Casey Clarke

As we addressed in the Monkey and the Volcano parable, there eventually comes a time when extreme volcanic pressure releases itself all at once. Markets are no different. Extreme buying pressure over time inevitably leads to sudden eruptions that send prices falling; in many cases faster than they went up. In markets as with volcanos, energy and volatility doesn’t disappear, it simply transmutes into another form. If you’ve been paying attention to financial markets the last few weeks, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that this process seems to be playing out currently. Netflix has been a good example…

As of the time this article is being written, October has shaped up to be another stellar month for the stock market. Going back to the lows in March of last year, the S&P 500 has more than doubled, pretty much erasing the horrific experience of one of the most acute declines in history from investors’ memories. Chalk it up as just another near miss, shot across the bow, or tremor before the ever-so-elusive big quake. As the frequency of these temporary market declines increases, investors seem to grow more and more complacent and take bigger and bigger risks; after…

For years we’ve been raising the issue of the systematic increase in wealth inequality in America. Whether monetary policy from the Fed or crony capitalism in Washington, the end result has been a widening gyre between the haves and the have-nots. Although there are very specific reasons for some of the protests taking place around the country today, wealth inequality is an overarching cause of much of the angst. What’s most unfortunate about this is that we didn’t just wake up to the highest level of wealth inequality since the Great Depression this morning. It’s been bad and getting worse…