For three years, clients have been asking me when the economy will get back to normal. I have started answering that this current flat economy may be the newest redefinition of normal, one of many I’ve seen in 40-plus years of writing about money.
When during the calendar year should retirees take their required minimum distributions (RMDs)? Take the RMDs early and eliminate the chore? Wait until December to maximize tax-deferred compounding? Or spread the distributions throughout the year? Advisors often start with too narrow a view of what clients are trying to optimize.
Only 30% of Americans believe they’ll be able to retire comfortably — an amount retirement plan participants now estimate is $1.2 million, a recent survey by Schroders found. 33% of plan participants said that their credit card debt was higher than their retirement savings.
The confusion surrounding a proposed civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia hasn’t exactly disappeared: The White House is still claiming it depends on the country normalizing relations with Israel, even if that’s not part of the written agreement.
Morgan Stanley has set up a Digital Asset Lab to test technologies including stablecoins, tokenization and decentralized finance applications as the Wall Street bank explores how blockchain-based systems could be used across its business.
Starting Tuesday, OpenAI will convene its annual developer conference. The timing isn’t ideal.
Oil fell as top exporter Saudi Arabia boosted flows through a key pipeline, overshadowing concerns over a US-Iran stalemate.
As bond yields have risen, mortgage rates are again facing upward pressure, extending the U.S. housing market's post-pandemic affordability challenges. Beyond mortgage rates, trends in wage growth, taxes, and insurance costs also continue to shape the affordability outlook.
Chris Galipeau discusses high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.
In the first quarter of this year, as the Strait of Hormuz closed and oil prices exploded, Berkshire Hathaway made a couple of moves that might have flown under people’s radars.It cut its stake in Chevron by roughly a third. Then it bought an airline.
Understanding why investor optimism wins over a full market cycle is one of the most underrated edges an investor can own, and it has almost nothing to do with waving pom-poms.
The financial markets are navigating a storm. The Treasury yield sell-off intensified this week, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield up to an intraday high of 5.20%, its highest level since 2007.
Decided to go independent? Here's how to design your RIA's client model, exit plan, technology, and compliance foundation before you file paperwork or sign a custodian agreement.
I’m talking about the cash I have sitting here that I desperately want to get into the market. Earlier this year, I got a chunk of money from selling a house. I have no desire to own another home (that’s a story for another time.) Instead, I used some of the money to pay off some debt. The rest is just sitting in my savings account earning absolutely nothing.
Before evaluating whether a long-short strategy belongs in a portfolio, we think it helps to understand what's actually happening under the hood. Let's start at the beginning.
A snowball effect of asset values can similarly empower wealth effects: the tendency for consumers to spend more as the value of their investments rises. Wealth effects are surprising at first glance: household investments may be illiquid and tend not to produce substantial cash flow. However, a rising net worth builds a consumer’s confidence in their ability to afford purchases.
The BlackRock Model Portfolio Solutions team made significant allocation shifts during the week ended September 24, 2026. The team recently managed over $300 billion and often causes shockwaves in the ETF industry.
"Funflation" is on the rise, and it could bode quite well for the retail sector if the trend remains persistent.
Northern Trust Asset Management will move six mutual funds with $33 billion in assets into ETFs in early 2027, its first such conversions.
Join experts at State Street Investment Management, 3Edge Asset Management, and Confluence Investment Management for an educational webcast examining gold’s role in today’s market environment, including portfolio considerations, historical context, and allocation frameworks.
Brendan Greeley’s “The Almighty Dollar” is unlike any other book on the U.S. dollar ever written. If you want to take a really deep dive into financial history and — more specifically — the history of currency, this is the book for you.
I propose that the question of whether now is an especially auspicious time to buy in general — or more incisively, whether properly allocated investors should have more, less, or the same TIPS exposure when rates are relatively high — is more nuanced.
Japan can thank its high debt loads and aging demographics for the inflation restraint. But the cost paid in stagnant growth and diminished prosperity for its citizens has been dear. We do not fear an inflationary spike in the U.S.; instead, we are concerned that the economic doldrum that has infected Japan for over 25 years will slowly work its way here.
Nvidia Corp., the chip developer at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom, increased the size of its share buyback plan by a record $150 billion, reflecting Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s confidence in its continued growth.
Among the world’s top fuel-consuming nations, Japan is the most energy insecure. Its import-dependency ratios are scary: It buys overseas 99.9% of the oil it needs; 99.7% of the coal; and 97.8% of the natural gas.
The US and China detailed a plan to cut tariffs on about $30 billion of imports from each country, taking a step toward fulfilling a key outcome of last week’s summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
A number has been making the rounds all year, and it’s misleading. The claim: roughly 13% of credit card balances are 90 days or more past due, the worst since 2008. Here’s the twist. That number is real, and it comes straight from the New York Fed.
The U.S. economy remains resilient despite headwinds including sticky inflation, trade instability and rising geopolitical tensions. State and local government tax revenues have followed suit and have posted solid growth, aided by robust equity market returns.
The S&P 500 has remained remarkably resilient in the face of mounting macro headwinds. Despite oil prices topping $100 per barrel, 10-year Treasury yields climbing above 5%, and a renewed shift toward tighter monetary policy, the index continues to hover near record levels.
Second-quarter earnings were strong, particularly in technology, but crowded ownership often determined whether good news was rewarded. The selloff in semiconductors arguably reflected crowded positioning and concerns surrounding the sustainability of the earnings boom. The net result: multiples compressed while earnings revisions held up.
Artificial intelligence (AI) leadership is no longer a developed-market monopoly. Emerging markets (EM) now have their own AI champions, and productivity gains may follow. For bond investors, we expect the implications to differ by country—driven by industry composition, capital intensity, digital infrastructure and speed to adoption.
The Treasury Department will buy back another $6 billion in long-term Treasuries today (Thursday, Sept. 24) as it continues efforts to tamp down rising yields.
The yield on the 30-year hit a multi-decade high this week, spiking amid continued fiscal and monetary concerns. The 30-year hitting 5.45%, its highest mark since 2004, comes amid an already busy year for bonds.
In September 2024 and June 2025, I wrote memos that were critical of governments’ attempts to override the laws of economics, based on my conviction that trying to do so is likely to prove ineffective and potentially harmful.
Asset owners want private-market exposure, but liquidity remains their biggest hurdle, an opening advisors can meet with public alternatives.
This week, there are a few things that we need to pay attention to: the large move in interest rates and what it means (and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean!); and the constant barrage of doom and gloom on energy and AI. Let’s jump in.
I do not know whether quantum computing is in that kind of window right now. Nobody does, and I am suspicious of anyone who claims certainty in either direction. What I can say is that the pattern-matching is uncomfortably familiar.
Creating significant wealth requires concentration of capital, attention, risk, and decision-making.
Last week we looked at the Federal Reserve’s inflation problem. This week, let’s look at the other half of its mandate: maximum employment.
Join the experts at Northern Trust for an educational webcast that explores practical solutions for transforming retirement savings into sustainable spending.
US stocks climbed as oil and Treasury yields pulled back from the recent surges ahead of data on inflation expectations.
The Facebook parent’s shares had jumped 36% in September through Thursday’s close following the release of its Muse personal AI assistant, which has risen quickly to the top of app charts and muffled concerns that heavy spending on AI won’t pay off. The stock is on pace for its best month since July 2013 and within striking distance of joining an elite group of companies worth at least $2 trillion.
Now the US is in a higher-interest-rate environment, and once again there is a lot of redefining going on. One change is that it’s finally good to be a saver again. The catch is that saving isn’t quite as safe as it used to be.
The AI and cryptocurrency sectors are bankrolling hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising to shape public opinion and elect allies to Congress and key state offices in the midterm elections.
The tectonic plates of the global economy have shifted. Across the world, yields on long government bonds — keystone of the entire financial system — have climbed to their highest in decades. A trend that had been clear ever since the brief post-pandemic boom turned into resurgent inflation and higher rates has suddenly accelerated.
The US housing market has been stuck in neutral for nearly four years, with sales of new and existing homes plodding along at a historically slow pace. One explanation is that the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US passed 6% four years ago and has stayed above that ever since, creeping past 7% this week.
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) market is pacing toward a record-breaking year in 2026, driven by an unprecedented wave of new product launches and historic capital inflows.
Since ChatGPT was first released in 2022, the artificial intelligence (AI) trade has dominated US equity markets. Gains have been driven by three interrelated forces: enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, growing concentration in the largest technology companies and strong price momentum.
This year has presented no shortage of challenges for investors. Geopolitical conflict, trade tensions, rising energy prices, shifting interest rate expectations and an increasingly active political backdrop have each taken turns dominating the headlines. Yet despite these obstacles, the economy has continued to expand, corporate profits have marched higher and markets have climbed one wall of worry after another.
Trump Accounts are now available nationwide. Explore how the new tax-advantaged accounts work, who can contribute and key considerations for families evaluating their long-term savings options.
