Earlier this month, Congressional Republicans unveiled the details of their much-anticipated tax reform plan. Ostensibly, their goal is to simplify the tax code by eliminating a host of loopholes, broaden the tax base, and lower average tax rates for both individuals and corporations. The premise is reasonable enough—the execution is where it gets tricky.
In recent years, one issue that has vexed economists is the rather sluggish pace of U.S. Real GDP growth (less than 1.5% per year over the past decade). What makes this data point especially confounding is that it overlaps a period where several other macroeconomic indicators are trending strongly in a positive direction.
Hardly a day goes by without an article predicting an impending stock market crash. As we reiterated in a recent commentary, now is not the time to chase hot investments. However, we do not profess to have any insights on the timing of the next crash, and we certainly do not advocate selling your stocks or stock funds.
With one stroke of the pen, President Trump (the “Trumpinator”?) most likely signed the death sentence of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) implementation of the so-called fiduciary rule, which would have required investment salespeople to act in their clients’ best interests with their retirement accounts. We understand if you are surprised that such might not already be the case.
Broadly speaking, the past week made fools of professional forecasters. Heading into the November 8th election, Hillary Clinton was the consensus favorite to win the presidency, with most polls pegging her chances at greater than 65%.
Since the low back in February, and as we write this post, the S&P 500 has increased by more than 20%. This is remarkable considering the events of the past 6 months, such as the UK vote to exit the European Union, and the seemingly never-ending flow of terrorists’ acts around the world.