Investing

Why reroute dividends back into your investments? Isn’t taking the income the preferred outcome when a dividend is produced? Retirees and pre-retirees are eager for dividend income in this era of historically low interest rates. Even so, the choice to buy more shares has merit for the long run. Reinvestment & compounding may have profoundly…

At the eleventh hour, a default is averted. After weeks of contention, a bill to reopen the bulk of the federal government and raise the debt ceiling made its way to the White House late Wednesday. President Obama signed the bill into law shortly after midnight, and by the middle of Thursday’s trading day, both…

A bipartisan deal emerges from the Senate. After weeks of contention, a bill to reopen the bulk of the federal government and avert an unprecedented U.S. default appears headed toward President Obama’s desk. Senate Democrats and Republicans reached an accord on October 16, and as House Speaker John Boehner has promised an expedient vote on…

Will the market hold up as well as it did last time? That is the near-term question on the minds of some investors as the partial shutdown of the U.S. government drags on. Stocks bounced back quickly from the 3-week gridlock that occurred in 1995-96. Will that be the case in 2013? In some ways,…

Janet Yellen – currently the vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve – has been nominated to succeed Ben Bernanke at the helm of the world’s most important central bank. A former UC Berkeley and London School of Economics professor and San Francisco Fed president, Yellen is a globally admired economist…

In October, America may risk running out of cash. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew recently urged Congress to lift the federal debt limit before October 17. Secretary Lew claims that if nothing is done by that date, the Treasury will have only about $30 billion in available cash to pay down as much as $60 billion…

As you have no doubt heard, the United States government shut down at midnight (Eastern) October 1, 2013. There are many questions and concerns about this situation, but here are some basics. What happened? In short, Congress did not pass any of their appropriations bills. These bills provide money to various to federal agencies.  Federal…

U.S. military action in Syria appears imminent. Assuming it happens, what happens to the financial markets? Investor reaction on August 27 (the day U.S. intervention was mentioned as a possibility) was not exactly surprising. Gold entered a bull market again, oil prices reached a six-month peak (surpassing $109 a barrel), the Dow fell 170 points…

On Capitol Hill and elsewhere, voices are calling for a major shift in public pension plan management – a shift toward privatization. Underfunding of public pensions is all too common. The bankruptcies of Detroit, Stockton and San Bernardino have certainly cast light on the pension funding gaps in those cities, but the problem is widespread:…

An obscure investment option draws interest. In searching for greater yield, investors look down many avenues. One new (or at least relatively untraveled) avenue has garnered some buzz lately – investment in business development companies, or BDCs. A BDC essentially functions as a subprime lender for a start-up or a financially struggling business. Big banks…