EUROPE UPDATE – IS ALL WELL OR ARE WE IN THE EYE OF THE STORM?
In the time period leading up to, and in the time period since, German Chancellor Merkel’s re-election, things have been relatively quiet in Europe. Now that her re-election is behind us, we believe the problems we have written about in the past – which have yet to be solved – will begin to resurface. Full […]
THINGS TO WATCH FOR IN 2014
It is always dangerous to make predictions, especially for an entire year. However, reasoned judgments should be considered for their potential impact on investments. Here are our thoughts going into the New Year: General Thoughts: 1) There will be more turmoil in the Middle East as Sunni and Shia Muslims escalate their fights against each […]
THE ONE CONSTANT IN INVESTING – HUMAN EMOTION: GREED AND FEAR
This time it’s different!!! With almost three decades of investment experience, we have heard this phrase many times throughout the years. Every market run and collapse is different (i.e., technology boom, mortgage collapse, black Friday, real estate boom, to name a few), but there is one constant among all of them – human emotion. Human […]
INFLATION – WHY THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS WRONG
When talking with clients about inflation, nearly all of our conversations include examples that run completely counter to our government’s ongoing reports that inflation remains low here in the US. We see many different examples that show inflation is not as low as the government would like us to believe including: 1) an increase in […]
WILL THE FED PUMP CONTINUE?
As we await a resolution of the debt ceiling and government shut down, current discussions center on allowing Congress a few more months to come up with a solution. Simply put, our illustrious politicians appear set on kicking the can further down the road. If this path continues, it is our belief that it […]
Democracy is messy, but still the best system in the world!!
It is amazing how brilliant our Founding Fathers were when they established our Constitution over 200 years ago. They balanced ruling by dictatorship against majority rules by creating three equal, but separate, branches of government. What is occurring now in Washington is the system contemplated by our Founding Fathers at work. The Founding […]
Bank Regulations – have they fixed the problem?
The 1929 stock market crash was caused by lax lending standards and excessive leverage. The Glass-Steagall Act was passed in 1933 in an effort to prevent other crashes moving forward. That act separated commercial banks from security firms. The thought process in separating banks from security firms was that security firms (which use leverage) […]
What happens to the Euro after German Elections next month?
Not much has been happening in Europe over the past few months. This is not surprising, as many are awaiting the outcome of the German election on September 22nd. With the instability of more recent elections in southern Europe – especially Italy, Spain and Greece – the last thing Europe needs is for Merkel […]
There’s Gold in them thar Hills
There is a tale of two stories in the gold market – the financial market and the physical market (individual demand for the actual metal). The gold market has changed dramatically with the introduction of GLD (a gold exchange traded fund – ETF) in November of 2004. For the first time, investors could buy gold […]
Pop open the champagne – Second quarter GDP grows by 1.7% – annually!!
The headlines this morning about GDP growth at 1.7% during the second quarter is a positive sign that the economy is growing. However, as we mentioned in an update a few weeks back, the Federal Reserve forecasted much higher growth than this: Year 2009 Fed GDP Forecast Actual GDP 2010 2.5%-3.5% 2.4% 2011 3.4%-4.5% 2.0% […]