Investing

27
Feb
By Bob Weeks

How a good column on the bad lottery fell apart

Writing from Miami, Florida A recent column in The Wichita Eagle by Randy Scholfield starts out fine, but falls apart near the end. ("Is the lottery the best bet for workers?" February 24, 2006, available at http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/columnists/randy_scholfield/13945602.htm.) Mr. Scholfield tells us how the lottery is not a very good bet. He references a survey that tells us how about half of us believe we have a better chance of obtaining a retirement nest egg through winning the lottery rather than by saving and investing. He then tells us that the large majority of those playing the lottery are poor and…
Read More
26
Jan
By Bob Weeks

John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years

John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years John C. Bogle McGraw-Hill, 2001 "The one great secret of investing is that there is no secret." "Investment success, it turns out, lies in simplicity as basic as the virtues of thrift, independence of thought, financial discipline, realistic expectations, and common sense." John C. Bogle, whom I greatly admire, founded Vanguard investment management company, a mutual fund company owned by its shareholders. He pioneered the no-load mutual fund and the index fund. These two ideas have made it possible for the average person to be in charge of their investments and do…
Read More
05
Dec
By Bob Weeks

The Random Walk Guide to Investing

The Random Walk Guide to Investing: Ten Rules for Financial Success Burton G. Malkiel W.W. Norton & Company, 2003 The title of this book derives from the author's famous book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, published in 1973. That book, and this too, refer to the theory of efficient markets. In the author's words: "The main premise of the theory is that the stock market is an extraordinarily efficient institution for reflecting without delay any information that arises. When news arises, an army of profit-seeking Wall Street professionals pounces on it rapidly, driving stock prices up or down. As…
Read More