Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Forget What They Say And Watch What They Do

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Once again we are breaking records on a near weekly basis. Week after week and sometimes daily new never before seen in the history of financial markets record prints. Yet, business people across the spectrum don’t feel it, nor are they buying it.

Should one be worried about this conundrum? Financial mavens say no. In earnest, most seem to insinuate one should “Just buy the all time highs and sleep like a baby.” Then again, that’s what they say all the time do they not?

So what is someone to do that doesn’t believe the hype or the meme “it’s different this time” and can’t get that feeling out of their gut for they know – it truly never is? (more…)

American Scripture

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It’s corny, I know, but I make a habit of reading the Declaration of Independence every July 4th. Here it is below. I’ll be traveling all day today, so everyone have a safe and happy holiday.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. (more…)

Forget Shrugged – – Atlas Just May Throw Up His Hands

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Financial markets do the one thing better than nearly any other form of protest or lauding of government policies. When the financial markets are falling that’s a tell-tale sign something somewhere is wrong. Same for the lifting, where the rise lifts all giving policy makers as well as the general public at large explicit feedback of what is, as well as, what’s not working.

Yet, once those indicators become an adulterated vehicle with the ability to mask true economic information, the underpinnings of that very same economy at some point will inevitably give for it allows more, and more burdensome tax policies, regulatory initiatives, along with a host of other parasitic fee structures that have the ability to thrive as they in turn kill business. (more…)