Ben Carlson
@bencarlson007
www.awealthofcommonsense.com NEW BOOK out now:
The richest 45 million households in the US combine to spend nearly $15 trillion That's 3x the size of the German economy and 70% of the GDP in China
In the 1950s just 4% of US households owned stocks It was <20% in the early-1980s Today it's >60% The stock market is now ~240% of GDP Some thoughts on what it means that the stock market is more important than ever: awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/the-...
Animal Spirits: Say Bubble One More Time. I Dare You! Bottom fishing in tech Why don't we have recessions anymore? Why is everyone bearish on Netflix? What happened to Nike? Why aren't baby boomers downsizing? Stocks vs housing & more awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/71143/
Netflix drawdowns are no joke: 2002: -63% 2004/05: -76% 2008: -56% 2011/12: -82% 2022: -76% 2025/26: -50% (the stock is still up ~23% per year in this time)
4 big questions about the economy: 1. Why don't we have recessions anymore? 2. Why hasn't the housing market led to a recession? 3. Why aren't interest rates higher? 4. Is this actually a "normal" economic environment? awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/4-bi...
Drawdowns from the highs: Micron -25% Microsoft -27% Sandisk -31% SpaceX -33% Netflix -45% Oracle -60% And yet...the S&P 500 is basically at all-time highs
Animal Spirits: Will the Fed Buy Stocks? 10 reasons to be bearish Will the hyperscalers pull back spending? Is Nvidia cheap? Are the AI doomers wrong? What makes you rich Money lessons from a Dave Matthews concert & more awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/anim...
I still think this is one of the most underrated movies of the past 10 years Didn’t get its due b/c it came out in 2020 Plus it’s only 90 minutes!
We will make housing the American dream Will we build enough houses for everyone to fulfill that dream? We will not
Animal Spirits: 10 Reasons to be Bullish Why are gray haired investors always bearish? Small caps are on fire Retail is moving markets Rich ppl complain too much Why are new car payments so high? Is gambling a bull market phenomenon? awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/anim...
Everything is outperforming the Mag 7 this year: Heading into today: S&P 493 +14.4% S&P 500 +9.3% Mag 7 +2.4% awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/the-...
Painting at my local brewery Not necessarily a big art guy but I want this so badly
Animal Spirits: Is Debt Fueling the Rally? Leverage is all the rage in stocks Everything is outperforming the Mag 7 No signs of a recession AI isn't killing jobs yet Passive income is the new American dream The bear market in pizza & more awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/07/anim...
Returns from the Liberation Day lows in April 2025: Emerging mkts +80% Nasdaq 100 +75% R2000 +73% S&P 500 +51% EAFE +49%
According to Citadel Securities: 9 of the 10 largest retail trading days ever on their platform were last month Retail trader avg daily option volume also broke record highs in May Then June was even higher So why are investors also holding so much cash? awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/why-...
Animal Spirits: Everything is Outperforming the S&P 500 This Year The S&P 493 > Mag 7 in 2026 Hyperscaler risk What makes America great What happened to ETH? What will happen to Social Security? Rich ppl who pretend to be middle class & more awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/anim...
YTD returns thru the close on Monday: Emerging markets +31% Small caps +22% Small cap value +21% Value stocks +15% Dividend stocks +12% Mid caps +11% S&P 500 +10% Mag 7 -3% Why is everything beating the S&P 500 this year? awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/ever...
Spotting bubbles and calling tops is hard Even for legendary billionaire fund managers awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/spot...
The baby boomers control roughly $90 trillion in wealth They own ~70% of the stocks and half of the housing market wealth in America What happens when they all start selling to fund their retirement? Will the boomers crash the stock market? awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/what...
Bell’s Oberon On a deck Overlooking the water On a sunny summer day With an orange Might be the perfect beer
Why are cash allocations so high during what everyone thinks is a speculative mania? Retiring boomers? This is such a weird market environment
A reader sent me his entire collection of finance comics from the past ~35 years There were 100s of them in the collection all cut out by hand I went through them all and picked out some of my favorites: awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/the-...
Animal Spirits: How Much is $1 Trillion? You don't have to pick the top Time to take profits? Value is beating growth EM is beating the US 3% mortgages vs. 4% inflation The Rule of 55 The future of work and more awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/anim...
Annual real returns 1928-2025: Stocks (S&P 500) +7.0% Bonds (10 Yr Treasuries) +1.5% Cash (3 Month T-bills) +0.3% Does cash count as a bond substitute for fixed income? Some thoughts: awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/06/the-...
I’m always bragging to my kids how the 1990s is the best movie decade ever Tonight we watched Kazaam and it didn’t exactly bolster my claim Somehow I never watch this one before. Easily one of the worst movie ever made