Upcoming Luncheon Meetings

February Luncheon, "Irrational Exuberance Is Not Inflationary: Why the Fed's Inflation Assumptions Are Incorrect, "  featuring John Tamny 

Mr. Tamny is the senior economist for H.C. Wainwright Economics and regular economics contributor, and former staffer, of the Cato Institute.

From the author's perspective, the presentation was akin to a homily on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and to a great extent a lecture on the Austrian School of Economic Thought.

In summary, Mr. Tamny espouses a rigid orthodoxy of 'laissez faire'
economics, both specific to the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy ("get out of the way") but also in terms of the government's role in private market contracts and economic planning and engineering- light or even "no" touch. To paraphrase, failure of companies, no matter how large, and two-way economic cycles, are a long term healthy benefit to a capitalist society - he quoted Citigroup's multiple bailouts over decades - and in the current environment of "too big to fail" our government is prolonging and making worse an inevitable upending of a society too long on wealth transfer and too short on tolerance for necessary, up and down, economic cycles. When challenged on the realistic probability of a functional state because of monopolistic / oligopolistic corporations' power to control government actions and regulations to their own benefits with their financial might, he went as far to describe why a wholesale constitutional change to the entire structure of the U.S. government would be necessary. Idealistically pure in his beliefs, Mr. Tamny is a self-described 'outsider' (my read: the ever undefined "libertarian idealist") to both dominant U.S. political parties and his stance on government
regulation is that in almost all cases, they shouldn't really exist. In any case, the presentation was thought provoking and informative, controversial without being especially confrontational, and held the
audience's full attention.

- Eric M. Lohmeier, CFA

Managing Director, NCP, Inc.

March Luncheon Meeting, "Outlook and Opportunities in the US RMBS Market," featuring Laurie Goodman

Ms. Goodman is Senior Managing Director at Amherst Securities.

Laurie spoke on "Outlook and Opportunities in the U.S. RMBS Market"  and offered a very detailed, data-driven perspective on the current condition of and probable future for the residential mortgage market. 

In a presentation brimming with fascinating, proprietary information, she offered solutions for returning residential housing back to "normal."  She also provided insights into how mortgage credit availability can be augmented with the return of private capital and how existing solutions can be reworked to provide better results.  Laurie's talk provided attendees with a deep dive into an area that has arguably been responsible for leading the U.S. into an economic crisis and may help lead it out.

- Sayer Martin, CFA

Portfolio Manager, Clarity Asset Management, Inc.

Our Mission

Receive immediate updates by following us

on these

social networking sites: 

Want to receive our newsletter and event updates on a regular basis?