Protect Your Future Today
Most Americans understand that saving for retirement is important. Over the past several years, increased amounts of education and understanding have helped Americans save up more and more money for retirement. Total retirements assets have risen from $11.6 trillion in 2000 to nearly $27 trillion today. Thanks to the...
In another sign of the growing economic bubble, Moody’s has flagged growing debt levels among Americans as a rising risk for financial institutions. Households considered to have high debt levels are those whose debt ratio is greater than 40%. Those households in the lowest income quintile have the highest percentage...
The safety of global systemically important banks (GSIBs) has improved significantly since the Great Recession, according to the latest Global Financial Stability Report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued earlier this week. However, roughly a third of them, representing about $17 trillion in asset size, could “struggle to...
One of the Trump Administration’s most highly-awaited proposals is the one for tax reform. As with any reform proposal, the devil is in the details, but some of the first proposals sound good on their face. As anyone who has ever had to file taxes understands, the tax code...
Most Americans with an opinion on the subject think the free market should set interest rates, not the US Federal Reserve, according to a recent survey from the Cato Institute. “Unsurprisingly, a plurality (44 percent) of Americans have not thought much about whether Federal Reserve officials or the free-market...
News reports recently have been full of tales of cyber attacks against financial institutions. From credit reporting bureau Equifax to the Securities and Exchange Commission, to accounting giant Deloitte, no institution seems to be safe from hackers. With a society that does an increasing amount of business online, that...
Most sane investors have an inkling that financial markets are in a bubble. But just having a general sense that things aren’t right sometimes isn’t enough. Looking at actual statistics can put into perspective just how large some of these bubbles have grown. Housing Bubbles The Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price...
Stephen Williamson, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, joined critics of the US central bank last week by conceding there is no proof that massive intervention in the credit markets such as the Fed’s quantitative easing program has worked. “There appears to be no evidence that...
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced this week that the electronic system it uses for storing filings from public companies was accessed by hackers. The...
In an unsurprising development, the Federal Reserve decided at this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that it would begin implementing the program of drawing down its balance sheet that it had begun to develop earlier this year. But while ending aggressively expansive monetary policy is a good...