As of this writing, the house and Senate have crafted their respective versions of the GOP tax proposals. After the Thanksgiving holiday, the two sides will race to reconcile and present President Trump with something tangible to sign so that they can declare “Mission Accomplished” before the calendar year expires. The proposals are each hundreds […]
In an ironic twist, Janet Yellen—who officially will not have her term renewed as Fed chair— gave a recent talk at New York University in which she warned that the U.S. central bank would need to be careful with its interest rate policy in the coming years.
In her remarks at the recent Jackson Hole conference on monetary policy, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen praised the new financial regulations enacted during the Obama Administration. Most observers interpreted Yellen as repudiating the current efforts in the Trump Administration to roll back at least some of the new constraints on banks. Financial publications ran […]
The Federal Reserve is expected to reiterate to the Congressional committee its plan to begin unwinding its multi-trillion bond buying programs as early as this September. Without a doubt this is a big deal. It is so big that it is inconceivable to think that this process will have no effect on financial markets. Our […]
As the Fed unloads its bonds, changes in government regulation will encourage financial institutions to absorb them. The Fiscal Crunch Before diving into the more esoteric analysis, let’s run some simple numbers. As of this writing, the federal government “Debt Held By the Public” (which does include Treasury bonds owned by the Fed, but not […]
Albert Edwards at Societe Generale says January 2008 is here again! UK and US household debt excess comes full circle. From Albert Edwards Via Email Very recent data confirms slumping household saving ratios in both the US and UK. This was last seen in 2007, just before the bursting debt bubble blew the global economy […]
“I would blow up the system and restart with something totally different.” – Ted Benna, “father” of the 401k, quoted in MarketWatch.com As investors educate themselves about the financial advice that is accepted as “common wisdom,” many begin to realize that 401ks might not be the “retirement solution” they were assumed to be. Even Ted […]
Is the US economy headed for a boom or bust under the Trump administration? Now almost 90 days into his presidency, Donald Trump promised healthcare reform, big tax cuts, immigration restrictions, and a protectionist approach to creating new domestic jobs. The Fed appears set on raising interest rates and bringing an end to its asset-buying […]
In my last blog post, I went over the worth of a guarantee. This is a continuation of that post, which you can read here. Why can cash value be guaranteed using whole life insurance? Because of the following guarantees: A guaranteed mortality rate. This means that your cost of insurance inside the policy is […]
Not many things are truly “guaranteed” in life. We can’t guarantee the weather, what other people will or won’t do, the direction of the markets, or even if we’ll be around to see tomorrow.