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Slick TV ads often make financial planning and wealth management sound simple, but it’s usually not. Managing wealth requires knowing a lot about highly technical topics, like taxes, government regulations, and finance as well as history, psychology and how to communicate with loved ones about sensitive issues. This article highlights some of the knowledge needed to manage wealth and why it’s often so daunting without the help of an independent personal financial advisor who is familiar with your situation.
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Understanding The Federal Reserve Mandate To End Inflation
The Federal Reserve System, the nation’s central bank, has a dual mandate to pursue maximum employment and maintain price stability. These two priorities are currently treated equally, but that was not always the case. In fact, the Fed’s bias toward maximizing employment was a critical driver of the stagflation that plagued the U.S. in the late 1960s and 1970s. Recognizing the need to balance price stability and maximum employment, in 1977, Congress revised the Federal Reserve Act.
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Fed Governor Kugler Details Inflation And Economic Outlook
The 12-month inflation rate, as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, was 2.6% in December, down from its peak of 7.1% in June 2022, and the six-month rate for PCE inflation was even lower, at 2%, which is the target rate set by the Federal Reserve.
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Why Rates May Not Be Cut Until June
The cost of a loan to buy a home, car, college education, and achieve the American Dream is staying the same for now. As expected, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank did not lower loan rates following the Fed’s Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, policy meeting.
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Practical Suggestions For Achieving Your 2024 Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions usually fail because they‘re often too hard to achieve. After six months, only 10% of people who make resolutions achieve them or remain committed to them, , according to a study by Dr. Mark Griffiths, a Chartered Psychologist and Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Addiction at the Nottingham Trent University. What can you do to make financial, medical, or other personal resolutions more likely to be achieved?
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A Sign Of Progress In Solving U.S. Economic Problems
The Federal Reserve appears to be pulling off a feat most experts did not believe it could: ending its aggressive inflation-fighting campaign of 11 interest rate hikes without tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
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Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged; Expects Easing In 2024
To promote transparency and free markets, the Federal Reserve System began publishing the opinions of the 19 U.S. central bankers that decide interest rate policy.
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Have You Logged Into Your Social Security Account?
Have you logged in to your Social Security account? Creating an online account at SSA.gov is an important first step in understanding your retirement income situation. However, only about 60 million of the 160 million individuals in the U.S. labor force who have Social Security accounts have created a way to access the Social Security Administration’s website.
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The Great Fake Out Of 2023 Is Poised To Extend Into 2024
All year long, the economy and stock prices have fooled experts and consumers, outperforming expectations month after month.
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Test Your Financial Planning IQ
The five questions below are a challenge meant to allow you to assess your knowledge of investing, tax and financial planning. If you have been following our news stream, this quiz draws on familiar ground. The answers are below.
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Planning Briefs
John Oliver's Economic Analysis Is No Joke
Published Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at: 9:59 AM EDT
Comedian John Oliver's analysis of the impact of the mushrooming federal debt is no joke.
Mr. Oliver, a pioneer of the satirical TV news genre, was senior British correspondent at The Daily Show from 2006 to 2013. Since his HBO Sunday, 11 p.m., show 2014, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, has won 13 Emmy Awards, which is an entertainment industry award.
More to the point, the Peabody Awards, which recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service in mass media, has been awarded twice to Last Week Tonight in the past six years. That's serious.
Mr. Oliver has taken satirical news to a sublime level. He's making fake news really serious and substantive but funny to more than four million viewers weekly. It's almost unbelievable that the “fake news” has become a source of real news about economics.
On Sunday, Mr. Oliver almost made the exploding government debt funny. The long-term debt of the United States, in the 12 months since Covid hit, soared from $21 trillion to $28 trillion. Larding debt on generations to come is obviously nothing to laugh about, but it's also not so grim. Which was Mr. Oliver's main point.
As we reported two weeks ago, there is some really great news about the debt: the expected cost of servicing the interest on the debt is not growing as fast as the economy overall, Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, said in Congressional testimony on March 24. When the cost of debt results in growth to the economy, debt is a good investment.
This is incredibly unfunny. The U.S. debt is boring and complicated. Moreover, given the human proclivity for avoiding bad news -- and debt is most definitely bad news, Mr. Oliver, despite sometimes outlandish political views, is no joke. Last Week Tonight is not as funny as it used to be, but it is hilarious for a serious news show.
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