This debt ceiling nonsense appears to be a manufactured crisis, which could and probably will be resolved pretty easily, and the best approach for all of us is to remain invested in our long-term portfolios.
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March has been a wild and wooly month so far, with high volatility continuing to roil the global stock markets and central banks continuing to put pressure on bond markets. But the most interesting story of the last couple of weeks — and the one that’s sparked the most conversation with clients — is sudden turmoil in the banking industry.
Over the last year or so, there have been a flurry of big transactions in the financial services world. It seems like every time we turn around, some big Wall Street firms are buying one another, investment banks are buying client service companies, massive brokerage firms are “merging”, and so…
The last month has been close to the wildest ride of my professional life. I have to rank it right up there with my experience of working with my clients and the world in the days following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I don’t say that lightly. It dawned on…
In this short series (see the Introduction), I lay out the four key categories of work that we do on behalf of our investment management clients — four kinds of activities that are difficult for folks without our training and experience to do for themselves. I hope that this series…
Whenever markets move far enough & fast enough to draw the attention of the non-financial press, investment advisors start to get a few more phone calls than usual. The US markets (stocks and bonds both, unusually enough) have been acting very strange lately — these “up 3%, down 4%” swings…
In this short series (see the Introduction), I lay out the four key categories of work that we do on behalf of our investment management clients — four kinds of activities that are difficult for folks without our training and experience to do for themselves. I hope that this series…
Current Market Conditions and Short-Term Expectations: Whenever the major US stock indexes reach new highs, or tumble unexpectedly, we hear from a few of our clients with worries about the near future. The S&P 500 (a broad index representing the largest US-based companies) hit new all-time highs in late…
It’s hard to avoid hearing the rumbling sound coming from Wall Street over the last couple of weeks. Even news outlets that don’t normally mention market news have spent at least a few minutes on the wild ups and downs – okay, mostly downs – of the major indexes. And…
Last week, just before heading off to Florida for the weekend, President Trump took a couple of executive actions designed to begin the process of cutting regulation on banks and Wall Street firms. Dodd-Frank The first of these orders, “On Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System”…
