Joshua M Brown

Operation Twizzlers: The Arkansas Fed Unveils New Direct Stimulus

Something extraordinary is happening across the nation – the largest employer of Americans outside of the Federal Government has announced a minimum wage hike for half a million of its cast members. Here’s Fortune: Wal-Mart is celebrating a surprisingly strong U.S. holiday season by spreading the wealth a bit. The world’s largest retailer and the nation’s largest private…

The Biggest Threat To Your Portfolio

Last night at the Nasdaq Marketsite, Mark Hulbert and I served on a panel discussion entitled Defend Yourself: Top threats to investors in 2015. The event was organized by MarketWatch and we spoke to a standing-room only crowd of over a hundred individual investors, Dow Jones journalists and other financial industry folks. Moderator and MarketWatch…

Where Does the Fed See Systemic Risk?

Where Does the Fed See Systemic Risk? Short answer? Mutual funds and ETFs! Longer answer, from the full text of today’s FOMC Minutes, which summarize the discussions held between January 27th and 28th. There’s some stuff in here about the potential for bubbles in commercial real estate while the volatility in FX and oil don’t…