July 4, Puerto Rico and How to Feel Good about America This letter is going to be a little different, and much shorter. But on July 4 I hope it makes you feel good! Regular readers know I spend most ...

Over the weekend, I was talking with a family friend who was moving some money around. I asked what he planned to do with the cash left over. I was hoping his answer wasn’t put it in a low interest ...

When we talk about inflation, the conversation usually centers on periods (like now) when inflation is especially high.

REITs are a “must have” in an income-focused portfolio. These investments were created in 1960 to give the individual investor the opportunity to invest in commercial real estate. By law, they must ...

The Social Security Administration recently gave us their annual report with a few blockbuster footnotes. We all know that Social Security as it is currently constructed will run out of money in the ...

This week is the final recap of the 2026 Strategic Investment Conference. I have always done summaries of the SIC afterwards, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken four weeks, let alone five weeks to ...

In the summer of 1944, with the war in Europe not yet won, the United States convened 44 nations at a resort hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and wrote the rules of the postwar world. The dollar ...

Have you ever heard of Succession Risk? It occurs when key leaders of a company leave their position—whether expected or not—and a clear successor isn’t already in place. When key leaders leave, there ...

In 1712, an ironmonger named Thomas Newcomen built a machine in Dudley, England that changed the world. Not immediately. Not obviously. The Newcomen engine was crude, inefficient, and mostly used to ...

Earlier this month, I headed from Virginia to Florida on the Amtrak auto train. I highly recommend this option instead of driving down I-95. On my way back to the DC area, the sleeper cabins and ...

One of the things I’ve learned after more than two decades of SIC is that the conference doesn’t really end when the final session wraps up. In some ways, that’s when the real work begins. It’s ...