With the unnecessarily painful rhetoric surrounding the U.S. "debt ceiling" subdued we can turn our attention to the revenue increases and spending cuts needed to lower annual fiscal deficits. Spending cuts are a matter of debate (will a government-funded midnight basketball league keep youths off the streets and, thus, lower petty crimes such as vandalism?) [...]
Frustrated by low interest rates? Thinking of high-yield bonds or floating-rate loans to juice returns? The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has a warning for you: buyer beware!
Meredith Whitney's claim to fame is her now famous October 2007 prediction that Citigroup would have to raise capital, sell assets or cut its dividend. Since that time she's proven a one-hit wonder. As 2010 came to an end she panicked many an investor during a 60 Minutes interview when she predicted "hundreds of billions" of dollars of [...]
If you're a follower of Apollo Wealth Management or one of our longtime friends and clients you know of our affinity for the folks at Third Avenue Management. It should come as no surprise, then, that the following resonates with us. There is beauty in simplicity - a common sense that, sadly, is not too common. We therefore [...]
In one of those "you can't make this up" kind of ironic twists Pandora Media, Inc. went IPO yesterday. In 10 years of operation the company has earned a whopping profit of $0. That's right - zilch, nothing, nada. In fact the company has done a wonderful job of stockpiling losses. Sounds promising, yes? Get real. It's [...]
If you're one of the many longtime friends and clients of Apollo Wealth Management ("Apollo") then you know of our frustration with the amount of garbage that passes for clever commentary and prescient thinking. All too often there's an inverse relationship between the volume of information and its value. Conversely when intelligent voices are able [...]
It may not be Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education but Roth v. Roth is bound to make history. Hyperbole you say? Of course it is. You try making finance interesting! By now we're familiar with how our 401(k) plans operate and much has been written about the pros/cons of Traditional v. Roth IRAs but the [...]
History and pop culture have given us many famous phrases and quotable moments: Jedi Master Yoda tells us, "Do or do not. There is no try." Everyone's favorite grandmother, Clara Peller, wondered throughout the 1980s, "Where's the Beef?" And no one seems to know the full story behind those famous words uttered at The Battle of Bunker Hill: "Don't [...]
Vanguard, the mutual fund giant known for its rock bottom expenses and shareholder-friendly policies, has long been considered (fairly or unfairly) the king of indexing. And why not?...it's plastered across their home page! It's not a stretch to say this is the logical end for a firm that must be a strong believer in the Efficient Market Hypothesis [...]
"Have you ever heard a joke so many times you've forgotten why it's funny? And then you hear it again and suddenly it's new. You remember why you loved it in the first place." These are the words of William Bloom - a character in the 2003 film Big Fish directed by Tim Burton and adapted from [...]