To the untrained eye, seeing both our actual and projected GDP growth rates decline may seem pretty bearish. These numbers may actually be in the sweet spot though. It’s no secret that we have seen an economic slowdown of late, at least if we look at this picture from a short-term perspective, such as month […]

Merrill Lynch got stung so badly by holding sub-prime mortgages that they almost went out of business. This time around though, they are eyeing the cream of the crop. Merrill Lynch once lost almost $19.2 billion in just 12 months in the mortgage market, and was among the biggest losers in the subprime mortgage crisis. […]

Plenty of people pay attention to a technical signal called the 50/200 moving average crossover. While this indicator can be somewhat useful sometimes, this isn’t one of them. While the prospects of the Dow’s 50 day moving average crossing over its 200 day moving average is making the news these days, this particular instance at […]

Securitized debt can be a valuable tool, as it increases borrowing efficiency by placing debt more efficiently. Lenders need to have a good understanding of the risks involved though. Businesses raise money three main ways, by issuing stock where they get paid the issue price when their stock gets placed in the market, by issuing […]

Amazon is seen as a big enough threat to brick and mortar retailers with their huge online presence, but should they make a major move to physical stores, the threat will get bigger. Large physical retailers are already feeling the pressure from online retailing giant Amazon, scrambling to adjust their business model to better compete […]

A billion dollars sure isn’t what it used to be, and the difference is more than just how money gets devalued by inflation. A billion in stock is nothing like a billion in cash. 2018 was not a banner year for stocks by any means, even though U.S. stock markets didn’t really have all that […]

Many people worry about the rising home prices of today causing a bubble that is ready to burst. While there may indeed be trouble brewing, real concerns are still quite far off. There are many that are describing the current condition with the housing market a bubble, and perhaps an even bigger bubble than we […]

With the Fed still forecasting at least one rate hike in 2019, if not two, and no one really talking much about a rate cut, this does not suggest that things may get unmanageable. One of the questions that people are asking, in the midst of the economic slowdown that we’re seeing, is whether the […]

President Trump may have helped stock markets overall, and he has been a fairly market friendly president, but his influence here is nowhere near close to what he proclaims. Donald Trump has never been known for his modesty, not when in business, and certainly not as president of the United States. While stock markets have […]

It’s no secret that we are borrowing more and more each year, although the data does tell us that this is increasing faster than our incomes. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Just because people’s income goes up doesn’t mean that they are better off financially. We know that there is one critical factor […]