In Egypt Obama’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 6, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments There has been nearly unanimous criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama’s handling of the revolution in Egypt.  However, I think a real reckoning of the situation reveals that the situation is enormously complex and any action requires careful consideration.   Therefore, I would like to point out the various complexities, not to defend Barack Obama, but to highlight what the real...
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The fractures in the EU are showing more

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 6, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments This past week various leaders of the European Union have been meeting to create a structure for preventing future economic crises.  Also important was their effort to try and create a framework for how to deal with crises when they do unfold.   Most of us who were watching the proceedings of this meeting in Brussels were looking for an explicit, crystallized, concrete action plan for how...
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5 February 2011: Jason Apollo Voss is now a Forbes Contributor

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 5, 2011 in News & Events | 0 comments 5 February, 2011   Good news!  As of 6:39pm MST this evening I am a Forbes Contributor!   What that means is that you will begin seeing my name more frequently on the Internet and in your searches.  Forbes content is syndicated and appears all over the world.  I am very happy, satisfied and thankful to be a part of Forbes Media.   There will be more news to come and as soon as my...
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You can’t take the human out of quant models

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 5, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments Clearly you don’t write a blog entitled “What My Intuition Tells Me Now” and rely solely on quantitative methods.  As the retired co-portfolio manager of the Davis Appreciation and Income fund I learned very early in my career that facts would only take you so far in your investment process.   The problem is that facts, the thing that most investors spend their time...
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Unemployment data for January

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 4, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments This morning the January unemployment data was released by the Department of Labor.  I am guessing that most pundits are going to focus on the low number of net jobs added by all of the various economic sectors.   Specifically, total non-farm payrolls increased by 36,000 last month.  This compares to an expectation of 136,000 new jobs added by a consensus of economists.  The overall...
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Structural issues at the underfunded SEC

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 3, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments The New York Times is reporting this morning that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) has caught the attention of the Government Accounting Office each of the last seven years for faulty financial reporting.  This report happens at a time when the SEC is seeking to substantially increase its budget and petitioning Congress to do so.   From the outside this looks very...
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An increasingly violent edge in Egypt

Posted by Jason Apollo Voss on Feb 2, 2011 in Blog | 2 comments Over the weekend I provided a purely intuitive assessment of what was going on in Egypt.  I also said that the situation is in flux because the various participants all have free-will and get to choose how to respond.  So here is an update on my evolving intuitive assessment.   Right now in Egypt there is a violent edge developing.  To me it feels as if this is primarily driven by a...
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