What, me worry? That old saying from Mad magazine, a satirical comic book that died in 2019 after a 67-year run, was ironic and meant reveal the opposite sentiment: we should worry about everything. Plenty of things worry us right now: inflation at a 40-year high, oil prices at an eight-year high, rising interest rates,

It is clear that the Federal Reserve cannot be trusted to protect us from a surge in inflation and frightening bouts of financial instability (see part one of this series). Who will do it for you? After running at less than 2% the previous decade, inflation in February soared to 7.9%, the highest since January

That sure was fun, wasn’t it? Last year saw a rather amazing 27% rise in stock prices, despite the Covid-19 craziness, and stocks are up 24% a year for the past three years, so that $100,000 put into a simple S&P 500 index at the start of 2019 had turned into $190,000 by year-end 2021.