The New and Improved 529 Plan
When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law in 2017 it contained provisions that lowered tax rates on both corporations and individuals. But tucked away in the recesses of all the legislative lingo [...]
TIC Confirms Pretty Much Everything
The Russian ruble has fared far and away much better than its EM peers. Compared to something like the Brazilian real, there is no comparison. The ruble has been relatively steady following an initial drop [...]
Mid-Year Global Markets Update
Volatility returned to markets with a vengeance in the first half of this year. 2018 started off as an extension of last year when volatility was almost wholly absent. Stocks roared out of the starting [...]
Falling Starts
Home construction estimates are notoriously variable. They can change oftentimes by a substantial amount on a month-by-month basis, and the numbers are just as frequently subject to serious revisions in the short run. Still, we [...]
Is Subprime Contained?
Jerome Powell will make his fourth required appearance of 2018 on Capitol Hill today. The Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978 required a great many things when it was passed forty years ago, [...]
Gold, Dollar, and Repo: Who Cares About Taper, or QE?
It’s funny how these things work. He didn’t actually say the word “taper”, at least not when the frenzy first started. The very idea of the “taper tantrum” was the media’s work, the easy slogan [...]
Sentimental Inflationary Reflation
Sentiment surveys such as the ISM’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index are not strictly about current levels of production. Even if they were, they still wouldn’t be as straightforward as is presented. Rather, the ISM index [...]
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