The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just recently published its projections on US government spending over the next decade, and the document is a doozy. CBO expects the federal deficit to reach $1 trillion this year, and to average $1.3 trillion between now and 2030. The total debt held by the public is expected to reach $31.4 trillion by 2030,...
Every year we’re warned to get our flu shots. We’re told that the flu kills tens of thousands of people each flu season, and we’re constantly being reminded of the potential dangers of the disease. And at the back of many people’s heads is the history of the Spanish flu, which killed between 20 and 50 million people worldwide...
While much of the financial advice you hear in the media needs to be taken with a grain of salt, every now and then you hear a nugget of truth. In this case it’s coming from legendary hedge fund investor Ray Dalio, who was recently interviewed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about his views on the...
Millions of American retirees receive Social Security payments each month. And while Social Security wasn’t intended to be the sole source of retirement income for retired Americans, many people rely on Social Security for some or even all of their income in retirement. That may be due to poor performance of their investments, losing their pension as their company...
It seems as though South African inventor and billionaire Elon Musk has been the darling of Silicon Valley for years. His vision for the future has certainly helped drive the popularity of Tesla’s cars, and his ideas for solar panels and space travel certainly mark him in the minds of many as a visionary. But while Teslas may be...
The stage has been set for 2020 to be the year for precious metals to make a big bull run. With the potential for conflict in the Middle East, jittery stock markets, and a Federal Reserve that’s engaging in more monetary easing, this year should see increased demand for gold and silver. Many investors remember the great precious metals bull...
It’s no secret that corporate stock buybacks are one of the primary drivers behind high-flying stock markets in recent years. Over the past decade, corporations have been the largest net buyers of stock, continuing to buy back more and more stock and driving prices through the roof. And even though most corporate CFOs now think that stock markets are...
With interest rates having been held at near-zero for nearly a decade, and in Europe and Japan actually being forced into negative territory, it shouldn’t be any surprise that debt issuance around the world has exploded. Total global debt levels are set to hit an all-time high of over $257 trillion. That’s more than triple the world’s entire economic...
By now even the most fervent stock market bulls realize that the current valuations of stock markets are way out of whack with underlying market fundamentals. By just about every measure, stocks are trading at ratios that are far higher than their historical averages. Most people look to the price to earnings (P/E) ratio when analyzing stocks. The S&P 500...
With so much competing financial news out there, investors may have a hard time deciding for themselves whether markets are going to continue to grow, or whether they’re going to completely collapse. Certainly the economy is slowing, industrial production is down, and tariffs continue to hurt American farmers and industry. But stock markets continue to set record highs, oblivious...
