john maddente | midwestern clarity

M any times  I've driven past the military vehicle and large sign in front of Mission BBQ with curiosity, but never enough to actually go in and check it out.  Today I did so; and I'll be back.   My dining companion explained that the franchise began out of efforts from two military veterans who'd served together in the Middle East.  He went on to explain that at noon -- which was moments away -- we'd likely see the place stop normal activities to observe the national anthem.  It happened at noon sharp and it was great. My whole experience began by walking into a pleasantly rustic environment with loads of military and patriotic memorabilia all punctuated by a wonderful smoky aroma from the BBQ.  This is an organization that gives back and is quite serious about its mission.   However, the whole thing would collapse if the food fell short of the brand and purpose but it doesn't--some of the best BBQ I've had and each table is equipped with six -...

T here's nothing conventional about investment manager, author and media personality, Jonathan Hoenig.  Even the name of his hedge fund  Capitalistpig , defies comparison.   Years ago, I recruited Jonathan Hoenig to speak at financial industry events and then I began to notice his frequent TV appearances on Fox business programs . Characteristically, in  his new book  with Stuart Hayashi ,  Price Is Primary: how to profit with any asset in any market at any time   Mr. Hoenig challenges several fundamental principles that some retail  investors hold as immutable, even if professional traders do not.   Consider dollar cost averaging; Hoenig argues instead that an initial purchase of a security should be your largest one, then on the basis of rigorous observation and disciplined use of  rules, one should quickly pare losses or "let the winners run."  Rebalance your portfolio?  No, not a strategy he embraces. ...

By United States Senate photography studio - manchin.senate.gov, Public Domain,  O ne wouldn't expect to find a lot of bipartisanship concerning the federal $3.5  trillion  spending bill -- and there isn't much to be found -- but courage and reason came shining through in this piece by Senator Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia.  (Source: Wall Street Journal).  Why I Won’t Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future. Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree. An overheating economy has imposed a costly “inflation tax” on every middle- and working-class American. At $28.7 trillion and growing, the nation’s debt has reached record levels. Over the past 18 months, we’ve spent ...

from Nicole Nguyen .  Check out this article about consumer reviews on Amazon.  I love the way that online commerce has democratized consumerism through usage of online reviews -- positive ones, negative ones and those that are simply informational.   (Unfortunately, fake reviews and paid reviews continue to be a problem and Ms. Nguyen writes about that issue here ).   Computer vector created by pikisuperstar - www.freepik.com Since the impact of negative reviews on sales is well understood; some merchants will essentially bribe the author of a negative review to delete their review, or harangue them with multiple e-mails.   Fortunately, Amazon product reviews can be submitted anonymously to avoid unwanted merchant contact.  The article behind this post, provides the steps to take.  

 C olumnist Ms.  Nicole Nguyen shares an easy way to digitize your vaccination cards -- instead of a photo copy that might be harder to find.  Check out this article .  You'll find instructions for both iPhones and Android phones. 

 Greetings! Based upon feedback I received from one of my valued seven readers, what follows is a refinement of the views expressed in the previous post about market timing.   Recall we're talking about predicting the direction of the equity market as a whole, or a large swath of it like the S&P 500 ---  not individual stocks. I didn't mean to imply that one cannot utilize deep experience and technical analysis to correctly predict a stock market peak (or trough) some of the time.   There's an old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day.   However, who's consistently made these bold calls with enough accuracy to "beat" the market?  If you accept the proposition that the answer to that last question is nobody -- why would one ever wager more than they could afford to lose by trying?   Vector created by pikisuperstar - www.freepik.com

I  know most of my limitations.  I learned a while ago, for example, that I'm not a stock picker.  I also learned that trying to predict the stock market's trajectory is an often futile and dangerous exercise.   One financial adviser whom I've known for decades addressed the oft-asked question --  When-will-the-stock-market-crash?  -- in his recent client newsletter.  A Minneapolis-based adviser with Focus Financial he wrote...    "The chances of individuals guessing when the stock market is going to crash is approximately the same as my guessing when the sun is going to explode.  Since I can't reasonably hazard a guess, I prefer to go about my day without worrying about the sun exploding." Animals vector by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com

The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan   Still the largest private residence ever constructed in the U.S.  at 175,000 square feet ; Biltmore Estate continues to hold public imagination.   I'd always thought mistakenly, that Biltmore was built at the behest of the family  patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt (aka "The Commodore").   In fact it was his grandson, George W. Vanderbilt ,  who acquired some  125,000 acres in North Carolina's western countryside among the Blue Ridge mountains, upon which the mansion was constructed.  One alert, as other reviewers noted, this book has less detail concerning the construction process, materials, architectural features and maintenance requirements of the structure, than one might've expected from the title.   A fuller indication of Ms. Kiernan's narrative focus is revealed by her subtitle, " T he Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home ".   For some s...