John T. Reed’s news blog

What do I think about the recent drops in the S&P 500 and the FAANG stocks?.I know nothing about short-term stock price movements. Neither does anyone else. Those who say they do are lying or, if they are sincere, mistaken..I like the logic of Ben Graham’s value approach based on fundamentals like return on equity and price/earnings ratio. But I hasten to add that Graham himself lost something like 60% of his stock equity during the Great Depression when he was investing according to his fundamental value theory..My belief is that sometimes the market is in a period of irrational exuberance,...

The November 26, 2018 Businessweek quotes Founders Space CEO Steve Hoffman, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, as saying “There’s nothing safer than cash.” Businessweek made that sentence a call-out in the article.He’s nuts. In high inflation, cash and dollar-denominated assets become worth less or just plain worthless. Cash is great in deflation like the Great Depression, but not in either type of monetary crisis. True of pennies and nickels, not other types of cash There is arguably true that there is nothing safer than U.S. pennies and nickels. They rise in melt value during inflation and hold their value during deflation...

When I moved to Alamo, CA in 1983, I was delighted by the deer, pheasants, quail, raccoons, mallard ducks, and coyotes we would see regularly. The pheasants and quail disappeared shortly afterward apparently by moving up higher on Mount Diablo, a state park. I guess they are people shy. Then we got two new species who are NOT people shy: wild turkeys and bobcats. There were zero wild turkeys in 1983. Now they are ubiquitous. I am not so fond of them. They are not toilet trained. I am alarmed by the bobcats. We recently had three playing in my...

Bears’ offense is interesting tonight. A number of called QB draws against a defense that is not accounting for the QB. Army is vulnerable to that play also. Also a lot of broad misdirection which can work well in youth football.  30 and 31 inside trap plays In high school football, 30 and 31 inside trap are great plays. Fullback takes on 45º step away from the hole then turns 90º back toward the hole. High school linebackers react to the first step and take themselves away from the play or at least have their weight on the wrong foot...

I have been criticizing Army for years for not accounting for the enemy QB on defense. What would I say if they demanded I explain exactly HOW to do that?   The basic answer is on pages 35 to 37 of my book Gap-Air-Mirror Defense. That discussion is about how to stop the off-tackle play, but the same principle applies.   Collingsworth said tonight that the Vikes may have to put a spy on Trubisky. Yeah, that is one possibility, but it is only half the solution. Whomever you choose for spy was doing something else on defense before you made...