Investments

Since my beard has long been completely white there’s not much I can do to disguise my age. That being the case, there’s probably little further embarrassment in letting you know that I watched both Andy Rooney and Gilda Radner’s character “Emily Litella” on live television. What did these two have in common?

I’m turning to the Bard for the title of 2014’s first message because there are articles everywhere right now offering forecasts for the upcoming year. I never try that myself because I know I can’t predict the future. Instead, I thought I’d reflect a bit on the past to see what lessons we might learn.

The best way to legally hasten someone’s death is to arrange for the services of a personal physician.

I don’t watch very much TV but I happened upon CNBC’s mid-day market coverage one day last week. This will not be news to regular viewers but I was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of information being offered. In addition to a series of stories in the main window, there were four sets of market quotations crawling across the screen, two at the top and two at the bottom.

All investors recognize the need for information. In fact, some become almost obsessive about it, spending a considerable amount of time in a quest for the one crucial insight they can use to unlock financial success.

The artistry of the late Jim Henson made the Muppets an enduring American institution and it’s from his 1991 movie that I borrow the title of today’s article. His characters are on my mind because of the comments of Greg Smith, the London-based derivatives salesman who recently resigned quite publicly from investment bank Goldman Sachs.