Red Flags Rise on Emerging Stocks
Monday’s Wall Street Journal discussed the intermediate term future for emerging markets. A growing number of analysts find the recent rebound in emerging markets troubling. Developing country equities are up 16% since June. Theeir message: Proceed at your own risk. Based on a five year forecast, U.S. small cap stocks are still a better growth Read more ➝
As Finances Mend, Will Consumers Spend?
The Fed recently released first quarter data on household finances. Stronger balance sheets reflect improved real estate prices, rising stock prices, and continued higher rates of household saving. Household finances still lack the strength they exhibited in the early 1990s, but they have improved enough to offer a firm basis for future consumer spending and, Read more ➝
The Talk You Didn’t Have With Your Parents Could Cost You
If you haven’t had a conversation with your parents about handling their financial affairs after they die, this article is required reading. Finances tend to be one of the trickiest topics because people do have traditional ideas about what you should and shouldn’t talk about. Before you broach the topic, adult children should think about Read more ➝
New Normal … Morphing
PIMCO’s investment professionals gatherd for three days to discuss the three-to-five year outlook for the global economy and markets. Needless to say the role and actions of central banks across the globe was a recurring theme over the “Secular Forum.” Specifically, that in the process of buying time for economies to heal, they have inserted a Read more ➝
Fed’s Mixed Messages Roil Markets
The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented stimulus efforts are starting to box in the nation’s central banker. Its bond purchases have helped fuel economic growth since the financial crisis. But Fed policymakers now must figure out how and when to start dialing back the support – and signal that to nervous investors – without derailing the recovery. Read more ➝
Stocks Drop with Industrial Metals, Euro; Treasuries Rise
U.S. equities began short-term declines in April during each of the last three years. The market may be due for a similar pullback this year because its advance since mid-November has been out of sync with weak earnings and slower economic growth. Stocks need to pause as investors recognize that forward-looking estimates are too high Read more ➝
Simpson-Bowles Blues Brothers Tour Going Who Knows Where
Simpson, 81, and Bowles, 67, became unlikely celebrities after failing to carry off one of President Obama’s more abitious first term endeavors. In 2009 he appointed them to lead his National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bipartisan group that was supposed to produce a “grand bargain” both parties could endorse to bring the Read more ➝
Business Groups Propose Raising Age for Entitlement Benefits
Did you know that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security account for 42% of the federal budget? The Business Roundtable, which represents chief executives of major U.S. companies, proposed shoring up Social Security and Medicare by raising the eligibility age without increasing taxes on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. For Social Security, the Read more ➝
A Breakdown of the New Fiscal Cliff Law
On January 2, President Barack Obama signed the American Tax Relief Act, an eleventh-hour bill designed to resolve the year-long fiscal cliff debate over expiring tax breaks and automatic spending cuts set to take effect in 2013. The legislation staves off massive job losses and a potential economic recession, but it raises more questions about Read more ➝
