December 2008 Investment Commentary

As we expected, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States by an overwhelming majority. Obama garnered 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote. In all my adult years of sitting up watching election returns, I don’t ever recall the winner being announced as early as 10pm (CST). In addition, the Democrats…

November 2008 Investment Commentary

The number of new home foreclosures for the month of September was announced October 23rd. There were 265,968 new foreclosures according to RealtyTrac. This was a 21% increase from September, 2007 but a 12% decline from August. However, according to RealtyTrac, much of the decline from August to September can be attributed to new state…

October 2008 Investment Commentary

September was possibly the most interesting month in my 27+career in the investment industry. September 3rd – Ospraie Fund, a $4 billion hedge fund closes after losing 38% in 2008 on bad bets in copper and natural gas. Lehman Brothers owned a 20% stake in the Ospraie Fund. September 7th – the U.S. Government placed…

September 2008 Investment Commentary

We have been so dour lately (actually this entire calendar year) that some of you may have ceased reading our monthly Investment Commentary. We are confident that the day will come when we will write glowingly optimistic summaries of the global economic conditions and just as optimistic predictions of the future performance of securities markets…..but…

August 2008 Investment Commentary

We have had a lot of people ask us what will happen to the stock market and other investments if Obama is elected or if McCain is elected. First of all, we think any sitting president gets way too much credit if the economy is good and way too much blame if the economy is…