stock markets

Jeremy Grantham Predictions Reviewed

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Jeremy Grantham Predictions Reviewed 1

Updated 2/20/24 One year almost to the day, here we are with Jeremey Grantham predicting… wait for it… a bubble! Of course, a bubble. I guess we can call him a permabear now. He must not believe everything he says because his fund is still in business. Maybe he just says these things to get headlines. It works. Updated 02/01/2023 According to a Marketwatch article, “Man credited with calling the 2008 crisis says the next 20 years in the stock market will ‘break a lot of hearts.” Whew. That’s a lot to unpack. Take a closer look at Jeremy Grantham predictions. Let’s start with a 20-year call being virtually worthless. In the next 20 years, I too predict the stock market will have rough periods. I also predict growth, a big year, a terrible year, a sidewise year, and a general overall trend up fueled at some points by growth, and some points by inflation. I mean, seriously, pretty much everything will happen at least once during the next 20 years. Was The Prediction Really That Great? As I pointed out in an earlier article, there is a staggering amount of back-patting, and “See I was right!” when it comes …

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Wrong Stock Market Predictions

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Wrong Stock Market Predictions 2

I read a lot of finance stuff. Most of the time, it’s a lot of the usual advice and tips wrapped up in new clothing. Finance and investing don’t really change that much. The exception is taxes, which change at least a little bit every year due to new tax court decisions, and the adjustments made to many tax numbers automatically each year due inflation. I keep reading about finance and investing both to keep my skills and knowledge sharp, and unfortunately, also to have some knowledge of whatever the latest finance and investing fads are. Investing for the long-term with a well diversified portfolio is the “eat less calories, burn more calories,” of finance. Everything else is a gimmick to achieve the same, while making is sound better (and easier). Tony Robbins Merchants of Doom I’m currently reading Tony Robbins’ Unshakeable. I like Robbins’ finance books. They repeat a lot of the sound financial advice that has been around for a while, often with a little more flair, and a lot more Tony. That is, Tony likes to name drop, which is fine, because he interviews some of the great minds for his books, but it’s always funny just …

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Bank Merger Signals New Phase of Economy

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bank mergers money

OK, here we go. The first big bank merger (or acquisition) since 2008 was announced today. It is significant for several reasons. Banks Are Back? As the financial industry imploded in 2008, it took the banks with them. It also exposed a lot of their shadier practices and brought out new regulations and reporting requirements. As a result, banks were in no way ready for the kind of scrutiny markets, investors, and regulators would perform if they tried to merge or acquire one another. Today, two semi-major banks are merging to become one of the big boys. BB&T and SunTrust are merging. They are going to pick a new name, though they apparently don’t know what it is. Wall Street seems to approve of the deal. Bigger Banks Better? One of the reasons given for the merger is that being a bigger bank is better. The idea is that some of the costs associated with being a modern bank make being smaller less viable. That isn’t entirely true. A small bank, serving one, or a few, states is still a completely profitable and worthwhile venture. Where banks are getting stuck is that area between small, and big. There, it can …

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Facebook Valuation Estimates Billions Wrong?

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Now that the new Facebook movie is coming out, even more people are going to be clamoring for information about just what Facebook is, what the Facebook company is like, and, of course, how to invest in Facebook. The catch is, there is no Facebook. Not a Facebook company you can invest in at least. Should savvy investors be looking to buy Facebook stock when they can? Investing In Facebook Let’s start with the basics. When most people think of stock, they think of the stocks that trade on the major stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange. The companies that trade their stocks here are called publicly-traded companies, because shares of their stock are bought and sold on public exchanged like the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ. There are also many companies, both big and small, that do not have stock shares that trade on the public markets. These companies are often referred to as privately-held companies, although that is not always a technically accurate decision. Facebook is NOT a publicly traded company. There are no Facebook shares of stock to buy on the NASDAQ or any other public stock exchange. That means that there is no way to …

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