You don’t need to read the headlines on CNN to understand what’s going on. We live in two Americas. Those who will be controlled by state media, the administrative state, and corporate elites (not in any particular order), and those who wish to live free. When you see the assassination attempt on former President Trump and “they” tell you he fell, it’s beyond infuriating. But the “news” they report is the truth for a huge chunk of the country. Monday morning here’s the headlines from The Boston Globe: “FBI searches for answers amid anxiety.” In other words, everyone should calm down … [Read more...]
The Politics of Real Estate
You can tell a lot about states based on its real estate market. Are people moving in or out? Are prices rising or falling? How are the schools? Is this someplace families want to raise their children? These are all questions that have answers that point to more complicated underlying trends. Your Survival Guy has created the Super States ranking to show you where state governments are looking out for constituents and where they are only looking out for their own political interests. During the last four years, a wave of Americans have made the decision to move away from the big blue blob … [Read more...]
Planned Transition?
The more recent news stories about Salim Ramji's hiring as the new CEO of Vanguard refer to the transition as "planned." A July 11 piece in InvestorDaily is one example, writing: Salim Ramji has assumed the role of chief executive officer and joined the Vanguard Group’s board of directors, effective 8 July 2024. Ramji's appointment was part of a planned transition announced on 14 May 2024. He succeeds Tim Buckley, who is retiring from the Vanguard Group after more than 30 years of distinguished service, including a highly successful tenure as chairman and chief executive officer. But … [Read more...]
SPECIAL CONFESSION: Why I’m Being Hard on Vanguard
Dear faithful readers, here it is, the piece you’ve all been waiting for: Why I’m being hard on Vanguard. I know you want me down on my knees. You want a confession of sorts. You want answers. Just yesterday, you told me: “You sound like a man possessed, a maniac. My family has money at Vanguard. Why don’t you make the case for your own services? Explain to me why you like dividend-paying stocks over mutual funds and ETFs, why you like individual bonds, and why I should pay your FEE?” “OK, I will,” I said. Can I get an Amen? First off, you may have read I have huge concerns about … [Read more...]
Priebus: Ready and Waiting for Trump in Milwaukee
I wrote to you twelve years ago about how much I like Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus. Now, Priebus is the Host Committee Chairman for this summer's RNC Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Priebus's committee has raised more than $85 million for the event, and I expect Priebus will be a welcoming host for President Trump and all the speakers at the convention. Here's what I wrote back in 2012: You would think that last Thursday, the day Obamacare was made legal by Chief Justice John Roberts, would be a day best spent in bed with the shades pulled down. But as it turns … [Read more...]
Vanguard’s Payphone Service
Remember using a payphone? For those of us born before the new century, feeding quarters and dimes into a payphone to make calls feels a bit nostalgic at this point. But how do you feel about paying for phone service when your retirement is on the line? No one should be nickeled and dimed for a phone call when there are hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on the line. But that's what Vanguard, in its pursuit of new revenue streams, is doing to its customers. Jeff Blumenthal of the Philadelphia Business Journal reports: The Vanguard Group will be adding fees to its brokerage … [Read more...]
July RAGE Gauge: Gold, Interest Rates, and You
You don’t want to get caught in the fog without some know-how. That’s how Your Survival Guy feels about this market. You want to be prepared. Because we just don’t know when disasters will strike. Which brings me to this month’s RAGE Gauge. It’s not pretty out there. What did you expect from Your Survival Guy? Let’s start with gold. Even after the recent run-up, we’re not at an all-time high in real terms. What’s devastating is how weak the dollar has become relative to gold. Before the link between the dollar and gold was broken, a dollar was worth 1/35 of an ounce of gold. Today, … [Read more...]
Everything About Vanguard’s Move Was Surprising
You've read a lot about Vanguard's recent hiring of its news CEO, Salim Ramji. It wasn't only Ramji's status as the first outside hire for CEO in Vanguard's history that made his ascension to the post odd. The way it was handled and the previous CEO, Tim Buckley's departure, was also strange. At Morningstar, Susan Dziubinski discussed the happenings at Vanguard with Morningstar's chief Vanguard analyst, Daniel Sotiroff, who said of the strange reshuffling at Vanguard: Surprise is probably an understatement there. Everything about it was surprising. First, we didn’t expect Buckley to retire. I … [Read more...]
CREATION AND DESTRUCTION: Super States and Their Demise
How do you build a Super State? The most important step is to make the needs of Main Street businesses and citizens your top priority. Ronald Reagan did that when he was governor of California and created what may have been America's greatest success story. But what happened? Now, people are leaving California in droves. Radical progressives have taken over the state's government and put it on a downward spiraling trajectory that leaves middle-class Americans behind. It's the destruction of a Super State in front of America's eyes. The latest effort by California's government to destroy … [Read more...]
BREAKING: Week #1 Changing of the (Van)Guard
We are in week one of the changing of the guard at Vanguard. New CEO Salim Ramji from BlackRock took over on Monday. “Vanguard’s Die-Hard Customers Have a Message for New CEO: ‘The Service is Abysmal,’” wasn’t written by Your Survival Guy, it was a headline in The WSJ. You know from my Special Report on Vanguard that times have changed at the firm. The company, founded by Jack Bogle and touted by Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, brought investors a fair shake: low-cost, passive investing. Today, Vanguard, along with BlackRock and State Street, manage trillions of dollars in the … [Read more...]
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