I like this piece because in putting it together I found some press and learned journal items from the early 1970s that might make you feel more at ease with the current investment environment. But first I digress. My initial thought was to talk about the knee-jerk reaction Tuesday to the minutes of the January…
Session 8—A Masterpiece of Uncertainty and Contradiction or….. “All The News That’s Fit to Print” and Some That Ain’t
This Sunday’s edition of the New York Times carried an article penned by Jeff Sommer, a masterpiece of uncertainty and contradiction, entitled “Jumping Aboard The Train, As If There Won’t Be Another”. What Mr. Sommer is referring to is his belief that a rush has begun on the part of individual investors to get into…
Session # 7 My Biases–The Kort Party Line, Or How I See the Investment Landscape
Again, I digress from the main point of this blog, calling the media and punditry on misleading, late to the table commentary and general fear mongering. I thought it might be helpful for you to see where I am coming from and why I lean toward investing in stocks on a long term basis. Deficits,…
Session 6–“Economists Gain Optimism”
Monday morning I happened to see a copy of “USA Today” with the front-page headline: “Economists Gain Optimism” “Job Creation, Growth, Will Pick Up Speed Panel Predicts” The panel consisted of forty-six economists. What is interesting here is that for all intents and purposes the economy has been in an upturn, albeit slow and steady,…
Kort Session 5–The Dreaded “Sequester”
Sequester used as a noun means a general cut in government spending. In order to get an increase in the debt ceiling, Republicans and Democrats agreed on August 1, 2011 to a sequester of $1.2 billion of discretionary spending (spread over 9 years), if no other more appropriate compromise could be found to cut federal…
Kort Session 4–How to Prepare for the Next Correction (Or Worse)
This is a really tough topic, because we don’t know exactly when it happens or from what level of the indices it will come. One thing is certain it will become the next big question among the financial talkers and that some of their pronouncements will be very dire…. from 10 or 15% down to…
Kort Session 3–Current Events
It is Monday, February 4, 2013 and if you managed to ride out the last 5 years your investments are back to even (hopefully better than that including the dividends). If you took CNBC’s Jim Cramer’s unfortunate advice of October 6, 2008 and sold off that portion of your portfolio that you would need to…
Session 2–Recent History
Recent History Before we get into the financial media portion of our work , I think it is important to talk about the political thrust of this blog. There should not be one. But because the “Party of Stupid”, as Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, has called it has been so active in fear mongering, I…
Session One
I am 67 years. I have spent the past four decades as a broker selling common stocks to individual investors and institutions. I am addicted to the market and love my work I want to offer my experience and perspective as a tool for people to critically examine what they see and hear. This is all in…