Don Luskin

I love markets. Just think of all the things they make possible. Whenever there's a way for people to trade with each other, they always find ways to make money and reduce risk. So whenever market principles get applied in new ways, the world becomes a better place....

With Martha Stewart going on trial this week, it's a perfect time to take a look at insider trading. From what I can tell, Ms. Stewart is being railroaded. And whatever the merits (or lack thereof) of the case against her, investors shouldn't be especially worried...

Successful investing all about having the right information. That must be why I frequently get emails from readers asking me what sources of investment information I like best, or where on the Web to locate this or that specific piece of data. So today's column is...

Last week was my 2003 year-in-review column. This time it's about 2004, the year ahead. I do think we'll have another good year. I'll explain why, but I'll also talk about what I see as one significant risk factor. And I'll give you an idea for how to invest in a way...

Many of my readers can't understand why, as an investment strategist, I write so much about politics and government policy. Politics doesn't have anything to do with investing! Well, unless you slept through 2003, now you know that they do. The year 2003 was a...

Think the Mutual-Fund industry's "late trading" and "market timing" abuses are scandalous? Well, I never quite saw what all the fuss was about. But now the mutual-fund industry is doing something that's really scandalous. It's engaged in a campaign to put America's...

I've been a vigorous defender of the investment-banking and mutual fund industries against over-reaching shakedowns by regulatory vigilante Eliot Spitzer. But now, in at attempt to deflect attention from the scandals raised by Spitzer, the funds business has done...

Previously, I dared to suggest that maybe the mutual-fund industry isn't quite the "cesspool" that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says it is, and I criticized Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission for panicking investors into dumping their...

Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, may be the all-powerful arbiter of what's hot and what's not in celebrity culture. But now, having declared Paul Krugman a "national treasure," Carter is trying to reinvent himself as an angry liberal, devoting his monthly...

Stock market punditry is a tough game, and victories are few and far between even for the best of us. So when a victory comes along, you do a victory lap. The third quarter's gross-domestic product growth rate of 7.2% was a big victory. Representing the biggest...

For the last several weeks, the expression "retarded potential" has been rattling around in my head, without having any idea what it means. So I Googled it, and it turns out that it has something or other to do with the physics of electromagnetism. Lots of equations...

I hate the New York Stock Exchange. I admit it -- I hate the place. I always have and I always will. So even though I have no objection to executives earning huge salaries and bonuses, I've been positively tickled to see the NYSE dragged through the mud over ex-Chief...

Ever wonder why all the doom-and-gloom economic pronouncements you hear in the media, and from liberal politicians, don't square up with the America you see around you -- an America in which the economy has turned the corner and is growing again? The answer is that...

I live and work in California, and on Tuesday I witnessed two revolutions here. Both have very bullish long-term implications, and both present significant short-term risks. The first revolution I'm talking about, of course, is the recall of California's sitting...

A month ago, I wrote about the how the Fed led Wall Street bond traders into a billion-dollar trap, by promising to keep interest rates low virtually forever, and then just weeks later, hinting that it would break the promise. You'd think "once burned, twice shy" --...

I hate to say it, but it's looking like my technician friend Fred Goodman was right when he issued a sell signal a couple of weeks ago. Yes, earnings are surging and the economy-wide recovery is accelerating, with the technology sector leading the way. But in case you...

You can't open the financial pages without hearing about our "jobless recovery." There's no end to the hand-wringing about how gross domestic product, corporate profits and consumer spending are all moving up smartly -- yet the economy seems steadily to have fewer and...

I get lots of terrific letters from readers (both roses and thorns, I assure you). But one I got last week takes the prize. It's a list of penetrating questions about all of the toughest issues challenging stock investors. The minute I saw it I knew what today's...

The mutual fund scandal that erupted last week is the latest front in vigilante New York Eliot Spitzer's campaign to climb to the governorship over as many ruined careers as possible. Here are some thoughts on where it could lead.Are there abuses of trading after the...