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Weekly Market Commentary

April 12, 2021

The Markets

Investors didn’t stumble over inflation last week. Why not?

Inflation – rising prices of goods and services – can be measured in a variety of ways. For example, the Consumer Price Index considers changes in the amount consumers pay for goods and services – a bag of carrots, a gallon of gas, or a doctor’s appointment. The Producer Price Index (PPI), on the other hand, considers changes in the amount producers – such as farmers, manufacturers, or physicians – charge for goods and services.

Weekly Market Commentary

April 5, 2021

The Markets

Zoom, zoom, zoom.

Big economies tend to recover from recessions about as quickly as semi-trucks accelerate from stoplights. In other words, recovery tends to be slow. That may not be the case this time.

Estate Planning Basics: Don’t Leave Your Estate in a “Purple Haze”

April 1, 2021

Weekly Market Commentary

March 29, 2021

The Markets

Last week, unemployment claims were looking good and consumers were feeling good.

The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits declined. Just 684,000 people filed claims during the week of March 20, down 97,000 from the week before, according to last week’s report from the Labor Department.

Weekly Market Commentary

March 22, 2021

The Markets

What are professional asset managers thinking?

Bank of America recently published the results of its March global asset managers’ survey, which polls 220 professional investors responsible for about $630 billion in assets, reported Julia La Roche of Yahoo! Finance.

The Unholy Trinity Life Insurance Gift Tax Trap
March 15, 2021

People take out life insurance with the understanding that the death benefit is paid to their beneficiaries tax-free. What is often left out of the conversation regarding the tax treatment of the death benefit is how the policy is structured in terms of who is the insured, owner, and beneficiary. A simple oversight can create the unholy triangle or the Goodman rule trap.

Weekly Market Commentary

March 15, 2021

The Markets

Investors had a lot to be enthusiastic about last week.

Major stock indices in the United States soared, finishing the week higher and setting new records along the way, reported Al Root of Barron’s. There was plenty of good news to fuel investor optimism:

Weekly Market Commentary

March 8, 2021

The Markets

Neanderthal DNA may make people more – or less – susceptible to COVID-19, reported The Economist. It all depends on whether you have the genes and, if you do, which DNA string you inherited.

Weekly Market Commentary

March 1, 2021

The Markets

Students of financial markets may have noted a historically unusual event last week.