Steven Pinker wrote, “In almost every year from 1992 through 2015, an era in which the rate of violent crime plummeted, a majority of Americans told pollsters that crime was rising. In late 2015, large majorities in eleven developed countries said that “the world is getting worse.” But crime isn’t rising, and the world is…

With the newly announced $100 billion share repurchase program, it’s clear that Apple is running out of ideas. Orrrrr maybe they’re just being responsible stewards of capital. Buybacks have a negative stigma, even though Econompically speaking, they’re actually equivalent. But people hear buybacks and think of Cisco  in the 90s and other easily available examples as…

Stories Discussed Demographics is destiny Retirement is going to be tough But things are getting better It’s a bubble. So what.  Wait. What is a bubble? The tech takedown Amazon’s cash flow Amazon is worth $1,019 a share.  The most brilliant investor ever.  Listen here Charts mentioned Tweets mentioned Going back to 1896, the Dow…

Baby Boomers did not do a great job preparing for their future. The median retirement account balance for people ages 56-61 is just $25,000. This could have been accomplished by contributing just $6 a month into a 60/40 portfolio (since 1980). Ask somebody whether they would prefer $100 today or $500 in twenty years, most…

Articles Being smart or stupid didn’t necessarily determine the outcome. It’s just the way things worked out. By Josh Brown Bearing too little risk is precisely how investors end up failing slowly. By Corey Hoffstein Is the US stock market in another bubble? Yes. By Rob Arnott, Shane Shepherd, and Bradford Cornell  All it takes…

We talked about: Some annoying finance phrases What if Tesla were a private company? Netflix is beating all expectations… …But should it be worth more than Disney? The Amazon shareholder letter  Chris Bosh knows nothing about money… …How Greenblatt would explain things Listen here: Charts mentioned Tweets mentioned Here's a fun game – Can you…

In 1966, Gemini XI traveled 853 miles above the earth’s surface in the farthest space mission ever.  Apollo 8 would shatter that record just two years later, taking Frank Borman, William Anders, and Jim Lovell to the moon, 240,000 miles away. The Saturn V  had 5.6 million parts, carried a million gallons of propellant, and…

How can Netflix be worth nearly as much as Disney? Five years ago, Disney was worth nearly ten times as much as Netflix, and over this time, Disney’s earnings have been 35 times larger than Netflix. Yet the gap in company size has all but disappeared. How is this possible? Over the last five years, Netflix…

Articles The most dominant creatures tend to be huge, but the most enduring tend to be smaller. By Morgan Housel  We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. By Nick Maggiulli Mr. Paulson has acknowledged making mistakes By Gregory Zuckerman The company needs to figure out how to…

Last week Barry sat down for an amazing conversation with Joel Greenblatt, author of You Can Be a Stock Market Genius (originally titled Any Fool Can Be a Stock Market Genius). Greenblatt tells a story about when he went to a school in Harlem to talk with kids about investing. To explain how markets work and…