Economy: Full Steam Ahead | April 3, 2021

Economy: Full Steam Ahead Unemployment remains high, but continuing claims remain in a downtrend. GDP is not back to pre-pandemic trendline, but early indicators say we are getting close. After the massive GDP decline last year, we should expect well above trendline growth this year as long as the vaccines work their magic. Investors remain […]
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Stocks Remain A Prisoner of Interest Rates | March 27, 2021

Stocks Remain A Prisoner of Interest Rates The stock market is following the bond market like a puppy. Rates down? Buy growth stocks. Rates up? Buy reflation stocks. U.S. growth estimates are rising, but they are falling in other developed markets. Unless something changes, rates are probably going nowhere. The economic experience in the U.S. […]
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Can the Infrastructure Lure finally Catch Some Funding? | March 20, 2021

Can the Infrastructure Lure finally Catch Some Funding? Infrastructure should be an easy bipartisan issue. How we pay for it is a big sticking point. Getting a bill passed will not be easy. There are few issues that have been discussed as consistently as infrastructure, but with no meaningful result. Most recently, infrastructure was a […]
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Retirement Isn’t a Four-Letter Word | March 13, 2021

Retirement Isn’t a Four-Letter Word Each year J.P. Morgan releases an educational booklet on retirement and because we focus so heavily on retirement for clients, we have made it a practice of taking a few topics from it for our clients. Longevity: The first topic we want to address is longevity. We have always been […]
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The Long and Short of Interest Rates | February 27, 2021

The Long and Short of Interest Rates When the week started, it appeared that short-term rates would be the ‘story of the week’ due to a planned drain of Treasury cash (See “Are Negative Rates Coming Despite Fed Opposition”, below.) However, on Thursday, long-term rates took center stage as the 10-year yield jumped from a […]
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When it Absolutely, Positively Has to Be There… | February 20, 2021

When it Absolutely, Positively Has to Be There… Those old enough will probably recognize our title from the iconic Federal Express tagline ‘When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight’. When the pandemic hit almost a year ago, one of the key words of the time was delivery. Groceries were delivered in record amounts, […]
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