized that he might go broke waiting for, and betting on, the doom.  I don't spend as much time thinking about how to improve the PP as some of you.  I wonder if something else could be better for the 0% interest environment.  But I c...

Is 3% VEU significant?  Not in my way of thinking.  Anything less than 5%, and maybe 10%,  is just noise.  Not trying to be mean, just saying it plainly.