Insights

Bond prices have been falling and interest rates have been moving up. That shouldn't be news to anyone. Tax-free municipal bonds have been hit especially hard. Prices on closed-end funds that invest in those bonds have been hit even harder, with many of the funds that...

The Fed will release its minutes from the July meeting at 2:00 EST. That is often a market-moving event. That may especially be the case now with the markets extremely focused on the possible timing of a tapering off in Federal Reserve bond buying. Interest rates have...

CNBC today cited a Tower Group survey finding that 40% of companies are planning to considering changing their health care plans in 2014-2015 due to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. A full 60% of companies reported that they are considering shifting...

Recently I posted some historical data on how poor the months of August and September tend to be. Today, I read an article by Ned Davis Research, an organization whose research I really like, that sheds more light on this. NDR looked at all years that like 2013, had...

Supposedly, August and September are 2 of the 3 months in which the stock on average has a negative return. Is that true? It depends on what time frame you use. Over the last 50 years August has been up 29 times and down 21, for an average return of 0%. Over the last...

The Wall St. Journal (WSJ), which for my money has by far the best editorial pages of any major newspaper had a guest editorial today worth noting. I didn't like the tone as it was blatantly anti-Obama. While I am not an Obama fan, as most of you know, I thought the...

At the end of 2012 the economy slowed to roughly 1% growth and came in about the same for the 1Q of 2013. The forecast for 2Q was about the same. Instead US GDP growth came in at 1.7% as reported today, which is a pleasant surprise. That's still pretty slow growth but...

While I was out West last week to see clients in NM, CO, and WY, (I love that part of the country) I was asked if contributions to a SIMPLE retirement plan reduce the amount one can contribute to either a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. The answer is that it does not....

Someone recently asked me the difference between working with a traditional stockbroker and a fee-only RIA (registered investment adviser). Well, I do have a web page at left devoted to this but let me cover it here a little differently. 1) Independence - An RIA is...

You will hear on the news that the economy continues to add jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged in June. Sounds OK. It is true, strictly speaking. But, the check engine light is on. The most widely followed unemployed rate stayed the same at 7.6% and almost...