Today with bated breath, the financial markets are waiting on the FOMC statement for any hints of a potential rate hike in 2015. Many economists are still expecting a hike in September or October but at Runnymede, we remain highly skeptical that the Fed will raise rates in 2015. Like we have been saying since March, the data dependent Fed just doesn't have the numbers to justify their first rate hike. Janet Yellen and the Fed target 2% inflation and sorry we aren't anywhere near that number. She should be more worried about deflation than inflation at this point.
A little or a latte: turning coffee savings into a car
On July 4th, I was with my wife and daughter in New York City and we walked by the Gansevoort Market, a trendy food hall in the Meatpacking District. Being a hot afternoon, my daughter found some delicious gelato and my wife wanted an iced coffee. I found Champions Coffee and they had a cold brew iced coffee so I ordered one. They don't show any prices so I was shocked when the cashier told me it was $5. But it's New York, so I handed over the $5 and went on my way. Anyway, I had recently heard great things about cold brew coffee so I was curious to give it a try. I normally drink my coffee with milk but the cold brew was smoother and less bitter so I enjoyed it in its purest form.
What Divorcing Women in New Jersey Need To Know About Alimony ‘Reform’
While we typically write about personal finance, investing, and the economy, this week's blog post on the subject of alimony reform is different from our usual programming. Our reason for covering this subject is two-fold. First, Runnymede advises clients who are going through or have gone through divorce. In fact, our professionals' backgrounds in equity research help us review and evaluate investment portfolios that are being split. Second, we were surprised to learn that the effects of alimony reform are likely to be substantially greater to women because women are recipients of alimony 97% of the time. With changes to the law potentially favoring men over women, this felt worthy of including in our blog.
Financial weather: Central bankers creating clear skies
In 2008, the brokers and bankers made a huge mess in the subprime mortgage markets and caused the deepest recession in decades. The finanical crisis cost the tax payers trillions of dollars to bail out the failed financial firms and to restart the nation’s economic growth engine. The message during the market recovery to Wall Street from the central bank and the government has been “don’t mess with the financial markets to cause another market crash.” The media and many pundits haven't got the message and are still writing very frequently about the impending market crash. With the recent news on Greece, the media went all out to scare people but we wrote that investors shouldn't be surprised given Greece's history of debt problems. The S&P 500 shrugged off the negative news and barely declined at all, a pullback of just 3%. Looking at the trend, you’ll notice that the S&P 500 has been trading sideways at 2080 plus or minus a few points in a narrow range since November 2014.
Is there value in the Chinese stock market or is it a dangerous bubble?
The last couple of weeks have been dominated by two topics: Greece and China. Last week we tackled what a Greek default means to your investment portfolio. This week we give our insight on the Chinese market which has tumbled in the last month. At Runnymede, we want to give our readers a different perspective than the alarmist headlines from other news sources. Unfortunately with internet news, they are paid on clicks so it's reliant on attention grabbing headlines, not necessarily the reality. We don't simply rehash what the mainstream news reports on. We look deeper beneath the surface to help you make informed investment decisions.
What a Greek bankruptcy means to your investment portfolio
A potential Greek bankruptcy has dominated the headlines over the past couple of weeks and this Sunday is a crucial referendum to decide their fate. The Greek PM Alexis Tsipras today urged its citizens to reject an international bailout deal. Many economists and investors are now expecting a bankruptcy in the near term. The big question for investors is: what does a Greek bankruptcy mean to my investment portfolio?