Is This The Correction (Finally)?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me multiple times, well you know how this goes… Each time it appears the stock market is going to enter correction territory (defined as a 10% drop from the previous high),  the wind shifts, it’s buy on the dips and we’re off to the races, again. What about […]

Philly Fed Business Outlook – Positive Six-Month Outlook..

Philly Fed Business Outlook Survey The Philly Fed Business Outlook is the most optimistic since March, 2011. Encouraging are new orders and the employment outlook for six months. This survey covers the Third Federal Reserve District which is Delaware, southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Obviously, this is a survey mired in respondents’ perspectives, so […]

Emerging Markets – A Wind of Change?

No doubt if you’ve allocated any portion of your portfolio to emerging markets this year, you have felt the wind of pain. While domestic (U.S.) stocks represented by the S&P 500 are higher by over 18% this year, the largest, most popular exchange-traded funds, VWO & EEM are both off roughly 12% YTD through  6/30. Painful. […]

The Sequestration Looms!! Sequestration Depresstration!! What Now??

I coined a new word. Depresstration. For those who follow this stuff and for those who see politicians fighting on television, it feels that way. And psychology means everything to an economy that’s based on consumption and services. Some facts (not too many; I don’t want to add to the depression): 1). The CBO estimates […]

An opportune time to interrogate your financial partners – How to do it effectively.

We find increasingly that people who are seeking or maintaining financial partners are somewhat intimidated to “dig too deep,” or ask tough questions. Questions that would cause a person in the financial services industry to step back, reflect. Possibly stutter. Frankly, with the stock markets hitting impressive highs, it’s a good time to shake up, […]

The Debt Ceiling: What you Should Know Now.

We’re kicking the can down the road. Again. Now the debt ceiling debate is tabled for several months (until May 18). However, two make-or-break opportunities are pending for negotiations over the budget. Unless Congress acts by March, the pending sequester would trigger close to $1 trillion in defense and non-defense spending cuts that no one […]

The Fiscal Cliff Saga Continues.

Many people would rather not hear the words “fiscal cliff,” again. As a matter of fact, Lake Superior State University has decided the term be banished from the annals of history. Clarity is completely fine with banishment as we told John Melloy over at CNBC’s “Fast Money,” recently. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100349529 The parties were able to come together at […]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Bernanke (and Why he Won’t Press the Interest-Rate Button)

Short-term interest rates remain frozen near the sub-zero mark. And it feels like a very frigid winter coming.  So much time has passed, Ben Bernanke, the savior of our financial system in 2008, has now been reduced to the thorn of savers across the country; if this situation continues he’ll be burned in effigy on […]

Consumer Household Deleveraging Continues..

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest quarterly household debt & credit is out and shows how households continue to diligently pay-down debt. Here are notable highlights for the report dated November 2012: Aggregate consumer debt fell again in the third quarter, by $74 billion, continuing the nearly four-year downward trend in household debt. […]

The Fiscal Cliff: Tips, Wishes & Ideas.

Where can you go, where can you hide? The cliff is bigger than you. More popular too. More popular than the cool kids in high school.  Unlike the popular kids you eventually forget (or you meet them at a reunion in a decade and they’re balding and/or overweight), this fiscal cliff is going to be […]