January 2020
Why Is Gold Important? A Brief Guide
For over 200 years, gold has been the most important precious metal in the world. It was once the linchpin of the international monetary system, and in a way still anchors the workings of the world’s central banks. Even though it no longer features as prominently as a currency, it nonetheless retains its importance. Gold has a number of attributes...
The Federal Reserve’s Monetization of Debt Is a Bad Omen for the Future
One of the characteristic traits of an economy that is circling the drain is one in which the central bank directly monetizes the debt issued by the government. Once that starts to happen, there is no check on the government’s ability to spend money, and the currency unit quickly becomes more and more worthless. We’ve seen this happen in...
5 New Year’s Resolutions for Investors
The coming of the new year has traditionally been a time for people to make resolutions about how they’ll improve their way of living in the year ahead. It’s become famous in some circles to joke about those resolutions, and how few people stick to them. That’s particularly true when it comes to exercise and fitness. But while many people...
What Would Trillions of Dollars of Corporate Downgrades Mean for Your Investment Portfolio?
One of the dominant themes in markets today is the vast amount of near-junk grade debt that’s floating around out there. Corporate debt levels are nearly double what they were during the financial crisis, and in terms of corporate debt to GDP, we’re at levels that we last saw at the top of the last two market crashes. That...
December 2019
Negative Rates: Coming Soon to a Bank Near You?
At the beginning of the year, the Federal Reserve was expected to hike interest rates at least twice. Instead, it cut rates three times. What should we expect in 2020? With numerous analysts and strategists warning about the likelihood of a major stock market crash in 2020, it’s all but guaranteed that the Fed will have to drop rates even...
Trying to Make Money in Stock Markets Is Tough For Mom & Pop
Many people look at surging stock markets, and especially hot stocks like Amazon and Netflix, and think that they can make it big investing in stocks. Yet very few investors are actually able to make market-beating stock gains, let alone even match the market. The sooner they understand that, the sooner they’ll be able to make investment decisions that...
December 2019
New Changes Mean More Incentive for Annuities, But Is That a Good Thing for Investors?
With the recent changes Congress made to retirement savings laws, more firms today will be able to market annuities to those enrolled in workplace retirement programs. Insurance companies lobbied hard for those provisions, hoping to capture a piece of the trillions of dollars Americans have invested through workplace 401(k) and retirement savings plans. But while annuities are often touted...
The Fed Blows the Bubble Bigger and Bigger, While More and More on Wall Street Warn of the Crash
As 2019 winds to a close, stock markets continue to see record highs. It’s a lot different than this time last year, when markets were plummeting to end the year. So what has changed? Well, the Federal Reserve decided to plow another few hundred billion dollars into financial markets to end the year, with that money finding its way to...