The Recovery Stalls; Fed Pledges “Lower for Longer;” Equity Markets Pause
With the Fed pledging to keep rates low even when (or if) inflation rises above its 2% target, it is hard to see why long-term Treasury yields (and those of other quality issuers) won’t move toward yields of similar debt in the world’s other industrial economies (i.e., Europe and Japan). The economic lull is now […]
Anti-growth policies hurt investors
The stall-out in the U.S. economy and in most major world economies has baffled policymakers. No matter what they try in today’s economic environment, it hasn’t worked for more than a short period of time. Quantitative easing appeared to work when first tried during the Great Recession, but now, as Japan and Europe have found, […]
New disclosure regs may save investors billions
Longtime readers of my columns know that I am not a fan of government regulation. Nevertheless, there are times it is needed to protect consumers. This column is about new regulations that have the potential to save investors billions of dollars in costs. Internal fees in mutual funds Some months ago, I wrote a column […]
The Possibility of Negative Interest Rates on Your Deposits – Part I
The very concept of negative interest rates appears, at least at first blush, to be an oxymoron. What rational entity would “loan” money and expect, under the contract, to get less back than loaned? If you think “no one would,” think again! In this two part narrative, I explain how this is possible, how it […]
Economy: the Elusive “Escape Velocity”
The strong labor market and recent emerging data indicate that the first quarter’s poor economic performance was due to severe winter weather and a 2 month long west coast port strike that disrupted many manufacturing production schedules. Yet, despite such data, the financial media and many bloggers continue to fixate on the inability of the […]
Was Bank of America’s $4 billion error really an error?
The BofA so-called $4 billion “error” in its stress test calculations is, in my view, another sign of overbearing government regulations and their negative impact on the marketplace. The “error” was in the calculation of capital it would have under the Federal Reserve’s onerous stress test. Apparently, the capital requirements of the Basel III regulatory […]