Fed

A year ago, the Fed had no plan to combat rising prices. Now they want the world to know they’ve got a plan to beat back what looks like increasingly sticky inflation because now their credibility is at stake.

That plan, which should be pre-set, steady, transparent, and formally announced as “forward guidance,” is instead going to be made up every six weeks when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets.

Whether to raise the fed funds rate 25 basis points, 50 basis points, or 75 basis points (a basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point) at the FOMC’s upcoming May 3-4 meeting, or any subsequent meeting, isn’t set. And that is upending both stock and bond markets, and proof the Fed’s out of control.

The Fed raising rates isn’t going to kill inflation. There’s no way they could ever raise rates enough to kill it, and that gives us an opportunity.

Read more about the Fed’s inevitable failure to fix inflation and how you should play it.

On Tuesday, when the March reading of the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) came out hot, but a tad less than jacked up expectations, stocks rallied. On Wednesday, when the Producer Price Index (PPI) came out hotter than hot, stocks jumped higher. Why? Well, the crazy reason is traders and investors are following a ridiculous […]

The Federal Reserve’s not the problem, or maybe it is.

Economic growth, job creation, narrowing the wealth gap, equal opportunity in America, are the problems, but not the Fed’s problems.

Those problems should fall on the administration in power and Congress, but instead, the Fed has made these problems their concern, and if that doesn’t change, our economy could be headed for trouble, big trouble. We’re talking a meltdown that will put the Great Recession to shame.

On October 10, 2020, the Saturday before Columbus Day, the Fed should announce a new role for itself, one that will shake up markets, politics, and the country, but ultimately result in the problems the Fed can’t fix being addressed and fixed by presidents and Congress.

It’s been done before. On the Saturday prior to Columbus Day in 1979, then Fed chairman Paul Volcker, the last strong, independent Federal Reserve chairman, changed America’s future.

Jerome Powell, you’re up.

The privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve System, America’s so-called central bank, is more powerful than the U.S. government. In fact, it controls our government by financing particularly Fed-friendly governments, as only it can. MEET DAVID He’s got a 95% success rate and $20 million net worth. He’s one of New York’s most successful angel […]

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics released July payroll numbers. They weren’t even as good as the headline 1.8 million workers added announcement, but that’s another story, which I’ll get to.

The numbers, which all beat consensus estimates, making them appear better, weren’t that good at all.

But that’s not going to stop equity markets from rallying.

Here’s the story behind the headline numbers and why equity markets are headed higher.

U.S. equity markets, as measured by the Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rocketed off their March coronavirus crisis lows and are headed higher.

The Nasdaq Composite’s already been making successive higher all-time highs and is poised to break out north of 11,000. The S&P 500’s only 87 points or 2.56% from its all-time highs, as of Tuesday’s close. And the venerable Dow, bringing up the rear, is 9.26% from its February 12, 2020 all-time highs, after plunging 11,354.92 points or 38.4% at its March 23, 2020 lows.

Stocks have bounced back, even the zombies parading around as healthy companies.

The markets have been roaring higher based on fulfilling the economic, and now market, postulate “more is always better sooner.”

But there are caveats to “more,” to “better,” to “sooner,” and especially to “always.”

I’ll touch on those later in the article – and I’ll have a special request for you as well…

In the meantime, here’s what to look out for and what’s on the other side of what’s been driving equity benchmarks higher and what could happen to them if the consequences of more, better, and sooner aren’t always and forever.

The stock market’s risen like a bat out of hell since bottoming out on March 23, 2020.

Remarkably, the institutional benchmark S&P 500 is up 43% after being hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

And while there’s still no vaccine for Covid-19, as the country sees dangerous spikes across 32 states, with mayors and governors again calling for businesses to shut down, as the additional $600 per week unemployed workers were getting runs out, the stock market looks clearly poised to go higher.

Here’s where we’re at, what hurdles are left to jump over, and why we’re headed higher.

Investors looking for good dividend yielding stocks don’t typically expect much price appreciation.

That’s going to change, probably sooner than anyone expects.

Here’s why dividend paying stocks have been playing second fiddle to growth stocks, what really drives growth, and how one all-important manipulative “growth factor” is poised to be flipped over to the benefit of dividend paying companies and their stockholders…

The stock market’s bounce off its March 23, 2020 lows turned into a rally, then into a bull market.

At least that’s what everyone saw happening until yesterday, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.27%, the S&P 500 fell 5.89%, The Dow Jones Industrials fell 6.9%, and the Russell 2000 fell a whopping 7.63%.

Is the rally over? Is the selling just some profit-taking? Or were we all head-faked into believing the worst is over as far as the stock market, the worst is over as far as the economy, and the worst is over as far as the pandemic?

The truth is out there.

But nothing is set in stone. If the pandemic comes back, the riots continue, or the President keeps tweeting, anything could happen.

The best way to protect yourself is to take concrete steps towards financial safety and economic security.

Thousands of Americans may think they’re set in the event of a crisis, not unlike the one we’re seeing now, but that frankly isn’t true. The truth is that a second downturn could absolutely ruin your financial future.

Unless you take the necessary precautions to prepare.

It’s nothing timely or complex – in fact, protecting your wealth can be one of the easiest things you do, if you follow these simple steps .

We’ve seen over $6 trillion evaporate in 2020 alone. Don’t lose any more cash and don’t let the effects of the coronavirus, or the seesawing market, take any more money out of your pocket (or your retirement fund, or your children’s college educations…)

Click here for more details on how to prepare for the worst.

You can protect yourself if you know what you’re up against, why our markets are hurting, and how you can make money against all odds.

Here’s how the market got to where it is, what just happened, what could happen, and how to play the market no matter what happens…

The free market isn’t free anymore, even though a lot of retired and soon-to-be retired folks think it is.

The truth is nothing in the capital markets moves freely anymore, especially interest rates.

Now, frighteningly, because America has morphed into a quasi-command economy where the Federal Reserve dictates economic policy, retirees don’t understand how dangerous most bonds and fixed income products have become in the new normal “socialized capital markets regime.”.

Here’s what’s being manipulated, why it’s bad, how it’s impacting fixed income investments, and what retirees and soon to be retired investors should be doing instead of putting themselves at great risk.