Flooding the market with cash has not yet led to inflation, because the recession created a Grand Canyon of underutilized capacity to be filled first. When it is, though, expect inflation, and lower prices for long-term bonds. For a parallel situation, consider The Great War Loan Conversion, described in my Famous Financial Fiascos, where bond investors lost 99% of their money.

An individual should hesitate before accepting a position as sole executor of an estate. This advice is as sound today as it was in 1983, when this list of an estate executor’s tasks appeared in Preserving Capital and Making it Grow.

The qualities of a great leader, with reference to Wellington, Machiavelli, Lord Wu, Marshal Lyotey, Socrates, and others. From an address given at the Army War College.

As most parents know instinctively, there is a curious magic in names. Call your little on Elmer, and he will be less likely to succeed than if you plunge in with Charlemagne or Napoleon…Excerpted from John Train’s Most Remarkable Names, 1985.

When large matters go awry, they often follow standard patterns—groupthink, hubris-nemesis, the Ponzi scheme, speculative manias, the “distance lends enchantment” mirage, and other raptures—alone or in combination.

The Dance of the Money Bees was the first book ever to use a biological example to describe financial phenomena, writes Christopher T. May.

The investor’s first concern must be to survive; that is, not to lose a lot of money. I mean in real terms, not quotational terms. The market rises and sets all the time. Don’t worry too much about that. So does the sun. Truly losing money is when an asset you own falls apart. That’s […]

I am frequently asked about the best background for the investment business. To start with, I am quite sure what isn’t: majoring in economics, and then entering Wall Street.

Few management philosophers have combined so much wit and wisdom, and none was as charming, as Professor C. Northcote Parkinson.