The consumption and production of energy is a major component of the global economy.

How are the cabs in your city? In Manhattan, where I work, they are rather awful.

In New York, the former lack of real competition allowed taxis to extract excessive charges, regardless of the poor service.

The way we finance homes in this country is slow, filled with middlemen, who run a nonstandardized evaluation process. This makes financing a home cumbersome and difficult.

There is a shortage of doctors, and the American Medical Association is aiming to keep it that way.

History shows us that people are terrible about guessing what is going to happen - next week, next month, and especially next year.

Have a well-thought financial plan that is not dependent upon correctly guessing what will happen in the future.

It is important for investors to understand what they do and don't know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure.

Never forget this simple truism: Forecasting is marketing, plain and simple.