An ounce of prevention is preferable to the hours a cure could take. Welcome to 2022! I have always been keen to set New Year’s resolutions, but this year I am narrowing my usual long list down to one: to protect my name and accounts from cyber and credit fraud. I invite you to join … Continue reading My New Year’s Resolution: Protection from Fraud
The average U.S. bond had a negative total return in 2021 for the first time since 2013. The fourth quarter was another volatile one for interest rates as credit markets grappled with elevated inflation, the prospect of slowing economic growth in 2022, and the onset of the COVID Omicron variant. Notably, the yield curve flattened … Continue reading Credit Markets: Slower Growth Ahead?
Where are the superior risk/rewards in this sensitive economy? Many investments have more than doubled since their pandemic lows. However, the U.S. equities market is in an interesting position as we enter the fourth quarter. Due to the sizable disruptions caused by the Delta variant and ongoing global supply chain issues, global markets have become … Continue reading Buy Economically Sensitive for a Sensitive Economy
What Does It All Mean? The primary monetary policy tool for central banks is setting the level of short-term interest rates. For the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), this means adjusting short-term interest rates to support its dual mandate of price stability (controlling inflation) and maximum sustainable employment. However, once short-term interest rates are set near-zero, … Continue reading Quantitative Easing, Tapering, Liftoff, and Rolloff
With 2021 coming to a close, and major tax code changes being debated in Washington, now is an opportune time to evaluate three powerful tax strategies, which could be advantageous to you. As an enrolled agent (licensed by the IRS), I’ve spent a good amount of time studying the U.S. tax code, evaluating the … Continue reading Three Powerful Tax Strategies to Evaluate Now
It was a volatile third quarter for credit markets. Interest rates continued to experience significant volatility in the third quarter with the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond beginning the quarter at 1.49%, dropping to 1.19% by early August and then rallying to close the quarter at 1.52%. This tug-of-war was due to several ongoing issues … Continue reading Credit Markets: An Interest Rate Tug-of-War
How have our portfolios defended against recent inflation? Is inflation or disinflation in our future? Recent inflation headlines have been startling: “Lumber prices spike to an all-time high,” “Oil prices double over the past year,” “Copper hits a 20-year high”. These quotes have caused many to believe a new cycle of rising inflation is upon … Continue reading Which Flation Is In Our Future?
Through the first half of 2021, Natural Resources and Real Estate are amongst the best performing asset classes – we’ll look at what drove this performance and offer an outlook for the second half. Thinking back to 2020 and everything that transpired in financial markets, amongst the most incredible developments was not only the speed … Continue reading Forgotten to Favored
For retirees, choosing the most optimal pension option deserves a rigorous analysis. For many employees in the public and private sector who are facing the prospects of an imminent retirement, the decision of how to take their pension is rife with uncertainty. On its head, the two most basic pension payout options are relatively simple … Continue reading To Annuitize or Not, That Is the Question
Bond investors are not too concerned about a persistent increase in inflation. Much ink has been spilled over the past quarter on inflation, which has clearly made a resurgence as the economy has begun to recover and strengthen. But there is an ongoing debate as to whether the current inflationary forces will be a short-term … Continue reading Credit Markets: Transitory or Non-Transitory Inflation?
