“The most important thing you must know is the direction from which the wind is blowing…  There are clues everywhere; flags, smoke, dust, moving clouds, ripples on the water, other sailboats and blowing debris.” – Roger MacGregor I was reading a thoughtful piece by John Hussman, of Hussman Funds, in which he drew an analogy that really [...]

Jacques Rueff was accused of being a perennial prophet of doom – a doom that never seemed to arrive. Rueff first began to voice his concerns in 1961, alerting the world to the dangers inherent in the world’s monetary system, then operating under the Bretton Woods agreement. It would take ten years before Rueff’s view [...]

Contrarian thinking is another important ingredient to investment success. Running against the crowd often produces investment success… but not always. The essence of a contrarian investment approach is, as author Humphrey Neill memorably put it, “When everyone thinks alike, everyone is likely to be wrong.” “Everyone” in Wall Street parlance usually means derisively “the crowd” or “the [...]