According to a report from the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies Americans are concerned with their retirement, but they're not actually doing much about it. I urge you and anyone who hasn't already taken action toward planning for retirement to not wait, get to work now. FEDWeek reports: The report, based on polling samples of the baby boom, generation X and millennial generations, found that majorities of all three expect to have a harder time achieving financial security for retirement than their parents’ generation, with the younger two generations agreeing more strongly; and … [Read more...]
Apple Back Up
In the face of tariffs on China, Apple apparently has a backup plan for its production of iPhones for the U.S. market. Bloomberg's Debby Wu reports that an executive from Apple contractor Hon Hai Precision Industry (aka Foxconn) has explained that the company is ready to support American iPhone demand from other countries. Wu writes: China is a crucial cog in Apple’s business, the origin of most of its iPhones and iPads as well as its largest international market. But President Donald Trump has threatened Beijing with new tariffs on about $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, an act that would … [Read more...]
Have You Already Lost Hope for Retirement?
A scary statistic was recently uncovered in a survey conducted by LendEDU. Nearly 40 percent of Americans fear they will never save enough money to retire. Bloomberg reports: That’s despite nearly one in five Americans who said having enough money saved to be able to retire is their most important financial goal, according to a survey of 1,000 adults conducted by LendEDU in May. More Americans said saving for retirement is more important versus those that indicated paying off credit card debt or building an emergency fund, according to the survey. However, slightly more respondents said … [Read more...]
Broken News Industry Seeks Federal Protection to Fight Big Tech Abuse
The News Media Alliance (the Alliance) is seeking federal protection in order to avoid antitrust charges while the industry attempts to negotiate terms with big tech. Google and other big tech platforms made many billions of dollars, $4.7 billion in the case of Google alone, on the work of news publishers in 2018 according to the Alliance. Now those publishers want to work out a deal to deliver more of that money to their dying news rooms. Marc Tracy reports for The New York Times: The journalists who create that content deserve a cut of that $4.7 billion, said David Chavern, the president … [Read more...]
Amazon Sub-Prime?
Amazon is offering a new credit card called Amazon Credit Builder to customers with credit scores that might not be good enough to get a card anywhere else. CNBC's Kate Rooney reports: Amazon is finding a way to get its rewards credit card in the hands of more people. The e-commerce giant partnered with publicly traded bank Synchrony Financial to launch “Amazon Credit Builder” — a program that lends to shoppers with no credit history or bad credit, who would otherwise be exempt from Amazon’s loyalty cards. “There’s always going to be people that we can’t give credit to — this is a large … [Read more...]
I Don’t Miss the Boat, Because I’m Always in the Boat!
Market volatility is up, and any time that happens I get asked one question more frequently: “Is it time to sell it all and wait?” My answer is an emphatic no. Attempting to time the market by selling out and buying in is a great way to miss the best days and months of the market’s performance. Instead I recommended in May of 1991 that investors prepare ahead for market volatility by focusing on stocks with low betas. I wrote: In the stock market the words risk and volatility are synonymous. I want you to concentrate most of your efforts on stocks that are less volatile than average. What … [Read more...]
The Creative Destruction of America’s Business Cycle
Business is a cyclical phenomenon. The ups and downs of the business cycle serve to raise men and women up to the peak of prosperity, but also to destroy wealth in shocking fashion. Federal policies play a major part in the duration and regularity of these cycles. As you can see on the chart below of America's Business Booms and Depressions from 1775 to 1944, many of the business booms and busts have labels attached to them. Some were created by wars, embargoes, trust building and busting, monetary policy, etc. It's interesting to notice that the longest period of prosperity (green blocks) was … [Read more...]
States Join in the Attack on Big Tech
With the Department of Justice signalling its intent to scrutinize the big tech companies, a number of state attorneys general are piling on. John D. McKinnon reports at The Wall Street Journal: In recent interviews, several state attorneys general and aides said a core group of AGs has been discussing how to address antitrust-related concerns around big tech companies for some months. One official estimated the number of attorneys general who are involved at between 12 and 20. While the federal government still carries the most clout, “meaningful litigation to check companies over the … [Read more...]
A Wolf of Wall Street in Sheep’s Clothing?
The SEC has completed its new regulation on best interests, and will begin enforcing it in one year. The rule increases the level of disclosures brokers must make, but it should not be confused with the more stringent fiduciary rules registered investment advisors are held to. In my opinion, if you're looking for financial advice with the best assurance of being conflict of interest free, you need to find a registered investment advisor held to a fiduciary standard. The Wall Street Journal's Dave Michaels explains the new rule here: The SEC said the new rule, which becomes enforceable in one … [Read more...]
Can Tech Investors Hide in the Cloud?
With tariff, trust, and privacy troubles hitting big tech companies, is there anywhere for tech investors to run? Dan Gallagher writes at The Wall Street Journal that there is one piece of the tech sector that has so far avoided the issues plaguing the rest, the cloud. He writes: A tech sector not exposed to tariffs, trade wars or domestic political scrutiny sounds almost too good to be true. At current valuations, it just might be. Investors have embraced cloud-software stocks with gusto this year. A group of 50 “pure-play” software-as-a-service, or SaaS, vendors tracked by KeyBanc … [Read more...]