It’s hard to get nostalgic about the 1970s. We remember what we wore, how we had our hair done up and the stupor-inducing sitcoms we considered appointment TV. And we also remember the way the economy was going. The 1970s’ economy wasn’t bad per se, but it was a disappointment – a ‘’bummer” if you […]
It’s hard to gauge the point at which you’ve entered a recession – two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. It’s much easier, though, to figure out when you’ve hit a bear market because a bear market occurs when the stock market, usually defined as the S&P 500 index, falls 20% from its peak. It’s […]
In normal times, investment advisors often tell you to diversify your portfolio into three broad categories: equities, fixed income, and cash equivalents. What proportion you put into each bucket is a judgment call, as is the frequency with which you rebalance your portfolio. And of course, the art lies in picking the right vehicles within […]
The sad truth about recessions is that you could already be in one and not know it. The most commonly agreed-upon definition of a recession is two consecutive readings of negative growth of a country’s gross domestic product. Considering that these readings are conducted quarterly, the economy could have been contracting for quite a while […]
There sure have been a lot of big-name initial public offerings (IPOs) so far this year, and a lot more in the pipeline. Already we’ve seen Zoom, Slack, Beyond Meat, Chewy, Fiverr, Pinterest, Uber, and Lyft. Still on deck are AirBNB, Postmates, Robinhood, and WeWork parent The We Company. Traditionally, retail investors have been unable […]
The good news – and there’s plenty of it – is that the economy is doing very well. The U.S. economy just notched its 121st consecutive month of expansion. That is, it has been more than a decade since America experienced two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP), which is what defines a […]
The United Kingdom is leaving the European Union! Implications for global trade could be disastrous! Implications for the global financial industry could be even worse! The British government is in disarray! People are panicking! But should they? To say the U.K. has weathered worse would be so trite an understatement that even the British – […]
In 2015, IBM signaled that 90% of all the data in the world had been created in the previous two years. While there aren’t stats for what that figure is today, surely it’s higher. At last read, one minute is all it takes for the digital world to produce 3.8 million Google searches, 448,800 tweets, […]
A November 28 headline in the New York Times gushed, “Two Words From Fed Chairman Jerome Powell Sent Markets Soaring”. Jay Powell – who likes being called Jerome about as much as Jerome Seinfeld does – noted, according to the Times, “the Fed’s benchmark interest rate was ‘just below’ the neutral level, meaning the central […]
You know how you can tell that, as of November 6, 2018, we’ve entered the Millennial age of American politics? There were no losers. Everybody got a trophy. As of the following morning, there was still no firm count of exactly how many House of Representatives and Senate seats would be claimed by each party, […]
President Trump might have secured another policy win that has the potential to positively affect broad swaths of the American public. Tax reform’s impact was experienced more by businesses than by individuals, as evidenced by Republican congressional candidates deemphasizing it as a campaign theme. And although the administration has prevailed in the battle to seat […]
Would you believe Weekend at Bernie’s is almost 30 years old? We only mention it because this lighthearted summer comedy offers a message that’s just as timely today. When the two buddies show up at their boss’s plush, beachfront chateau, The Serious One says: “All of this could be yours if you set your goals […]