When discussing discipline, society’s attitude towards it has changed over the decades. Police officers and teachers are no longer respected within the community, and parents often defend the behaviour of youth offenders. Parallels can be drawn between escalating youth crime and reckless banking systems. Will the banking sector be held accountable for its irresponsible behaviour?
We are in the Decade of Hard Assets
No two decades in the market are ever the same. The 2010s were a winning decade for paper assets. Anything that looked good on paper captured investor imaginations. An abundance of cheap money helped finance fanciful dreams. The 2020s are going to be an entirely different decade…
The Land of Rising Yields — Part Two
The days of cheap money appear to be over. The cost of debt is rising, which explains why Fitch has concerns over a blowout in future Federal budgets. How will successive administrations be able to afford the interest bill WITHOUT printing? The answer is, they can’t. The prospect of persistent global inflationary pressures is unnerving bond markets. This is why the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has started taking steps to be less controlling with its yield curve control…
The Land of Rising Yields — Part One
For almost seven years, the Bank of Japan has been actively manipulating the interest rate pricing on Japan’s 10-year Government bond. Meddling with market forces can work for a period of time, but not indefinitely…which is why Communism failed. Markets — in the end — always win…
When the Long-Term Becomes Short Term
In last Tuesday’s Daily Reckoning Australia, we looked at the powerful drivers that propelled the S&P 500 to an extraordinary 48-fold gain over the past four decades. The period of gain is why we expect the share market to be our retirement benefactor for the remainder of our adult lives. It has gone on for so long that we simply expect it’ll continue in a ‘business as usual’ fashion. But that’s not how long-term cycles work…
First the Crescendo, Then the Collapse
BusinessWeek’s cover story in August 1979 is a simple, but highly effective example of social mood. Most people don’t realise that by August 1979, the US market had gone nowhere for more than a decade, and investor despair would continue for another three years. In 2023, we have a social mood that’s the polar opposite of 1979. While the 1979 and 2023 investor outlooks are vastly different, the thought process behind the two contrasting positions is identical.
One Simple Word Can Change Your Thinking
There’s a subtle difference between ‘getting rich’ and ‘being rich’. There might only be one different word between the two sentences, but the meanings are worlds apart. Knowing the difference is crucial, not just to financial success, but to living a life that’s both rich and rewarding. Read on…
How Do You Hold onto a Bird in the Hand?
One of the best pieces of advice I received early in my financial advisory career came from a seasoned investment professional. His words still ring in my ears…“Vern, whenever you hear this 5-word preface “you can’t go wrong buying…”, that’s the moment when everything can go wrong.” Why? Read on…
1929, 1973, 1987 and 2000…Why it’s NOT Different This Time
Friendly warning…today’s The Daily Reckoning Australia is long on charts and short on text. These pictures paint more than a thousand words. However, there’s only ONE message from today’s issue and that is…history repeats and now is the time to exercise extreme caution…
A Rich Life is Measured by More Than Money
When a financial publication usually mentions the term ‘rich’, it tends to be associated with money or a vein of ore. Not this time. When the final tally on your life is done, true net worth is measured by other factors…
