Okay, I’m overstating it a bit. Plenty of people understand risk, but they don’t appear on “Deal or No Deal”. The rational thing for a contestant is to take the first deal that the banker offers. It’s usually close to the average value or all of the cases, and the contestant walked on stage with… [Read More]
Blog
Category: Financial Advice
The seven per cent problem
Illinois is mired in pension debts. Most states have them, but we have them worse. Accountants look at three main numbers when they calculate pension obligations: the number of years that people will be receiving a pension; the size of the pension payments; and the investment returns. Part of the problem is that people are… [Read More]
Good news? Bad news? Who knows?
As part of the blogathon, I’ve been reviewing some old posts and realize that I often write something like, “Is this good? Is this bad? I don’t know.” That’s because life is so darn strange that we often don’t know if something is good or bad until it has had a chance to play out,… [Read More]
Gold and market efficiency
The price of gold is falling. Everyone seems surprised. John Paulson is selling his fancy house in Aspen. I don’t get it. Or maybe I do. I’ve been on record for a long time saying that gold was overvalued. And for a long time, the price kept going up. Was I wrong? Am I right?… [Read More]
Felix Salmon, Thomas Friedman, and 401(k) plans
Last week, Thomas Friedman wrote a breathy column for the New York Times about how it’s a 401(k) world. The idea being that just as we have responsibility for our own retirement funds – which is good for some people – we have responsibility for more of our careers – which is also good for… [Read More]
