Do we have the capability to eliminate booms and busts in economic activity? The answer in my judgment is no, because there is no tool to change human nature. Too often people are prone to recurring bouts of optimism and pessimism.
September 28, 2012
It was a late summer day in 1955. Stamps and newspapers were three cents. A bottle of coke cost a nickel. That summer I was a 12-year-old caddy earning $1.25 for a round of golf plus, generally, a small tip. But on this particular day I would realize what it would take to make significant money as an adult.
The man I had...
September 12, 2012
It was 33 years ago this month when I got off the subway and stared at a newsstand copy of Business Week. The cover read “The Death of Equities.” It was 1979, five years removed from the 1973-1974 bear market. I was totally flummoxed by the story. The story was incomprehensible to me.
True the Dow Jones Average had been going...