Brain damage can create superior investment results, at least according to James O’Shaughnessy in his classic What Works on Wall Street. O’Shaughnessy refers to a study by Baba Shiv of Stanford University that found that people that had suffered damage to the amygdala or the insula regions of their brains made better investment decisions and...Read More

The following is a review and analysis of Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future, by  Ian Goldin, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balarajan.  In a U.S. election year, the subject of immigration is a controversial topic; kudos to the authors for stirring up a little controversy.   “We live in...Read More

“This book should not be controversial, but it will be,” writes Michael Dever in the introduction to Jackass Investing. “That is because investing, which should be a rational pursuit, is not… [M]ost people’s investment decisions are not based on rational facts. They’re based on myths and emotions.” Regrettably, Mr. Dever is correct in his assessment....Read More

The financial planning industry has no shortage of voices offering advice.  Unfortunately, they all tend to say the same thing, and it’s not what most investors need or want.  In fact, it’s often the exact opposite. Above all, most investors want security.  They want to know that the nest egg they’ve spent a lifetime building...Read More

“Look around you. From now on, it gets worse. In ten years’ time, there will be no American Dream, any more than there’s a Greek or Portuguese Dream. In twenty, you’ll be living the American Nightmare, with large tracts of the country reduced to the favelas of Latin America, the rich fleeing for Bermuda…. “For...Read More