Palladium: The Secret Weapon in Fighting Pollution
The catalytic converter is one of the greatest inventions in the environmental age. It started with platinum, but due to its cost, scientists figured out how to make platinum younger…
Inverted Yield Curves, Recessions
We have read a lot about the yield curve these days. The yield curve is simply a graph of interest rates as a function of time to maturity. Historically, recession follows…
Paychex (PAYX) As Good as it Gets…
Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) provides integrated human resources management services. Specifically, the company offers payroll processing, payroll tax administration, employee payment and regulatory compliance services, such as new-hire reporting and garnishment…
Economic Busts Can Happen in a Free Market. But Central Banks Make Things Much Worse.
Friedrich Hayek, the great Free-Market Economist won a Nobel prise in economics for his work on the causes of the business cycle. Hi works showed that the Fed is the…
The Warren Buffett Empire
Berkshire Hathaway is amn insurance company, holding company and conglomerate all in one. The sutruture of Berkshire as just as much to do with high rates of return as the…
The Lesson in Costco
Costco, the massive big-box retailer, represents an interesting lesson. The lesson being is that there are certain people who are naturally attracted to fast growers and there are value investors who…
Banking: Saving and Checking Accounts
Banking seems like a simple business, but it is more complicated than most think. It is important to remember that you do not have money in the bank. When you…
Negative Interest Rates are the Price We Pay for De-Civilization
We have talked a great deal about negative interest rates and not they are both unnatural and damaging. We think negative interest rates can only arise in a world of…
There is more to the Economy than GDP, Jobs & Wages
There is more to economics than jobs, wages, consumption, exchange rates, inflation rates, GDP, etc. Economists like to talk about these things because they and/or the government can measure (sort…
Netflix: (NFLX)
Netflix, the streaming media company is one of the tech-media companies we like to follow here at TOE. The company is a Wall Street darling and with good reason as…
Equity Market Update
We have been a bit conflicted lately as we think many investors have been as well in the past few months. The accepted market view is that the trade dust-up…
Viacom & CBS
About a month ago, Viacom & CBS agreed to merge into one big diversified entertainment company. It is a story the investment community has been watching for years and for good…