What was the highest performing asset over the decade ending on January 1? U.S. stocks? International bonds? Commodities? The stock market of a random emerging nation? Any of those might be decent guesses, but they’re all wrong. The asset (if you can call it that) which delivered the highest performance, by a wide margin, was [...]
The incoming Biden Administration has made some proposals that would affect our taxes, prominently including a complete rollback of the 2017 tax cut for taxpayers with income above $400,000. The plan would also tax capital gains at the same rates as ordinary income for people with more than $1 million in income. The corporate tax [...]
Chances are, unless you’re a healthcare worker or living in a nursing home, you are still waiting for the opportunity to get vaccinated against the dreaded COVID-19 virus. And you might be wondering how effectively your state is managing the vaccination rollout. You don’t have to wonder; a website is now closely tracking the COVID-19 [...]
The most recent Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed that we are now in uncharted territory with regard to home mortgage rates. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage came in at 2.65%, the lowest rate in the survey’s history, dating back to 1971. 15-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 2.16%. Since then, rates have climbed [...]
The U.S. Congress recently passed, and the President signed, the 5,593 page Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021—and experts are still mulling over what the impact will be on ordinary citizens. There are stimulus checks, tax planning relief provisions and a break for people who experience high medical expenses during the pandemic. There’s even a new [...]
Efficient market theorists—the economists who believe that every investor is rational and every company’s true value is reflected in the last price paid for a share of stock—will tell you that America’s corporations were worth 12-13 percent less on Monday than they were on Friday. The rest of us recognize that we are in the [...]
Despite a nice recovery day on Tuesday, it now appears that the investment markets are in full panic mode, the result of the World Health Organization declaring the Covid-19 virus to be a global pandemic. Traders on Wall Street are selling at virtually any price, which is causing the markets to drop into bear market [...]
You know that a recession is coming, though the day and the hour is unknown even to the most savvy and information-infused economists. So it makes sense to get out of the way now, before it hits—right? If that’s how you think, then you may be in danger of missing out on far more upside [...]
A bill entitled The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives last May by an overwhelming majority, and it was called the most comprehensive, sweeping retirement security legislation in recent history. A few days ago, the Senate finally passed the same legislation by attaching it to its [...]
You’ve probably heard, in campaign speeches by Democratic Presidential contenders, that almost half of all Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency expense. Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have all told audiences some version of this line. Basically, they’re saying that many of us couldn’t afford to pay for a flat tire or […]
