Stocks are attempting to stabilize after President Trump threw everyone for a loop by Tweeting his intention to hike tariffs on $200 Billion of Chinese goods ahead of what was expected to be the week that ended the 17 month trade war. Rather than going into the whys, hows, whats,
At the end of April the S&P 500 (barely) reached a new all-time high. The next day, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell mentioned the slowdown in the economy is likely “transitory”, which is Fed-speak for temporary. This seemed to remove the prospects from traders’ minds about a rate
GDP growth surprised nearly everyone in the 1st quarter rising 3.2% in the past year. The president of course pointed to his economic policies as the cause of this “great” increase. Never mind the fact the long-term average growth rate is 3.1%. This has been the
This week the Trustees of the Social Security & Medicare Trust funds released their annual report. They reported under current law Medicare will be insolvent by 2026 and Social Security by 2035. That’s in 7 & 16 years respectively. Their assumptions also include steady 3% economic growth with no
Debt is future spending brought forward. Another way to think about it, debt will hurt future spending. As I was talking to several advisors and clients this week after the end of tax season I couldn’t help but think of our country’s debt problems. Few people want to