2017
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We are increasingly expectant that major tax legislation will become law as Republican leaders have indicated that after the latest round of quick negotiations, they have arrived at an agreement – the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We have been following the plans closely for the past year, particularly over the past three months, and…
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November 3, 2017: Yesterday House Republicans released details of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (link: Tax Bill). The plan calls for steep tax cuts in business tax rates, an eventual repeal of the estate tax, a reduction in the number of individual income tax brackets, elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax, significant changes to…
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Despite the lingering uncertainty and questions related to global policy: Legislative, Monetary (the Fed) and Foreign, the market has continued to grind higher, further strengthening the argument that despite the negative and uneasy sentiment, markets and global economies are actually quite healthy. For the first time in a while we are seeing global economies growing…
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October 16, 2017: The US Government announced on Friday that Social Security checks are going up 2 percent in 2018, which is the first substantial raise in years. The raise is a cost of living adjustment (COLA) that’s meant to keep up with higher costs of everything from housing to medications. In 2017, the COLA…
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The first half of the year delivered superior returns for the US Stock Market as measured by the S&P 500 (+9.3%), but as we entered into the doldrums of Summer, that torrid pace slowed down considerably. June was a relatively flat month and the first few weeks of July have looked similar. While a strong…
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It’s become a common theme in our newsletters where we like to remind investors (as well as ourselves sometimes) to take a step back from the headline news to examine where we really are in the current Bull Market cycle. While the news is constantly talking about a pending market top and subsequent drop, history…
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2016 was a year in which political surprises dominated global headlines. From Brexit to Donald Trump, populism gained momentum around the world shocking insiders, giving hope to outsiders, and leaving market pundits to figure out what this all means for the future. Despite everything that happened, the S&P 500 still managed to finish the year…