The Long Bull You can be forgiven for wondering what all the hoopla was about when, on August 22, the newspapers erupted with the announcement that the current bull run in the U.S. stock market was the longest in history. Wasn’t the day before and the day before that part of that run? The answer […]
No End Run By now, you probably know all about the so-called SALT (state and local tax) deduction limitations imposed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. If your property, local and state taxes exceed $10,000 (couples) or $5,000 (singles), well, too bad. That’s all you can deduct on your federal tax returns. Some of […]
Savings Bonds Redux Remember savings bonds? Ask anybody who was around during or in the years right after World War II, and they’ll have fond memories of buying a savings bond for $25 for a child or grandchild, and five years later the bond would be worth $50. For people of a certain age, it […]
Charitable Contribution Rules: 10 Years in the Making Ten years ago, the Internal Revenue Service proposed regulations that would define how to value (and prove the actual value) of non-cash donations to charity. The regs involved things like artwork, jewelry and other possessions whose value is often in the eye of the beholder. Now, a […]
We’re Saving More Than We Realized Quick: What’s America’s national savings rate? A generation ago, you might have guessed 10% and been pretty close to the market. More recently, there has been a lot of hand-wringing about a precipitous decline in how much of their income Americans are saving—down, according to the U.S. government’s Bureau […]
Crisis Continued We should probably all be celebrating the news that, after eight years of headlines predicting the worst sort of gloom and doom, the nation of Greece has emerged from its bailout program. Over that time period, the country received 289 billion euros ($330 billion) from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and […]
Are Automation Fears Overblown? The robots are coming for your job, and eventually they’re going to get it. Right? Maybe not. A new report by the OECD (the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)—an intergovernmental economic organization with 36 member countries—has concluded that only 14% of jobs in developed countries are “highly automatable.” This would […]
Peace in our Times Is America one of the world’s most peaceful countries, or one of the least? An organization called the Institute for Economics and Peace actually measures, for every country, something called the GPI (Global Peace Index). The measurement takes into account the societal safety and security of each country’s citizens, the extent […]
Behind the Turkish Meltdown What the heck is going on in Turkey? Whatever it is, it’s having a visible effect on the markets. After the Turkish stock market index fell more than 24% since the start of August, Eurozone bank stocks fell 24% and emerging markets stocks overall (a category which includes Turkish stocks) dropped […]
Goodbye Marriage Penalty—Almost One of the unexpected gifts from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was the virtual elimination of the so-called “marriage penalty.” But at the same time, the new tax regime imposes a new “stealth” marriage penalty which will show up for taxpayers in higher-tax states. The marriage penalty is roughly […]
