Joshua M Brown

Dimon Loves Retail Stockbrokers

I caught this in the New York Post this morning, thought it was pretty cool: “I love the retail broker business because my dad is a broker and my grandfather was a broker and it was the first job I ever had,” Jamie Dimon, 53, said at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association meeting…

Gold Fever, Gold Bubble, Gold Mania, Gold Frenzy etc

Now that we have one asset class, gold, that is selling for all-time high prices, I’m not surprised to see it in the center of controversy.  Gold has been hotly debated on and off Wall Street and by individual investors since at least mid-2008 when it first kissed $1000 an ounce.  Now that it’s soaring…

Guess How Many Millionaires in Congress?

Since Congress is suddenly so interested in discussing and regulating what other people make, let’s discuss the financial condition of our hardworking, selfless Reps. Take a guess what percentage of Congress are millionaires…I’ll give you a jumping off point:  1% of the total US population are millionaires. You probably figured that Congress probably had between…

Hot Links: Thousand and One Words

Hot Links for Weekend Reading… An important piece: Ludwig Von Mises (Austrian Economist) gets a profile in the Wall Street Journal.  (WSJ) This one’s clickbait but I don’t care, it’s awesome: The 25 Laziest Cities in America.  (Clusterstock) The Fly has had enough, other internet finance guys beware (perhaps myself as well?).  (iBankCoin) A cool…

John Mauldin on the Latest Employment Data

In the latest edition of his excellent weekly newsletter, this one entitled The Glide Path, John Mauldin touvhes on the latest employment numbers and what they actually mean: From Thoughts From The Frontline: The Ugly Unemployment Numbers The headlines said unemployment, as measured by the “establishment survey,” was down by 190,000; and even though that…

Seven Things You Should Know 11/6/2009

Seven Things You Should Know November 6th 2009 1. 30% of Americans age 45-64 surveyed in late July 2009 have stopped contributing to a pre-tax retirement plan (source: AARP). 2. Total household debt in the US was $13.7 trillion as of 6/30/09, 96% of the size of our $14.2 trillion economy. The debt-to-economy ratio was…

Recession Signpost: 7-Eleven Introduces Their Own Wine

Yes, you read the headline correctly, convenience store chain 7-Eleven is rolling out their own wines, appropriately priced at $2.99 a bottle.  I wonder if it would be considered uncouth to drink 7-Eleven brand wine with an extra-long Slurpee straw.  I also would like to know if it can be quaffed from a 64 ounce…

Fiddling With Climate Change and Healthcare While Rome Burns

Dear President Obama, I did not vote for you last November as I’m not a “joiner” and faux-grassroots movements make me cringe (remember the Ross Perot scare of the late 80’s?). I doubt you will read this as it most certainly will not make Rahm Emanuel’s list of approved reading materials.  On the off-chance that…

Hot Links: Cheetos Chapstick and Other Oddities

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The mutual funds that benefitted most from Buffett‘s BNI buyout.  (Morningstar) Denninger’s on the money with this Fannie Mae business.  Despicable.  (Market-Ticker) Jr. Deputy Accountant agrees, calling the GSE’s the world’s largest slumlords.  (JrDepAcct) Its now the reflation trade, not the recovery trade.  (PragCap) Who’s Who of the insider trading…