On Friday, October 16, 2026, I ate lunch at one of my regular Indian restaurants here in town. As with most places that have a lunch buffet, the items off the dinner menu are much better.…
Common Cents Blog
My first job in the investment business was managing fixed income portfolios and trading bonds for a bank trust department in Baltimore. This was way back in the early 1990s, and a lot has changed over…
Have you ever been to a party where the hosts run out of food and beverages? I suspect most of us have. While there are occasions when some subset of attendees go to the store to…
This past Tuesday, our high school reunion committee met at a local restaurant to celebrate a job well done. It is kind of a pricey place, but we decided we “deserved it” after pulling off yet…
By the time you read this, I will have attended my 40th high school reunion. Since I was a class officer back in the day, I am/was on the organizing committee. However, in all transparency, my…
On Friday, August 7, 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released “The Employment Situation – July 2026.” (1) While it wasn’t completely dreadful, it wasn’t a good report. In fact, the only silver lining I…
Last week, July 30th, I finished The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. This was her magnum opus, and a very good read. At one point, I imagine it made any number of ‘required reading’ lists for…
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently took yet another stab at estimating U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the 1st quarter of 2026.(1) Ordinarily, by this point, I would have ignored the report. It is…
This past week, I started and finished a book called Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. Truthfully, I had never heard of it until about 15 minutes before I ordered a copy. It just sounded interesting, and strangely…
It has been a long time since I tossed and turned at night, unable to sleep due to all of the worries dancing around in my head. What is the point? Why worry about those things…