EUROPE’S ENERGY CRISIS IS KEEPING ENERGY PRICES AND INFLATION HIGH
America leads the world in oil and gas production. We believe midstream energy infrastructure offers predictable cash flows to investors..
Why This Government Shutdown Won't Be The Last
As we’re all being reminded, 1996 was the last time the Federal government was forced to shut down, the result of a budgetary dispute between then House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton. It didn’t last that long, was economically inconsequential and was generally believed to have worse consequences for the Republicans than the […]
Blackrock Forecasts Years of Poor Bond Returns
Credit Peter Thiel, Blackrock’s deputy chief investment officer for fundamental fixed income, for providing an honest assessment of the outlook for fixed income. “Overall returns of the market will continue to be negative as monetary policy shifts,” he said. So one of the biggest bond investors in the world has an appropriately cautious outlook on total return. Not […]
Why Bonds Are Not For Retail
Fed Chairman Bernanke’s press conference on Wednesday was more interesting than usual. The decision not to “taper” (never a word the Fed has actually used) caught market participants by surprise. The Fed will continue to buy $85 billion of bonds every month until further notice. Perhaps the low interest rate bias of the presumptive Chairman […]
The Shifting Regulatory Landscape for Bond Investors
In my new book, Bonds Are Not Forever; The Crisis Facing Fixed Income Investors, I make the case that some big trends in the U.S. economy and Finance began shifting following the financial crisis of 2008, the consequences of which will include interest rates insufficient to compensate bond investors for inflation and taxes (hence the […]
The Problem With "Rising Rate" Strategies
In recent weeks I’ve heard quite a few people comment that they’re looking for “rising rate strategies”. It’s a seductive concept; interest rates are almost assuredly headed higher. The debate about tapering rages on, and clearly the bull market in bonds is over. Serial Quantitative Easing will transform to the Fed’s exit strategy from its […]