New for 2023 – Secure Act 2.0

New for 2023 – Secure Act 2.0 As part of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, changes are coming to retirement plans beginning next year. The idea is to get more people to save more for retirement, which is a good thing, but be careful, saving too much in retirement accounts can have a downside, […]
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It’s Always Darkest, Right Before the Dawn

It’s Always Darkest, Right Before the Dawn First, we wish all our readers a most enjoyable holiday season. It is not lost on us that Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, the ‘light of the world’ for Christians, are both celebrated near the Winter Solstice. Now, each passing […]
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Nothing to See Here… Move Along…

To be honest, we’re getting pretty tired of dealing with market fireworks every time the Fed provides a hint of what they are going to do next. Traders are logically obsessed, but investors need not be dragged into this obsession. This week was a perfect example. The market twitched wildly to the perception of a […]
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The Devil is in the Details

The Devil is in the Details Most of the time, taking note of headline economic data, like the number of new jobs created or the unemployment rate, is all you really need to stay abreast of what’s going on, but at economic inflection points, the data gets more muddled, and is often contradictory, at least […]
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Is There Really a Santa Claus?

Is There Really a Santa Claus? Wednesday was one of those amazing days with the S&P 500 index rising 3% for the day! The bull must be back, right? Not so fast… We’ve said this a few times in the past, but we’ll say it again. The best days in stock market history have occurred […]
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Economy Watch

Economy Watch Confusing data is the rule. This makes the Fed’s job especially difficult. Which data points do you believe? Better question, which data points does the Fed believe? New home sales unexpectedly rose 7.5% in October, befuddling economist who expected a decline of 5.5% for the month. While some analysts credited aggressive discounting by […]
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This Week in History | August 20, 2022

This Week in History 51 years ago, on August 15, 1971, the gold standard came to a close as the gold-dollar peg was completely removed. From that date forward, we have had a fiat currency, that is, a currency not backed by anything tangible. The result? Since August 1971, the CPI has risen more than […]
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