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Q1 Market Results

First Quarter 2013 Market Results It’s official:  the S&P 500 index (largest 500 companies in the US) closed at a record high of 1569 Thursday March 28, eclipsing the previous record close in October 2007–nearly 5 1/2 years ago.  Between then and now, the index fell to 666 and from that low climbed 135% to …Read More

Signs of Spring: the US Economy

Signs of Spring:  the US Economy A bird landed on the tree outside my kitchen window for the first time in a long time: it was a sign of spring.  That day the sun was strong and warm.  My neighbor planted seeds in peat pots on his window sill.  More signs of spring. The next …Read More

Small Risks: If a Tree Falls in a Forest…

The native tribes of New Guinea will not sleep under a dead tree.  Superstition?  No:  risk assessment. What’s the chance a dead tree will happen to fall the one night when someone is asleep under it?  1000 to 1?  Maybe, but a native New Guinean sleeps in the forest 365 nights a year, and after …Read More

Livin’ Large, but Tiny

College senior Nara Williams is livin’ large in her very own house on the campus of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.  Large, but tiny:  130 square feet, complete with kitchen, bathroom, great room, and sleeping loft. She is part of the “tiny house” movement–call it extreme downsizing.  She says there are lots of benefits: lower …Read More