The single biggest driver for the economy and investment returns is the deleveraging process which we are currently struggling through. Arguably, we have successfully transferred debt from the financial sector to the U.S. government through the Fed's QE programs. As we move through the long process of reducing debt, economic growth inevitably moderates as resources are applied to debt reduction rather than fixed investment and consumption within the economy. As a result, expected returns on financial assets are lower.

After recently returning from Italy and France and analyzing the economic data coming out of Italy, we have a higher conviction that Italy will be stuck in a severe recession and has an elevated probability of requiring a bailout. Our main theme, which is similar to our view of the United States, is that Italy has too much public debt and is lacking the political will to make the necessary expense cuts and stimulate its economy to successfully navigate the deleveraging that is required.

The Financial Crisis of 2008 represented a turning point for the capital markets, financial regulation and global central bank policies. For the twenty years leading up to the Financial Crisis, accommodative monetary policies of the developed countries resulted in prosperity, higher wages, increased asset prices and an overall higher standard of living. However, this false sense of perpetual prosperity resulted in unbalanced social service and pension benefits that are now more difficult to rationalize in the economic environment following the Financial Crisis.

Valuations in the domestic high yield market appear stretched and we are concerned that opportunities for incremental return are fewer over a near term horizon. In this article we provide an analysis of the structure of the high yield market and a rationale for investing in specific short duration and callable high yield bonds which offer investors a better risk/reward trade-off in the current environment.

The FOMC released a statement which showed a more positive tone from prior meetings. However, it is clear the Fed will continue to maintain a highly accommodative stance as they see downside risks to economic growth continuing to outweigh the upside risks to inflation. The Feds economic assessment differed from the last several meetings, in two important ways. First, the FOMC acknowledged recent improvements in the labor markets and forecast continued improvement in the jobs market with declines in the unemployment rate. The Second Step toward Progress is a Healthier U.S. Banking System