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What My Midlife Crisis Has Taught Me About Travel Points and Miles
I’ve been earning travel rewards since I got my first credit card, and at a certain point in the late 1990’s the Starwood card became the best. Over the intervening years, I have earned tons of points and miles through credit... Read →
Republican Health Care Is Exactly Like Democrat Health Care
Obama pushed it through with no Republican votes. His was a poorly developed and unsustainable program. Polosi’s famous comment says it all: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in... Read →
Barclays Study Suggests Amex Platinum Card Falling Behind Competitors
American Express recently announced changes to its flagship credit card product. The Platinum Card p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Calibri} ®, which recently began giving 5x points per dollar spent directly on... Read →
Image Statue of Dwight Eisenhower in front of American Embassy, London
View from Oxford Street, London: Not as Distraught, Disturbed
The Brits are showing their stiff upper lip, at least as it relates to events in the US.
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Not A Single American Hero
Throughout the long, ugly election campaign, no one stood up, save Mitt Romney who after the election seriously undercut the singular role he had fashioned. One can make the case that no one expected Trump to win, including most... Read →
The World is Watching
Acts of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in America, including threats of violence, have increased dramatically since Trump’s win. Since January 2017, there have been over 125 anti-Semitic acts and threats against Jewish... Read →
It is Going to End Badly
Alan Greenspan called it Irrational Exuberance. Others have called it heady or intentional blindness. But however you look at the stock market’s performance since Donald Trump was elected, it is clear that reason is not operating... Read →
Why Interest Rates May Not Rise Quickly, or Much at All
In response to this article cautioning against buying long-term municipal bonds, I wanted to outline some reasons that interest rates may rise slowly, or not much at all. Here are some items that also need to be considered when factoring in... Read →
Six Ways to Reduce The Costs of Higher Education
As a mature and prosperous nation (Trump being a hiccup along the way), higher education has moved from a luxury and the domain of the well-to-do to a career requirement for a larger and larger number of people and jobs. Colleges and... Read →
The US Stock Market Fell 39% During Watergate
During Watergate and the lengthy process of getting Richard Nixon to resign, political instability weighed all sorts of havoc on the US economy with the S&P 500 falling from a high of 142, when Nixon assumed his second term in January... Read →
Universities are Ripping Off Americans
During the last election, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton led the charge, calling for free universal higher education for everyone. They called it a human right and decried the fact that upon graduation millions of... Read →
Human Nature to Hunker Down
Germany, at the time, seemed as civilized and cultured as any Western European nation in the 1930s. Few German citizens took the Nazi movement seriously until it was too late. And, just as important, Germans under Nazi rule were mostly... Read →
The Shining City on A Hill
On January 11, 1989, Ronald Reagan spoke eloquently about America as the Shining City on a Hill. Reflecting on his eight years, he spoke proudly about how it was the home of the free, tall and proud, built on rocks stronger than oceans and... Read →
The Focus is Gone – Treating a Heart Attack Victim for an Ingrown Toenail
Over the last weeks, since Trump was inaugurated, we have seen large protests in Washington of women objecting to infringement of Roe v. Wade, and we have seen a right wing, lightweight instigator (whose name will not be printed here)... Read →