The Retired Investor: Trump's Plan to Boost the EconomyBy Bill Schmick,
03:48PM / Thursday, April 03, 2025 | |
Transforming a government-heavy economy into one where the private sector leads not only takes time but also requires a period of detoxification, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The idea that pain may need to come before any gains has caught the nation and the stock market by surprise.
Last week, I explained that "the administration's first objective, is to slow demand in the real economy. Keynesian demand-side economics says the best way to do that is to reduce spending. Doing so, they believe, will also slow inflation. How do they do that? By distributing less money to the greatest number of people possible. That means slowing wage 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: The Trump Economy 101By Bill Schmick,
04:06PM / Thursday, March 27, 2025 | |
For those of us in the business world, the myriad economic policy initiatives spewing from the White House are both confusing and at times difficult to understand.
Certain policies seem to cancel each other out. Full employment while reducing immigration, drill-baby-drill to force oil prices lower while raising tariffs to increase prices?
The point is that if even the professionals are having difficulty, how can those with little financial background hope to understand where the economy is going and why?
It appears, for example, that economic growth may be moderating as consumer spending weakens, while inflation remains stubborn. 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: Foreign Money Going Home as American Market Dominance Begins to FallBy Bill Schmick,
04:38PM / Thursday, March 20, 2025 | |
The Trump administration's economic policies have placed a target on the back of most foreign nations. As for the economy, a slowdown, if not a recession, seems to be around the corner. As such, overseas investors have little reason to remain in America's financial markets.
Foreign investors represent about 17 percent of the overall holdings in the U.S. equity market and about the same in the bond market. Over the last 15 years, as I wrote in my previous column, American markets were the only game in town. While our share of the world's economy was only 27 percent, our share of the world's total investments was 70 percent.
America was 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: U.S. Dominance of Global MarketsBy Bill Schmick,
04:15PM / Thursday, March 13, 2025 | |
It has been a great run. For 15 years, the U.S. stock market has been the envy of the world. Led by the FANG stocks, global investors could not get enough of American stocks — until now.
By the end of 2024, global investors had committed more capital to America than ever before. At the same time, the dollar traded at a higher value than ever since the world abandoned fixed exchange rates 50 years ago.
While America's share of the global economy was 27 percent, its stock market represented 70 percent of the worldwide stock market. Since 1992, every year China has grown closer to the U.S. as the world's biggest economy. China's GDP has grown 0 Comments
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The Retired Investor: Government Shutdown Looms LargeBy Bill Schmick,
04:19PM / Thursday, March 06, 2025 | |
It is getting to be a regular occurrence. The U.S. Treasury runs out of money and warns Congress that they need more. Politicians on both sides strut and crow but delay until the 11th hour only to pass another "continuing resolution" for a few months. Will it ever end?
Exactly what is a continuing resolution (CR)? They are temporary spending bills that allow the federal government operations to continue when final appropriations have not been approved by Congress and the president. CRs are never-ending stories with a shelf-life of 2-3 months.
This time, the deadline is March 14. Has anything changed? Well, yes and no. The factions within the 0 Comments
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