Envelope / Develope

Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash This post is a convergence of my thoughts after re-reading a few books I always recommended for novice investors: The little book of common sense investing by John Bogle Where are the customer's yachts by Fred Schwed Thieves of Bay Street by Bruce Livesey (for Canadian investors) The Four pillars of investing by Michael Bernstein and also the continuous reading of web sites posting ideas and analysis for the investing community: Seeking Alpha Morningstar Bogleheads Investing  I am writing because I have friends who don't have the time/inclination and maybe curiosity to look a little bit deeper than the Yahoo financial articles and Motley Fool articles about investing (where people are goaded to consider different companies just because arguments are presented with catchy pseudo-reasons). They are at an age where planning for retirement should be a priority but, for some reason, the basic education of how to do ...

The US politics is full of empty slogans and misinformation. I was reading about claims by Barack Obama and Trump vis-a-vis the state of the economy, whose policies left it in a better shape. Photo by Jose Moreno on Unsplash It would make an interesting analysis with proper tools to recognize the real environment inherited by both presidents, the influence of the monetary policies during their period but most importantly their direct role in shaping the US economy. Unfortunately, in US media at least, nobody is talking about the real influences in the economy, the forces at play, with a lot of money power, that want to drive the economy in a "clear direction". We can talk about the beneficiaries of the government spending - like US defense and US health care - to industries sponsored through subsidies or punished because of well/not that well known public issue concerns - soft drinks, fast food, tobacco, chemical compounds. One of the puzzling policies, for m...