For decades, Social Security benefits have stood as a linchpin of any properly designed retirement plan. Originally conceived during the Great Depression as a national pension “safety net”, the system remains important for the vast majority of retired workers. More than 50 million Americans currently receive Social Security retirement benefits,…
Web-based elder fraud surges
The pandemic-related restrictions in 2020 and 2021 led to a surge in all sorts of online activities, from web shopping to Zoom meetings and TV streaming and everything in between. For many older Americans, the last few years have forced a reckoning with technology that had long been ignored or…
High inflation means large inflation adjustments
Stubbornly high inflation was the dominant story in 2022, causing issues for consumers, business owners, and economists everywhere. But high inflation can often come with a silver lining, due to inflation adjustments. Most notably, Social Security recipients will be seeing an 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, marking the largest cost-of-living…
When will inflation peak?
The story of the market year so far in 2022 has been persistent inflation, and its impact on Fed interest rate policy. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 8.6% in May on a year-over-year basis, the highest recorded figure in more than 40 years. Increases in the price of…
The price to play the game
The first half of 2022 has been extremely challenging for markets and investors of all types, generating numerous attention-grabbing statistics and headlines along the way. Depending on your chosen metric, the past two quarters have been among the worst in more than 30, 40, or even 50 years of market…
Inflation and your portfolio: what's your required rate of return?
With supply chain strains exacerbating by the day and labor market tightness persisting, inflation is on the minds of investors and economists everywhere, as the global economy tries to find a "new normal" in a post-pandemic world. Until recently, most analysts expected that the above-average inflation rates from this spring…
Are inflation fears justified?
After a year marked by pandemic-related closures, lockdowns, and economic pain, the story so far in 2021 has been one of recovery. With COVID vaccines now widely available, restrictions have been removed throughout the country, and the result has been a much faster economic recovery than just about any expert…
Tax policy and the election
In our July newsletter, we wrote briefly about the potential for changes in tax law, especially in light of the approaching presidential election and the rapid fiscal expansion that took place in 2020 in response to COVID-19. As we near Election Day, tax issues have become even more of a…
What about real estate?
As stock markets tumbled in February and March, real estate was similarly impacted, but the recovery in that sector has been generally weaker (and arguably even more uneven) than the recovery in the broader stock market. On the positive side, mortgage rates have plunged once again to historic lows, and…
Confronting Sudden Losses
For a month that typically inspires thoughts of rebirth, renewal, and a celebration of life, this March brought quite the opposite. As the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, gradually took over the national conversation—first as a belated recognition that the United States would not be spared, then as a rapidly cascading subordination…
