Personal Finance: Debt and deficits from 30,000 feet
It is practically received wisdom that the United States is laboring under a debt crisis. Or is that a deficit crisis?
Personal Finance: Supply shortage holding back home sales
Without question the U.S. housing market has experienced a strong recovery since the depths of the recession. Still, despite historically low mortgage rates, significant price appreciation, and a marked improvement in economic activity, home sales are not as robust as they might be.
Personal Finance: Tax time means fraud, scam time
Ben Franklin famously said that nothing is certain but death and taxes. The IRS might add a corollary to that aphorism regarding scams to defraud taxpayers. They are always with us and this year it seems they have reached epic proportions.
Personal Finance: Euro rates sink deeper in the hole
It's hard to appreciate a truly extraordinary period in time when we are immersed in it, but this is one of those times.
Personal Finance: Tax time IRA talk
The Individual Retirement Account or IRA was created in 1974 to encourage workers to save more for retirement. Today IRA accounts are ubiquitous, numbering 26 million accounts holding $2.5 trillion. Still, much confusion reigns regarding the various flavors. Traditional, rollover, Roth: what's the difference? Here's a brief primer as tax time approaches.
Personal Finance: Beware perceived safety in utility stocks
It has long been received wisdom that utility stocks offered a safe haven during market storms, thanks to their regulated rate model and above-average dividend yields. But major structural changes are afoot that could challenge the industry's status as a defensive bulwark against market turmoil.
Personal Finance: Do you Yahoo? Not for long
Yahoo! Inc., one of the original pioneers of the Internet, has announced that it was seeking "strategic alternatives." Translation: Up for sale, at a deep discount. This year will likely mark the end of Yahoo as a stand-alone company, as management dissects the firm and sells off the pieces. How did it come to this?
Negative interest rates, say what?
Imagine you deposit $100 in a bank, return next year, and check your new balance: $99.70. Welcome to the strange new world of central banking in 2016.
Personal Finance: Closed end funds II — risks and rewards
Last week, we looked at a subset of pooled investment vehicles known as closed end funds. Those funds occupy a narrow space in the panoply of investments available to investors. Because they are somewhat more complex than their mutual fund brethren, greater diligence is required in evaluating their appropriateness.
Personal Finance: American Express: Time to leave home without it?
Venerable credit card company American Express is a household name. But in a rapidly changing world, AmEx has struggled to keep pace and its stock price is showing the stress.