self-improvement

Are You Ready to Surf the Debt Super-Cyclone?   Find out in the latest episode of the Milkshakes Markets Madness Show. You can watch it on my YouTube Channel or visit the subscribe page on MilkshakesPod.com to listen with your favorite podcast app.   ————————————– SEASON 01 | EPISODE 04 ————————————– Big wave surfers are …

Investing for Rogue Waves Read More »

READ THIS BEFORE YOU CONSIDER A HELOC (or Refinance) There are a lot of misunderstandings about what The Fed does when it “raises rates” and the impact it has on mortgage rates. The Fed has limited policy tools when it makes monetary policy, one of those is the Fed Funds Rate, an overnight lending rate. …

7 Things to Know Before You Get a HELOC Read More »

MARCH MADNESS   March 2020 was the beginning of utter madness, in so many ways. For the financial markets, it meant unprecedented intervention from governments and central banks to keep the global economy from imploding. As a result of their policy decisions, we all experienced the severe side effect of 40-year high inflation in 2022. …

Mortgage Rate Arbitrage Read More »

HOUSING MARKET   In Part 5, the final post of the financial markets “2022 Year in Review”, we look at everyone’s favorite topic … the housing market. The 2022 Housing Bubble in the US is BIGGER than 2006, when considering home values adjusted for median income.   Meanwhile, the rapid change in mortgage rates this …

2022 Year in Review – Part 5 Read More »

GOBBLE GOBBLE   Does the tryptophan in turkey make you sleepy, or is it the glycemic shock of massive overeating? Does indulging in cheap credit make you a smart investor, or have governments and central bankers lulled you to sleep with massive intervention (QE, stimulus checks, PPP loans, bail outs, etc.)?   No matter how …

2022 Year in Review – Part 1 Read More »

INFLATION NOTHING BURGER   Inflation is measured as a rate of change. It is also a lagging economic indicator because it uses backward looking data from the month before. I was suggesting the last two months that inflation had likely peaked, especially when we consider month-to-month trends, which had already been slowing.   Today’s July …

Inflation Nothing Burger Read More »

BULL VS. BEAR   Prolonged asset price declines are called a Bear Market, whereas the continuous increase in price is known as a Bull Market. Besides higher prices, bull markets are characterized by extreme euphoria and often punctuated by an intense spike in price known as a “blow-off top”. Meanwhile, bear markets only reach their …

Bull vs. Bear Read More »

SLOW MOTION TRAIN WRECK   “How did you go bankrupt”, Bill asked. “Two ways”, Mike said. “Gradually, then suddenly”. This is a popular quote from the Hemingway novel, “The Sun Also Rises”. It describes well, the slow-motion train wreck that is the US economy.   The US economy has had a tough year. Each bear …

Slow Motion Train Wreck Read More »

I GOT A FEVER   …and the only prescription is more cowbell. This is a quote from a classic SNL skit featuring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken.   Walken isn’t the only thing heating up, so is inflation, or at least that has been the story of 2022 … so far. In the SNL skit …

I Got A Fever Read More »