Retirement Accounts Are Doing Well, But Rocky Times May Be Ahead
Retirement accounts of American workers have benefited greatly this year from the stock market’s successes. Many nearing retirement age are undoubtedly viewing their portfolios happily and making plans for how they’re going to use all that money. But with dark clouds of a financial crisis on the horizon and the potential for a war in Asia, they shouldn’t treat...
Break Out of the Paycheck to Paycheck Lifestyle
Nearly a decade after the financial crisis, American workers are still facing financial difficulties. Rather than getting better, their financial situation is actually deteriorating. Nearly 78% of full-time workers report that they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 75% last year. And 71% of all workers report that they are in debt, up from 68% last year. Thankfully, it’s...
Time to Bury the Phillips Curve
The Phillips Curve is an economic concept that posits a stable and inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment. As inflation rises, unemployment falls, and vice versa. Many free market economists had thought that the Phillips Curve had already died in the aftermath of the stagflation of the 1970s when both inflation and unemployment rose together. Certainly, the academic arguments...
Wall Street Banks Warn of Economic Downturn
Analysts at a number of large banks are warning of an economic downturn. Their warnings are based on observations of various technical data, none of which look very rosy. One of Morgan Stanley’s chief strategists has noted a breakdown in the correlation of the prices of various assets. Higher correlations tend to indicate bullish sentiment, as various asset prices move...
Is Saudi Arabia Turning to the Yuan?
In the aftermath of the failure of the post-war Bretton Woods monetary system, the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency was strengthened by the development of the petrodollar system. Middle Eastern oil-producing countries agreed to price their oil in dollars, accept only dollars as payment for oil, and invest their dollars in US government debt. In exchange, they...
Germany Finishes Gold Bar Repatriation Ahead of Schedule
The German government finished its planned repatriation of gold holdings by transferring the last bars held at the Banque de France in Paris back to Germany. The German government’s plan was to hold at least 50% of its gold within Germany, a task which has now been completed through transfers from New York and Paris. Those gold holdings are...