“Low Rates Sting Insurers” (WSJ March 21, 2016) examines how low interest rates are raising premiums for long-term care policy holders and reducing profits for the insurers.  There is a solution to this problem, however.  Regulatory bodies could approve the purchase of preferred equity by insurers instead of limiting investments to interest-bearing debt.

In “U.S. Productivity:  Missing or in Hiding? (July 17, 2015 WSJ), Microsoft’s chief

economist Preston McAfee hits the nail on the head when he speculates:  “Maybe our 

mysterious productivity gain is in the form of less inflation…”  

1) The Greeks have met all their creditors’ demands, but the Germans object to the reliance on taxation, a needed change in a country where tax evasion is rife. 

2) Greek debt levels became unsustainable in the financial crisis when the Greeks borrowed to bail out German banks that had made bad loans to Greece.

Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor

Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor Submission

The press is reporting today that the US achieved GDP growth of 3.9% in the 3rd quarter.  However, on a year-over-year basis, GDP growth was only 2.4%.  3.9% is the sequential growth from Q2 to Q3.  No company reports results this way.  Why does the US government?  Sequential reporting is subject to government statisticians seasoning their stew

In this speech from 1936, Roosevelt explains that political equality is of little use unless there is equality of opportunity in the marketplace. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Acceptance Speech for the Renomination for the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa.

After an extensive review of high-frequency trading, Michael Lewis claims in his book “Flash Boys” that stock markets are rigged.  Many are therefore asking whether the average retail investor, already gun-shy from the financial crisis, should simply stay away from the stock market.  High-frequency traders claim that they have helped the small investor by improving liquidi

Diamond Head Financial does not own gold and particularly gold miners.

Behzad Yaghmaian argues that Egypt’s military must not remove the democratically elected despot Morsi from power lest the country face dire consequences (The Price of Terminating Democracy in Egypt, WSJ, June 8, 2013).  The Egyptian military, however, is not just any tin-pot dictator in a raw grab for power.  This is not Latin America after all.  This is the