In November of 1997, my partner and co-editor of  The Casey Report, Doug Casey, wrote an article titled “Foundations of Crisis,” which leaned heavily on the research of Neil Howe and the late William Strauss.  Howe and Strauss have written many books on how generations determine the course of history and how they will shape America’s future. Their forecasts on a wide variety of indicators have turned out to be amazingly accurate. They were among the first to predict (back in the late 1980s) the rise of Boomer-driven culture wars and the simultaneous rise of Gen-X-driven free agency and distrust of government. And they were completely alone back then in predicting, for the post-X “Millennial Generation” (a label they coined), a decline in youth crime and risk taking and an increase in youth civic engagement that would first become apparent around the year ...

Highlighted stocks include Citigroup, Inc. (...

In recent years Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis has taken a decent amount of heat from shareholders who have seen his acquisition spending spree as a bit reckless, at least in terms of the prices he has been willing to pay. Deals for the likes of FleetBoston and MBNA have made sense strategically, but the huge premiums offered did little to convince BAC investors that they were getting a good deal. That, in part, has contributed to the fact that BAC has been afforded a low multiple in the marketplace, relative to other large banking institutions, in recent years.