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    Allan Sloan

    Allan Sloan

    Contributing columnist

  • Boeing's shakeup and GE's fall: 2 more black eyes for Jack Welch's legacy

    One common thread runs between Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun's departure and the death knell for GE next week: Jack Welch. Veteran financial journalist Allan Sloan notes that of the CEOs Welch mentored, four succeeded while 13 failed.

  • I was there for the dot-com bust. Here's why the AI boom isn't the same.

    The current AI-infused record highs in the stock market have some people remembering 2000, when the dot-com bubble burst leaving many investors holding the bag. But veteran financial journalist Allan Sloan says that he was there and this feels much different.

  • The Dow's Amazon-Walmart-Walgreens shakeup is a reminder why it's no longer the benchmark

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average was long the standard thermometer for the stock market health. Now relegated behind others like the S&P 500, the Dow's composition changes this week highlight why it's fallen out of favor.

  • Why Tesla stock has been on a wild, wild ride

    When it comes to its stock price, Tesla is Screwball Central. If you buy its shares, the only thing you know is that you’re likely to get a wild ride. However, you can’t predict in which direction.

  • 'Poor Charlie’s Almanack' and how Munger saw the world

    Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s close friend and the longtime vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B), died on Nov. 28 — six days before the new fifth edition of "Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit & Wisdom of Charles T. Munger." But if you’re thinking about shelling out $30 for "Poor Charlie’s Almanack" you need to have realistic expectations. It is not an investment guide.

  • Column: Is it time to sell my Berkshire?

    Many people have written and talked about how Munger, whom I knew and liked for more than 40 years, had a dry wit and convinced Buffett, a fellow Omaha native, to start buying good companies at reasonable prices rather than making cheap purchases of “cigar butt” remnant companies that had only a few puffs left. But I had a totally different reaction: did Munger’s death mean that I should bail out of my Berkshire Class B stock, which I bought in early 2016?

  • Meet the real recession referees

    The Business Cycle Dating Committee is a nongovernmental, nonpartisan organization that rules definitively on when recessions begin or end. It operates on the basis of economics, not politics.

  • Why there are no simple solutions to Social Security's problems: Allan Sloan

    Award-winning finance journalist — and Social Security recipient — Allan Sloan writes about the looming problems with Social Security.

  • Why our obsession with bull markets is...'bull'

    Calling a bull market sure does get attention, but it doesn’t feel like a rational way to put money to work.

  • Inflation: Why headline numbers on rising costs don't always reflect the real world

    Award-winning journalist Allan Sloan breaks down how tricky inflation numbers can be and that it pays to dig a little deeper.

  • Disney, DeSantis and opening Pandora's box

    Watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis try to financially punish the Walt Disney Co. is turning into a major indoor sport. It's also opening a Pandora's box that might never be closed again.

  • How I, sort of, make money off 'Forever' stamps — and you can too!

    How would you like to be able to put money into an asset that’s all but guaranteed to rise 10% this year, regardless of what the stock market does? Welcome to Forever Stamps.

  • Investing: How I really screwed up playing the interest rate game

    If you want an example of how someone can get carried away by what seem to be high interest rates, you don’t need to look at huge financial messes like Silicon Valley Bank, R.I.P. Instead, you can look at me.

  • Goldman Sachs: Should it be punished for its role in the Silicon Valley Bank debacle?

    I’d like to suggest an approach for our political leaders to take on the role that Goldman Sachs played in the collapse of SVB: figure out how much money Goldman made by buying $24 billion of securities from SVB at a below-market price. And then to demand that Goldman turn over that profit to the federal government.

  • Jack Welch's GE legacy ended last week: R.I.P.

    Jack Welch, the legendary long-time chief executive of General Electric, died on Mar. 1, 2020, almost two decades after he left the company. His corporate legacy died at GE’s recent Investor Day event: Mar. 9, 2023.

  • Numbers dive: Warren Buffett's performance is even more amazing than you think

    Contributing columnist Allan Sloan, diving into Warren Buffett's annual letter, shows how amazing Berkshire’s performance has been in the almost six decades that Buffett has run the show.

  • How I'd fix Social Security

    Fix Social Security? When both political parties are finally forced to get together and act like grownups rather than snitty children, we’ll end up with fixes that will likely both increase the program’s revenues and probably reduce its future costs, as well. Here's what they might be.

  • Why you should stop caring about the Dow Jones Industrial Average

    Have you ever wondered why trillions of investment dollars are indexed to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index but almost nothing (relatively speaking) is tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average? Go no further than yesterday’s market.

  • Bed Bath & Beyond: How stock buybacks undermined the company

    One of the major — and overlooked--reasons that Bed Bath & Beyond is in desperate trouble is that when it comes to its own stock, it's violated the key retailer's rule of buy cheap and sell dear.

  • What did Tesla's stock plunge cost S&P 500 investors last year? Billions and billions

    A lot of retail investors are getting a good laugh from watching the impact that the huge decline in Tesla’s (TSLA) share price is having on Elon Musk, who was the world’s richest person before Tesla started tanking. But you know what? Even though few people seem to realize it, retail investors—people like you and me— are also getting whacked by Tesla’s tremendous fall in price.