Here’s this week’s collection of interesting articles about investing, personal finance, and stewardship. Enjoy!
Fed signals interest rates will likely stay near zero at least through 2022 amid COVID-19 (USA Today). "We’re not even thinking about thinking about raising rates," said Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
A US recession began in February in the face of coronavirus (Associated Press). The economic expansion would have turned 11 years old this month.
U.S. jobless claims rise by slower 1.54 million in early June, but layoffs still extremely high (MarketWatch). New applications for benefits have dwindled since peaking at almost 7 million in late March.
Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy is leading an army of day traders (Bloomberg via Yahoo). With sports shut down due to COVID-19, sports gamblers are plying their trade with stocks and ETFs.
Should funeral homes be required to post prices online? (New York Times). The Federal Trade Commission is considering making online pricing mandatory and is accepting comments from the public through next Monday.
And from the bloggers and pundits...
How often do stocks fall? (Michael Batnick, The Irrelevant Investors). Investing hurts, and it’s a game of endurance.
Some things about the markets that will never change (Ben Carlson, A Wealth of Common Sense). Investing would be a lot easier if the markets always made sense.
Stock market has almost always ignored the economy (Nir Kaissar, Bloomberg). What is behind the recent weeks-long rally? A bold consensus that a robust earnings recovery is on the way. That doesn’t mean the consensus is right.
The new Stretch IRA (Jim Dahle, The White Coat Investor). The Stretch IRA isn’t gone. But it is different.
When a family member is struggling financially, here’s how to help without offending (Ramit Sethi, MarketWatch). If you offer to help a loved one who can’t make ends meet right now, will he or she think you’re condescending?
We invite your comments. Weigh in below!
