The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index is up 15% year-over-year through the end of April.
That seems unsustainable.
The same index is up 35% in total since early-2007 when the last housing bubble peaked. That&#8217;s a return of just 2.1% per year.
Not nearly as bad.
Since the turn of the century, housing prices are up 150% in total or 4.3% per year.
From the bottom of the housing crash in 2012 (which was a decline of...

The Biggest Differences Between Now &amp; The Housing Bubble

Today’s Animal Spirits is presented by Masterworks:

Go to Masterworks.io to learn more about investing in the art market.
We discuss:

Are the roaring 20s already here?
Why are so many people ready to quit their job?
When do all of the people in big cities come back to the office?
What are the consequences of the baby bust?
The end of cash
Why are checks still a thing?
The difference between staking and yield farmin...

Animal Spirits: High School Reunion


I went back to my hometown of Traverse City, MI this past weekend for my 20th high school reunion.
For roughly 5 months out of the year, call it June through October, it&#8217;s one of the most beautiful places on earth. The weather is nice. There are beaches and wineries and lakes and rivers and sand dunes and scenic drives and all sorts of things to do outside.
It&#8217;s wonderful.
Unfortunately, the other 7 months of...

Why Do We Always Focus on the Bad Stuff?

Here&#8217;s a story from 2014 about why the IPO is dying. The list was basically &#8212; Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, Reg FD, more venture capital money, etc.
It&#8217;s true there was a dry spell for IPOs there for a while but like most things in the market, just wait long enough and the cycle is sure to turn at some point. Like many trends from the pandemic, it appears 2020 was the year this cycle turned (although you c...

The Rebirth of the IPO

Today&#8217;s Talk Your Book is presented by Jensen Investment Management:

We spoke with Eric Schoenstein, CIO and Portfolio Manager ad Jensen Investment Management about investing in high-quality growth stocks.
We discuss:

The difference between a good story and good performance in active management
The resiliency of high-quality businesses
The factors involved in defining quality stocks
How quality stocks handled the ...

Talk Your Book: Investing in High-Quality Growth Stocks


After sitting through an exceedingly long parade over the Fourth of July weekend I have a new rule proposal:
No parade should ever be longer than 30 minutes in length.
I mean how many sirens can one family be subjected to?
I&#8217;m only half kidding here because my kids loved it but it still seems like you could cut 60% from most parades and the kids would still be happy (as long as they get some candy).1
Much like para...

Bulls on Parade

If I was in the fortune cookie advice-giving game this post would list things like learning, reading, maybe even my marriage as some of the best investments I&#8217;ve ever made. If I really wanted to blow your mind I would say investing in myself.
Investing in yourself pays the best dividends, yada, yada, yada.
But I&#8217;m not here to give motivational advice you can find elsewhere.
I&#8217;m talking about actual inves...

The Best Investments I Ever Made

Author James Playsted Wood once wrote, &#8220;The thing that most affects the stock market is everything.&#8221;
The point rings true because there are so many factors that impact the markets.
Just off the top of my head, you have earnings, the economy, interest rates, inflation, the Fed, government spending, investor risk appetite, innovation, demographics, dividend yields, stock buybacks, price trends, Nic Cage movies a...

What’s Driving the Stock, Bond &amp; Housing Markets Right Now?

This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael &amp; Ben is supported by YCharts:

Mention Animal Spirits and receive 20% off your subscription price when you initially sign up for the service.
We discuss:

Faster markets
Why bear markets from high valuations aren&#8217;t necessarily worse
Robinhood&#8217;s S-1 disclosures
The benefits of taking a break from social media
The pandemic caused a wave of early retirees
The comi...

Animal Spirits: $35 Trillion Giveaway

Last week Robinhood filed their S-1 to register for an IPO.
Here&#8217;s the good and bad of it:
This seems good: Robinhood now has close to 18 million active users on its platform and manages around $80 billion in assets. More than half of those 18 million customers said this was their first-ever brokerage account.
And Robinhood believes close to 50% of all new retail funded accounts opened in the U.S. between 2016 and 2...