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It’s official. ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) is dead. In fact, the Federal Reserve (FED) has raised interest rates to levels not seen in many years. Car and home buyers are getting hit hard, and at this moment the average potential buyer cannot afford a new car. This is a result of higher interest rates, […]

As we explained last week, ZIRP is an acronym for the Federal Reserve’s Zero Interest Rate Policy, which tends to divide Americans into winners and losers. Borrowers love cheap money, whereas investors and lenders lose their ability to earn a reasonable return on cash and other short-term investments. Frequently heard in our office is the […]

ZIRP is an acronym for Zero Interest Rate Policy and, until recently, a major component of American economic policy for several years. Through the Financial Crisis in 2008 and the economic shock of COVID-19 in 2000, the Federal Reserve (FED) exercised the ultimate “easy money” stance of lowering interest rates to essentially zero. (I suppose […]

Americans aged 75 and over are re-entering the workforce in large numbers, with an expected increase of 96.5% by 2030. With 10,000+ people reaching traditional retirement age daily, a large and experienced talent pool is emerging in our economy. Two general categories of post-retirement-age workers are emerging: Voluntary and Involuntary. Voluntary Senior Workers spent a […]

Tax Day 2023 has arrived, albeit a little later than usual, due to a calendar-based adjustment. Unless an Automatic Extension has been granted, which is as simple as filing Form 4868, Individual Returns are due by April 18, 2023. Regardless of Extension status, any tax owed from 2022 is also due. Adding insult to injury, […]

“People get the government they deserve,” observed Alexander Hamilton, long before his story hit Broadway. Ben Franklin also chimed in. When asked what kind of government the Founders had given the people, he responded, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin’s classic line is often disputed, but the conclusion is obvious. Starting in the […]

Gargantuan ships at sea do not turn on a dime (read: Titanic), nor do national economies. Instead, small course corrections, planned and executed intelligently, are required to navigate successfully to the destination. Experienced ship captains and global heads of state are charged with providing direction and orchestrating course corrections. Our currency (the U.S. Dollar) is […]

All the way back in September of 2022, Congress and the IRS released inflation numbers used to determine important items such as Income Tax Brackets, Social Security COLAs (Cost-of-Living Adjustments), and various other items affecting virtually all Americans. At that time, I was upset that the entity charged with calculating the annual rate of inflation, […]

With March comes basketball, green beer, and …. a banking crisis? During the first full week of March 2023, two significant California-based banks (Silvergate and SVB) closed their doors due to insolvency. While banks do sometimes fail, we have a mechanism for the protection of depositors’ money. Failures are generally (with the exception of the […]