This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer The last few weeks have been filled with headlines about unintended consequences. Reacting to a global pandemic and government-mandated economic shutdowns, Congress and the Federal Reserve unleashed a torrent of money into the economy. The Federal Reserve took interest rates to 0%…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer Americans’ lives changed three years ago on March 15, 2020. On that date numerous states began systematically shutting down anything that served as a gathering place for people to interact. Sincere social distancing was born. Here we are three years later, and…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer How many companies strive to make their customers happy by offering them less while increasing the price? This season Major League Baseball is implementing new rules that are expressly intended to increase fan happiness by offering them less baseball. These new rules…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer Leftovers have been much more palatable since the widespread adoption of the microwave oven. There is nothing like a bunch of overstimulated water molecules to convert cold leftovers into a warm lunch or dinner the next day. The SECURE 2.0 Act which…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer The calendar likely ranks as one of the items we are most likely to take for granted. It provides an effortless structure and predictable rhythm for our lives. But that has not always been the case. On Monday we celebrate President’s Day…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer On Saturday, January 28, the military identified a large balloon north of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. It peacefully floated southeast across the North Pacific Ocean into Canada, and by last Tuesday reached the Idaho/Montana border. The balloon then successfully and likely inadvertently captured…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer Scene 1: Flush with abundant money provided by Congress and the Federal Reserve, consumers and traders celebrate an astounding recovery from the economic impact of a global pandemic and expectantly welcome an exciting new year by pushing stock prices to record highs. …
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer Here we are again. The drama. The finger pointing. The tension. The drama. Oh, the drama. Yes, the federal government must have maxed out its line of credit — again. As much as the politicians would prefer to ignore it, the federal…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer Toward the end of last year, expert market prognosticators continued their tradition of revealing their forecasts for the financial markets for the following year. While they are, in my opinion, about as useful as the always entertaining Farmer’s Almanac, many of these…
This Week’s Blogger: Scott D. Heins, CFP®, IAG Chief Investment Officer A new year always bring some changes to your life. Some of 2023’s changes will likely have little impact on your day-to-day life. For example, it is now legal (but still risky) to jaywalk in California, Mississippi has a catchy new state…