The Dodd-Frank legislation is under assault.  Don’t look for cannon fire or sonic blasts.  It’s a quiet battle making its way through the courts and raises a small point that could topple the entire edifice.  And don’t the money lenders know it?  In 2010, the financial refor

Strategy, strategy, strategy.  To reach our goals we need to have one or several.  Unfortunately, planning is a lesson we don’t learn early.  The young have little sense of time.  They live in the moment like the hedonistic cricket in Aesop’s fable.  The ant’s wisdom usuall

A corporation’s imperative is to make a profit.  That imperative is baked into its DNA in the form a contractual agreement between the stockholder and the company.  A company that fails to strive for profits will, in all likelihood, be sued. As crass as making a profit may sound i

Online shopping is increasingly popular and ordering from a website can beat driving to a mall.  Getting your package on your doorstep is easier than hauling it home from a store, particularly as many web retailers are offering free shipping.  So what’s not to like? Well, there ar

Picasso enjoys a lock on the minds of art lovers like no other. A majority of artists, like me, spend the bulk of our lives canoeing against the tide of indifference.  Our work is seldom seen and seldom admired beyond friends and family.  Little wonder that we seldom consider the do

Advertorial is a new word in the journalist’s lexicon.   Many of us read advertorials without realizing it, unless our eyes notice the tiny word sponsored at the corner of the computer screen or see, special section in a magazine.  What the reader is looking at isn’t news but a

Like the Marsh Hare from Alice In Wonderland, Extremely Important People (EPI) are wringing their hands and fretting.  “There’s nothing to buy.  There’s nothing to buy.”  That’s because large scale luxury providers have “sanded down” their merchandise and shifted thei

As I wrote in a recent blog, one of the big worries in the US stock market is the fallen price of oil. (Blog 1/16/16)  The second worry is China, our trading partner.  When that nation hiccups, investors here pay attention. At the moment the country poses a two-pronged worry.  Firs

As the 2016 presidential campaign shifts into high gear, my Facebook page has become a minefield of  political rhetoric. People are choosing sides and a few are strident.  Nonetheless, at a time when opinions appear to be pulling the country apart, Ronald Inglehart, professor of Pol

I’m no genius, but I like to think people who read my blogs are.   Why?  Because if they find me, they discover curious items about the world, together with references that will allow them to pursue further information, if they choose.  Blogs featuring boxing cats and the dogs t