Social Security
Found 254 Articles.
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How the Fed Distorts the Stock Market, and Why You Should Beware
The Fed’s easy money and low interest rate policies might have saved the economy from severe depression since 2008. But it definitely has had other effects. One effect is to distort investment markets, especially the stock market. If you’ve been following headlines, you’ve seen that few active mutual fund managers have beaten the stock indexes […]
Perhaps the Most Important Investment Issue
Growth and productivity boomed since 1982 and really going back longer. This contributed to the boom in earnings and stock prices. Is that going to continue? This post for Philosophical Economics presents the history of the profit margin boom, attributing it primarily to technology and finance. He then presents both a bullish case (that the […]
Stability in the Investment World
Ben Hunt manages money for institutional investor and writes a blog and other things intended primarily for institutional investors and hedge funds. Hunt’s latest essay explains how the novel Catch-22 relates to today’s investment world. It’s a bit wide-ranging but interesting and worth reading. Basically, Hunt believes investment markets are stable for now and for […]
Are Stock Values High or Low?
It is a rare time when analysts aren’t debating whether stock valuations are high, low, or somewhere in between. The debate matters, because stock indexes peak when valuations are high and bottom when valuations are low. But valuation isn’t like an on/off switch. Stocks can be highly valued or low valued for a long time […]
Social Security Underpays Beneficiaries
About 450,000 beneficiaries were underpaid $500 million since 2008 by Social Security, according to an Inspector General audit. More than 85% of those beneficiaries were identified in a 2008 audit, but the SSA didn’t take corrective action. These were not errors discovered by beneficiaries but are errors uncovered by SSA’s internal system. But the systems […]
Facts and Myths About Social Security
Almost everyone has a Social Security number and is eligible for Social Security benefits. Yet, survey after survey indicates people know little about the program and their benefits. Also, much of what people think they know is wrong. Let’s took a look at some key misunderstandings and oversights about the program. Understand benefit statements. The […]
Beating the Stock Market
Here’s an interesting perspective on investing success from Cullen Roche of Pragmatic Capitalism. Roche makes a couple of unique points. One is that for a true passive investor, you shouldn’t be focused on “the market” represented by stock market indexes. You should be focused on all the financial assets out there. He argues that a […]
Do Recent High Stock Returns Mean Low Returns are Coming?
There’s nothing quite like looking at the data. I regularly run into people who say they’re betting that stocks are going to crumble because they’ve done so well since 2009. I ask for the data backing the statement, and they don’t any much. Here’s a thorough article addressing the question. The answers aren’t simple or […]
