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According to the Investment Company Institute, at the close of the first quarter of 2021, the total assets held in retirement accounts in the United States was $35.4 trillion. Given that the ‘official’ national debt is approaching $30 trillion, if politicians could get their hands on the retirement account assets, the nation’s fiscal problems could be solved, if only temporarily.

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Worldwide debt is at record levels. When the currency creation stops or slows, I expect to see an ugly deflationary environment emerge as the debt is purged from the system.

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The economy and financial markets are extremely artificial, with asset prices rising largely due to massive levels of currency created by the Federal Reserve. Artificial economies and artificial markets always, eventually reverse following the basic rules of finance and economics. The late economist Hebert Stein stated that “if something cannot go on forever, it will stop”. That statement is as profound as it is simplistic.

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With the Fed staying the course as far as easy money is concerned, look for the real inflation rate to continue to accelerate and look for the Fed to continue to say that inflation is transitory or come up with some other narrative to explain away the rising inflation rate as attributable to something other than reckless Fed policy.

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This past week, after the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole, Wyoming symposium, Fed Chair, Jerome Powell commented on Fed policy.  It was widely anticipated that the Fed Chair would discuss the ‘taper’, or the Fed’s plan to slow the rate at which currency is being created. The Fed Chair, in many respects, disappointed!

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Is a Stock Crash Imminent? For more than a couple of years, I have been of the opinion that stocks have been overvalued. Over that time frame, except for early 2020, stocks have continued to rise.

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Many of the world’s central banks are beginning to raise interest rates in response to higher levels of inflation.

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An important anniversary is approaching this week. Although it won’t be widely observed or likely even mentioned, it’s the anniversary of the event that led to current economic and investing conditions.

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The basic laws of economics and finance have not changed.  At some future point, this will become evident with economic conditions emerging that are unpleasant at best.  We are already beginning to see evidence of changing economic conditions.

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Globally, both in the public sector and the private sector debt levels are literally at nosebleed levels.

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