T. Boone Pickens is famous as an oilman, corporate raider and energy investor.  He is also a graduate of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and an avid supporter of the University and its athletic programs.  Reportedly, he has donated nearly $500 million to support various OSU initiatives.  About five years ago he had the bright idea… Read more

The advance estimate of U.S. third quarter GDP was released this morning, indicating that the economy grew at 2 percent. Third quarter growth was driven by private consumption and government defense consumption. Investment expenditures were weak, and trade was a small drag on third quarter growth. Business investment expenditures actually contracted, while residential real estate… Read more

 How to become a Billionaire By Bill Ackman Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has produced an interesting lecture on finance and investing.  It can be found at www.floatinguniversity.com.  It is one of twelve lectures on “big ideas” currently residing on the site.  Ackman’s lecture, titled “All you need to know about finance and investing in… Read more

I began my career as an economics professor (actually, assistant professor) at the Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University).  In 1980, I joined with three colleagues at the Claremont Men’s College (now Claremont McKenna College) who had started an economics advisory company called Claremont Economics Institute (CEI).  CEI provided financial forecasting and consulting to… Read more

In his book “Unintended Consequences” Edward Conard1 not only supports the benefits of income and wealth inequality (as described in a previous post (August 7, 2012)), both as an indicator of past successful ventures and as an inducement to future ventures, but he also provides a diagnosis and remedy for financial crises. He denigrates the… Read more

A financial planning rule of thumb that you often hear is that the percentage allocation to safe assets (cash or bonds) should increase with age, and accordingly the percentage allocation to the risky asset (equities) should decline with age.  One popular version is that your allocation to equities should be no higher than 100 minus… Read more

The labor department released their monthly jobs report. Today’s release is a report on the employment situation in August. Payroll jobs rose by 96 thousand jobs, driven by private sector job growth of 103 thousand jobs. The private sector job growth was concentrated in services, particularly professional and business services, education and healthcare services, and… Read more

In a recent speech Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke1 spoke of the importance of financial education.  People commonly make financial mistakes such as saving too little, taking on too much debt, holding too little life insurance, making bad investment decisions and, in general, paying fees that are unnecessary.  The consequences of these mistakes can be… Read more

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows that median net worth for baby boomers (households with head of household aged 55-64 in 2010) was $179,000 in 2010, down from $226,000 in 2007.  The median is defined to be the lowest of the top 50% (or the greatest of the bottom 50%).  At first glance, it… Read more

Former Bain partner Edward Conard has published a controversial book “Unintended Consequences”1 in which he provides a positive case for income and wealth inequality and for market solutions to societal problems.  His story is an unabashed defense of market capitalism (and private equity).  A NYT reviewer has labeled the book “The Most Hated Book in… Read more