2018 First Quarter Market Report Is the bull market finally over? For the first time in nine calendar quarters, the U.S. investment markets delivered a negative overall return. It was only a slight decline, but the decline reminds us that markets can and do go down from time to time. After starting the year strong, […]
Crytpo-Crash Last year, it was hard to turn on your computer without reading about the dramatic rise in cryptocurrency values, or see advertisements for ways that you, too, could participate in this get-rich-quick opportunity to buy virtual money that is backed by no government on Earth. It’s almost always the case that when an investment […]
Social Security, Where Budget Cuts Lead to Terrible Service These days, trying to apply for Social Security benefits, or getting straight answers about what your best claiming strategy might be, is frustrating at best. Recently, Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, illustrated the problem in vivid […]
The REAL Causes of Death Most of us are afraid of the wrong things. When we worry about being killed, what often comes to mind is a terrorist attack, natural disaster, homicide, an airline crash—or, perhaps, the result of a drug overdose or some idiot’s car running a traffic light. But a comprehensive study of […]
Another Tariff, Another Downturn Last weeks, stocks went on sale again, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of bargain hunters stepping in to take advantage. The S&P 500 dropped 5.9% over five days, its worst week since January 2016. This follows a by-now-familiar pattern: the Trump Administration announces tariffs—this time on Chinese imports […]
The Slack in the Labor Market The U.S. unemployment rate has been dropping steadily ever since it reached 10% during the awful depth of the Great Recession; the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that today only 4.1% of Americans are out of work, the lowest rate in nearly two decades. But most of […]
The Personal Trainer On Your Wrist When you think of artificial intelligence, enhancing your lifespan is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. But a new kind of fitness app is giving us a glimpse of a future where your lifestyle can be monitored in real time for its impact on […]
Currencies and Protectionism There is no question, if the Trump Administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs lead to carefully-targeted tit-for-tat retaliations against American products around the world, the resulting trade war scenario would be terrible for the global economy. Many analysts have dismissed this escalating protectionist future as unlikely, saying that cooler heads are likely […]
Cause for Alarm? Quietly, without a lot of fanfare, the U.S. national debt moved past $20 trillion last September 8. On March 15, it exceeded $21 trillion. The next time the debt ceiling will come up for a vote is March 1, 2019, at which point the total could be another $2-3 […]
The History of Bond Rates—Past as Prologue? Although stocks get the most attention, bonds are significant contributors, both to your total return on your portfolio, and also to the prices of every other investment. Bonds compete with stocks and real estate for investment dollars; when their yields are high, it causes a shift in demand […]
