Despite growing investor anxiety regarding substantial tax increases slated to take effect January 1, Congress remains mired in pre-election ideological squabbling and has decided … to do nothing. Though the clock has not yet run out, we realize that investors must plan, and to that end we provide the table below. Tax uncertainty is nothing […]

Record low interest rates have received a great deal of attention in recent weeks. Short term rates are driven by the fed funds target rate, which has remained at or below 0.25 percent since December 2008. On the long end of the yield curve, as August drew to a close the 30 year U.S. Treasury

“It seemed so obvious. With the economy slowly recovering last year from the worst recession in decades and the federal government seeking to tap the credit markets for over $2 trillion to fund an ambitious spending program, both laymen and experts alike seemed to agree that interest rates had nowhere to go but up. The

As this issue of the Investment Guide was being prepared, the subject of financial regulation was front and center at AIER and in the nation’s capital. We had the good fortune of having Dr. Edward J. Kane, professor of finance at Boston College, on campus to deliver a lecture to the AIER summer fellowship program.

In June we reminded our readers that, while investment grade corporate bonds are a worthy portfolio diversifier, high-yield or “junk” bonds are far more volatile and therefore unsuitable for most household investors. Junk bonds are loans to firms with dubious credit quality (these bonds are graded Ba or lower by Moody’s Investor’s Service, or BB+

Global capital markets have tumbled again, this time in response to fiscal chaos in Greece and its implications for the wider Eurozone. In today’s integrated global economy the potential for any nation to default on its sovereign debt is disruptive. Investors, however, should not change their allocation plans in response to events external to their

The question of free markets versus socialism is in the news. We take this opportunity to remind investors that it is logically consistent for investors who accept the primacy of free markets to adopt passive, asset class management over the alternative of active management. In our discussion we draw upon a transcript of a presentation

As November drew to a close the European financial crisis grew more severe when the most prudent European government, Germany, could not sell more than about 65 percent of its public debt on offer at an auction. If investors refuse German bonds, then what hope is there for the traditionally more profligate European sovereigns, such

On August 5, after markets had closed, Standard and Poor’s stripped the U.S. of its triple-A rating. Many had predicted that a downgrade would result in a broad sell off of Treasuries and a corresponding increase in yields. These predictions proved to be wrong. The next trading day, August 7, the yield on the 10-year

Politicians have met the bond market. Legislators in Washington have spent lavishly for decades, and the bill is now due. Standard and Poor’s change in outlook for U.S. Treasury securities from “stable” to “negative” serves as a stark reminder that profligate spending has consequences. While fiat currencies can mask the ill effects of unchecked fiscal