Voters have sent a clear message of concern regarding U.S. fiscal policy, and as our parent organization AIER recently made clear, spending discipline is vital to the nation’s future prosperity. But it is important to understand the nature of the relationship between deficits, debt, economic growth, and your portfolio’s value. This month (see Deficits, Debt,

The Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors announced on November 3 that it would purchase another $600 billion in Treasuries in order to reduce long term interest rates. In response long term rates began to increase immediately. As the month drew to a close the 30 year Treasury bond yield had increased from 3.93 percent to

In recent weeks the financial media has focused on the question of a “bond bubble.” This is the notion that bond prices have ascended to a level beyond reason and that the trend must soon be reversed. A common refrain is that interest rates will rise as inflation expectations mount; bond prices, which move inversely

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