Insights

The year is almost over. If you are a business owner or high-level executive, have you reviewed the following on your qualified retirement plan this year? 1. Investment Policy Statement – It is the 1st document you will be asked for in a lawsuit or government audit....

This Thanksgiving I have a long list, but most of all, I am thankful for God’s forgiveness, his care in watching over me, his direction and his provision, not only for me but for those I love. I am also thankful that He hears and answers prayer. I am thankful for my...

It's been a great year for stocks and the 3rd in the last 4 years. That is particularly true for U.S. stocks and especially growth stocks and small stocks. The European markets have done well, too and the emerging markets have come on after a dismal start to 2013....

The Federal Reserve has built a huge balance sheet since 2008. It has also financed the U.S. federal deficit spending by buying newly issued U.S. Treasury securities issued when the country spent more than it had coming in. How big are these operations? Take a moment...

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...