21 Mar 2014

Posted at 12:47h in The Friday Brief by
  Janet Yellen's first Federal Open Market Committee policy statement as Fed chair caused a bit of a ruckus in both the Treasury and stock markets. As experts have pointed out, it wasn't so much what she said, but rather what the "dots" portend for future interest rate hikes. There was no surprise when the Fed announced they would continue to reduce their monthly purchases of Treasuries by $10 billion per month to a still very large $55 billion starting in April. The sell-off of short and intermediate Treasuries was triggered, according to Barrons by a chart of projections showing FOMC members' expectations of where the fed funds rate would be at the end of 2015.

07 Mar 2014

Posted at 13:00h in The Friday Brief by
As a financial advisor, one of the questions I’m often asked is "how should I plan for Social Security?"  More and more young people today are choosing to plan for their retirement as if it will not be around.  While this approach may seem prudent its implementation can be costly.  Planning for retirement as if Social Security will not play a role requires you to make accommodations for its absence.

28 Feb 2014

Posted at 15:24h in The Friday Brief by
One of Wall Street's wisest admonishments is to avoid positioning one's investments contrary to Fed guidance or actions. After all, they are the only buyer or seller in the US with an unlimited supply of money for their purposes. Since the Great Recession our Federal Reserve has been bent and determined to stimulate employment, with few references to the inflation it might cause. In fact, they have been far more concerned with deflation than with the threat of too much money driving up prices.