Re the Feb. 23 issue on Depression:

“I want to thank you Mark for being open about a very important challenge for a lot of people. I enjoyed reading your deep dive in applying an analytical metric to this problem. I do think your rating is valid. I have been aided by utilizing CBT. I am sure you have read of this treatment. Discovered by Dr Aaron Beck, a U Penn doc, David Burns, wrote a book, Feeling Good, which applies practical use of CBT…. Let me know your thoughts on CBT.”  – JM

Re my Indulgence Diet:

“Just back from Ireland after nearly two years of no international travel… and business travel packs on the pounds if you aren’t careful…. My core vices are starch, alcohol, and chocolate/sweets. I’d love a rotation like this. Your diet plan has given me hope… let me know if this 10lb loss holds up.” – EN

My Response: Give it a try! I’m down 14 pounds in three weeks and I never think about what I’m missing. Today, for example, I’m doing no alcohol, but I had a donut for breakfast and I just might have a cookie right now. Maybe two!!!

Re the Mar. 2 issue, where I included a quote from Bill Bonner about long-term stock market cycles suggesting that both in 1929 and 1966 it took the market nearly 30 years to recover from its low. AG wrote to clarify:

“I don’t know whether perma-bears don’t know this – or whether they don’t want others to know it – but the long dry spells for stocks they regularly cite are not real. Why? Because by looking only at the level of the indexes and omitting dividends, they grossly distort actual returns.

“For example, during the periods mentioned… stocks often yielded over 8%. (And when you reinvest those dividends when stocks are down, good things happen.) When the market hit bottom in 1932, they yielded over 14%. It took just 4 1/2 years for investors reinvesting dividends to be whole again even if they bought at the very top before the 1929 crash. (See link below.) Of course, most investors panicked and sold – or went broke on margin – but that’s another story.

“Nothing has beaten the return on a diversified portfolio of common stocks over periods measured in decades. Not gold, bonds, real estate, cash, collectibles, or commodities. $1 invested in gold in 1802 was worth $2.97 inflation-adjusted by 2016. The same amount invested in a basket of common stocks with dividends reinvested was worth more than $1.1 million inflation-adjusted over the same period. Yet stocks were a ‘losing trade’?

“For a fuller treatment of the subject, you might read Jeremy Siegel’s classic Stocks for the Long Run. The last edition is 18 years old. But you can extrapolate the charts forward and nothing has changed.”

Click here.