Tough to believe it’s December already. Thanksgiving is behind us, and 2014 right around the corner. No shortage of good reading this week –
First, Pope Francis calls unfettered capitalism ‘tyranny’ and urges rich to share wealth. I like the new Pope. Nothing against the prior ones, but it seems Pope Francis is focusing on the down to earth issues, and calling for his followers to stop obsessing over other issues. He recognizes that an extreme concentration of wealth is bad for society and preaches that we understand this as well.
Next, Rick Ferri offered Another Reason To Buy Index Funds. I’ve met Rick at the past two FinCons, and really enjoyed our discussions. When we ran into each other, he remarked that he just came from a panel where he was honored to be seated next to Jack Bogle. Rick wasn’t name dropping. He was genuinely happy to be sitting next to the father of index investing. Pretty cool in my opinion.
Black Friday is creating Gray Thursday and killing Thanksgiving. This is how Kevin Mercadante felt about this year’s early shopping. All I know is that these days that stores force workers to come in don’t really create any more business, only make for unhappy workers. Staples opened at 12:30 am Friday morning. I went at 1:00PM to a near empty store and got a printer on sale. The old one died couple weeks ago, and I waited a bit to see what I’d save.
I’ve been reading Parker Tax Publishing to stay up to date on tax news and the latest there is Doubt is Growing on Whether Expiring Tax Provisions Will Be Extended. Too bad. The changes are disruptive. I’ve said it before, we need to have a tax code that’s unchanged, save for inflation adjustments, for the long term. Check out what’s going to expire at the end of this year.
I’ve written about Robert Shiller before. This week at Think Advisor, Shiller vs. Fama: Which Nobel Winner Comes Out on Top? I picture these two Nobel Winners putting on gloves and getting into the boxing ring. My money is on Shiller. Literally.
To wrap up this week, at The Chicago Financial Planner, New Stock Market Highs: It’s Different This Time Right? Actually, those very words are a sign of a market starting to top. I’m not selling it all, but scaling back. Because it’s never different.