Many thanks to all who emailed a response to Guns 1-2-3.

As a part of his first semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, Chairman Powell made an appearance this week before both the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee to discuss monetary policy and the state of the economy. How did he do?

“16 US steel stocks market cap up $1B as a result of tariff announcement today. Rest of S&P 500 down $400B. "Making Americans Poor Again." (H/T Smails)”. – Doug Kass, March 2, 2018

Readers are invited to research the following words: protectionism, tariffs, quotas, trade barriers,…

VITA stands for “Volunteer Income Tax Assistance.” There are additional specialized programs like it. The key to success of the new tax reform law is to have these programs used. Why?

In part one of this series, I wrote about my personal journey with guns. Part two involved the US stock market and bond market and Cumberland’s investment policy and how it relates to the three public companies that constitute the gun makers whose shares trade on the US exchanges and are thus…

“I don’t want to invest in any gun makers,” said our client. She was and is passionate and adamant. “This shooting stuff has to stop.”

“I agree with the goal” is my repeated reply. No one wants to see the scenes we are witnessing. But let’s talk about the investing issue and not the…

Each year at the Camp Kotok gathering in Maine, there is an optional morning for those who want to shoot. A variety of weapons are available. All shooting is supervised and all is on ranges or safe venues. We debated doing this for a few years and then tried it. The response was large. Many of…

In their February 15 DataTrek newsletter, Jessica Rabe and Nick Colas refer to the classic DuPont model in discussing how to deal with equity valuations. They admit that “Permanent changes to the tax code shift returns higher.” We agree. They then temper their outlook by introducing the deficit…

Many market agents seem vexed by the VIX. Their recent lessons include a dramatic spiking of volatility, the reactionary pricing of an exchange-traded note (ETN), some forced liquidation, and a blisteringly fast correction in stock prices. The average stock dropped 14% in only a few weeks.…

Eurozone equity markets have declined in step with global markets in a widely expected market correction. While there has been some recovery in the first two days of this week, it is not yet clear that the correction has run its course. Concerns that interest rates in both the United States and…