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Year in Review

David Collum: Pandemonium

The only thing nearly as enlightening as reading David Collum’s epic Year In Review is listening to him and Chris Martenson riff about its highlights.

Strap in, grab some eggnog, and listen to this year’s recap.

David Collum: Pandemonium

by David Collum

The only thing nearly as enlightening as reading David Collum’s epic Year In Review is listening to him and Chris Martenson riff about its highlights.

Strap in, grab some eggnog, and listen to this year’s recap.

Dave Collum: 2019 Year in Review (Part 1)

by David Collum

Every year, friend-of-the-site David Collum writes a detailed “Year in Review” synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit.

This year’s is no exception.

Dave Collum: 2019 Year in Review (Part 1)

by David Collum

Every year, friend-of-the-site David Collum writes a detailed “Year in Review” synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit.

This year’s is no exception.

David Collum: We’ve Got A Recession Coming

by David Collum

Whether or not you've had time yet to plow your way through David Collum's excellent 2016 Year in Review, our annual podcast with Dave always brings additional color to light — and this year's is no exception.

David Collum: We’ve Got A Recession Coming

by David Collum

2016 Year In Review (Part 2)

by David Collum

If you've not yet read Part 1, click here to do so. The whole enchilada can be downloaded as a single PDF here or viewed in parts via the hot-linked contents as follows:

2016 Year In Review (Part 2)

by David Collum

If you've not yet read Part 1, click here to do so. The whole enchilada can be downloaded as a single PDF here or viewed in parts via the hot-linked contents as follows:

I am penning my seventh “Year in Review.” These summaries began exclusively for myself, evolved into a sort of holiday cheer for a couple hundred e-quaintances with whom I had been affiliating since my earliest days as a market bear in the late ’90s, and metastasized into the Tower of Babble—longer than a Ken Burns miniseries—summarizing the human follies that capture my attention each year.

I wade through the year’s most extreme lunacies as well as a few special topics while trying to find the overarching themes. Somehow 450 pages of notes, quotes, and anecdotes describing a web of interconnected concepts must be distilled into the “Year in Review,” all in a few short weeks. So let’s head to the choppers.

Whether or not you've had time yet to plow your way through David Collum's excellent 2014 Year in Review, our annual podcast with Dave always brings additional color to light — and this year's is no exception.

David Collum: We’re Now Stuck In A Global Game Of Tetris

by David Collum

2014 Year in Review: Part 2

by David Collum

This year has been all about risk—existential risk. Some of it seemed to dissipate and some lingers. Market valuations remain risky—regression to the mean could easily provide a 50% haircut and more if we observe regression through the mean. This has not come to pass, but the risk is very real.

Those who seek risk in markets will eventually find it.

2014 Year in Review: Part 2

by David Collum

Those who seek risk in markets will eventually find it.

2014 Year in Review

by David Collum

I have not seen a year in which so many risks—some truly existential—piled up so quickly. Each risk has its own, often unknown, probability of morphing into a destructive force. Groping for a metaphor—I love metaphors and similes—I feel like we’re in the final throes of a geopolitical Game of Tetris as financial and political authorities race to place the pieces correctly. But the acceleration is palpable. The proximate trigger for pain and ultimately a collapse can be small, as anyone who’s ever stepped barefoot on a Lego knows.

2014 Year in Review

by David Collum

David Collum: Broken Markets, State Capitalism & Eroding Liberty

by David Collum

2013 was a frustrating year for those who believe in cause and effect. Markets have been levitated far above what fundamentals would justify. Sovereign debt has increased tremendously, but seemingly without repercussion. Central planners have become more brazen in their belief that intervention is the best way to control both an economy and its citizens – to surprising little outcry from the populace: