Today's topics include commercial real estate's woes, zombie companies, problems with the paycheck protection program, making the case for the 60/40 portfolio, the S&P completion index, states take advantage of low muni yields, and behind the scenes of the final hours of stimulus negotiation
The market, which has been priced for perfection lately, has taken a hit as news of a new strain of coronavirus emerges in the U.K.
Today's topics include Jim on TD Ameritrade Network, stimulus deal finally reached, the difficulty in being contrarian, in search of small business loans, Tesla's big day, central bank communication, forecasting during a pandemic, paying a premium for bitcoin ETFs, all about fracking, and bank buybacks
Markets are looking past the near-term and hoping federal stimulus can help the economy. Since this is expected, markets are living in the second half of 2021, a period of mass vaccination and a return to some sort of new normal in which concerts, sporting venues, and restaurants will no longer have restrictions. This may very well be the case. But before we get there, the slowing economy is about to get worse. The federal government throwing money at everyone would help, but as of this writing, we still have no deal.
Today's topics include dealing with short rates near zero, another concern in Tesla's addition to the S&P 500, piling into emerging markets, a state-by-state look at the drop in personal incomes, the latest on stimulus negotiations, get your MSLP loan before time runs out, and a new bond clearinghouse?
The amount of outstanding private credit in the U.S. experienced a brief decline during the financial crisis, but government debt grew throughout the entire period. Both are now at new highs.
A look at outstanding amounts of Treasuries, corporates, agencies, munis and open market paper
Private pension funds have much smaller funding gaps than their government counterparts.
Defined benefit plans continue to be replaced by IRAs and defined contribution plans.