Once again, today's job numbers show Collectively, Economists Are a Perpetually Optimistic Lot. Payrolls were expected to drop 175,000, the median of 84 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of econom

In January, I forecast the unemployment rate would hit 9.8% by August. Meanwhile, even though it was clear the Fed was wildly off base in its adverse scenario, the Fed upped it total to a mere 9.2% t

In any endeavor, it’s important to "know thyself." In the context of participating in financial markets, identifying your investing style is central to self-understanding.   Ma

Editor's Note: This article was written by James Quinn, a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. James has held high level financial positions with a retailer, homebuilde

Editor's Note: This is part 2 in a multi-part series. See Part 1 here.This week we further explore why this recovery will be a statistical recovery, or one that only a statistician could love. We loo

As regular readers know, between March 2 and March 5, with the S&P below 700, I went from 90% cash to a 100% core long position. In my article, Is A Countertrend Rally Inevitable?, I fully e

Appraisers just can't get it right. During the housing boom, mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, and even borrowers sought out appraisals supporting the highest possible home price. Appra

Last week, caution crept back into investors’ vocabularies for the first time in more than 3 months as they faced up to President Barack Obama’s plan to reform the US financial marke

Mortgage guidelines have become increasingly strict -- not to mention regimented -- as the private secondary-mortgage market has all but disappeared in the past 24 months. But according to the Wall S

The horses, pigs, cows, goats, sheep, llamas, ostriches, dromedaries and rhinos have all left the barn, yet the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) still thinks it should be minding the