Thursday, April 25, 2024
Inflation is what everyone in the market is talking about these days. The financial markets are concerned that the Fed will have to hike rates much sooner than expected. Higher rates will significantly impact fixed income products like Treasuries and corporate bonds. Perhaps that’s why an institutional trader purchased 160,000 put spreads in iShares iBoxx […]
Dear Reader, Last week, the CPI inflation was released, showing the highest year-over-year inflation in 30 years. After living and investing in a low-inflation economy for a couple of decades, investors now need to pick some inflation-fighting stocks and funds. In the 1980s, the Federal Reserve killed inflation by quickly and massively increasing interest rates. […]
Dear Reader, The official numbers finally show what we’ve all felt in our wallets for months if not years: Inflation is here. No wonder – 40% of U.S. dollars in circulation were printed in the last 12 months. Whether that inflation is here to stay or not, we as investors have to adapt. That’s why […]
Jared Dillian’s “The 10th Man” article, “Coming Apart” grabbed my attention: “ZeroHedge is fond of saying: ‘On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.’ Let me add Dillian’s corollary to that: On a long enough timeline, everyone gets to be right. Who has consistently been wrong? The Austrian gold bugs always predict […]
“Today Congress is constantly besieged by minority groups seeking benefits from the public treasury. Often these groups control enough votes in many Congressional districts to change the outcome of elections. And so, Congressmen find it difficult to persuade themselves not to give in to pressure groups. With no bad immediate consequence, it becomes expedient to […]
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent remarks really infuriated me. He is “Whistling Past The Graveyard”, again trying to deceive the public. Wolf Richter shares some of his recent remarks: “Inflation has come in above expectations over the past few months.” “The expectation is that high inflation readings will start to abate.” “We don’t in any way […]
I recently interviewed Chuck Butler about winners and losers during inflationary times. I began with: “Historically inflation hurt creditors and helped debtors as they are paying back their obligations in much-depreciated dollars. I’ve had readers ask about borrowing money to invest. Chuck, that concerns me. Many of our readers are baby boomers or retired. …. Are you […]
Since 2008, pundits are screaming – “Inflation is coming!” They are getting louder; do we scoff at the warnings, or take heed? What if they are right? If we take precautions, what harm can we do to our life savings if it doesn’t happen? Baby boomers worked hard and played by the rules. Most are […]
I am in the mood to ramble. (By that, I mean I’d like to share some thoughts about current broader themes affecting investing and the economy.) We have not seen this much uncertainty in the financial world since the Global Financial Crisis nearly 15 years ago. My work lets me follow the current financial news, […]
Last week Chuck Butler and I accepted a challenge from subscriber Charles F. “Describe life in the US 5 years into the loss of our currency reserve status. Winner, Losers, what does gov’t look like on different levels, our position in the world, let your imagination run wild. When I do this my thinking quickly […]
