There weren’t really any surprises last week when the Federal Open Market Committee decided to cut its target federal funds rate another 25 basis points, to a target of 1.75% to 2.00%. That had long been expected and even priced in by many investors. But there were two anomalies that bear mentioning. The first is that there were three dissenting...
When investing in markets, it’s sometimes a good idea to look at what other people are doing. Sometimes that take the form of looking at what they’re doing and doing exactly the opposite, like taking a short position on a hot stock because it’s fundamentally undervalued. Other times that takes the form of watching closely as those in the...
Saving and investing for retirement isn’t something that many people are familiar with until they’re thrust into the workplace and forced to make investment decisions for themselves. No one takes classes on retirement planning, it isn’t taught in high school, and even most parents don’t sit down with their children and go through the essential elements of saving and...
The United States government’s national debt stands today at an astronomical $22.6 trillion. Everyone knows that’s a huge amount of money, but the sum is so large that it just boggles the mind and can be difficult to conceptualize. So here are a few ways of thinking about the national debt that will put it into perspective to help...
There’s an increasingly compelling case that the gold market we’re seeing right now is in the very early stages of a break-out bull market that will rival the performance gold saw from 2008 to 2011. That bull market saw gold rise from under $1,000 to nearly $2,000 by its peak. And with gold starting its bull market run at...
The Chinese government continues to add to its gold reserves, with over 100 tonnes added to its reserves over the past nine months. Those purchases show no signs of slowing down anytime soon, and with a heightening trade war with the US, expect those purchases to continue well into the future. But while the government continues to add to...
Risk is an aspect of life that just can’t be overcome. No matter what you do or where you go, you’re always going to have to deal with risk. Nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to investing your money. Part of investing is dealing with the risk that you may lose some of the money that you’ve...
When looking at their investment portfolios, most investors just look at headline numbers. They’re more interested in how the stocks in their portfolios are performing rather than why they’re performing that way, or how those stocks are traded. But the way that stocks are traded today behind the scenes is very important, and it has changed significantly over the...
The idea of retirement is one that most Americans dream of. But the reality of actually planning for retirement can be a daunting one. From setting up retirement accounts to dealing with tax issues, planning for your post-work life can take up huge amounts of time and energy. Maybe that’s a reason so many Americans put off planning and...
Record-low interest rates over the past decade have spurred a huge amount of new debt issuance. From the federal government to major corporations to American households, American indebtedness continues to climb. And now it’s beginning to reach another level of absurdity as the Treasury Department has announced that it is looking into the possibility of issuing 50-year and 100-year...