Stop in for free, judgement-free financial advice! Financial Advisors Holly Simeone, CES™ and Lauren Russo, CEPA, FPQP™, CVB, together with Paraplanner Angela Elzner, FPQP™, invite you to invest in your financial health by joining them during Open Office Hours at Berkshire Money Management’s Dalton and Great Barrington, MA, offices this January and February. Open Office Hours are free and open to the community, and no appointment is necessary. Simply drop in during the event to receive one-on-one, professional guidance on topics including budgeting, saving for retirement, leaving a legacy for children and grandchildren, and getting the most from Social Security….
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Financial Planning Open Office Hours December and January
Are financial questions keeping you up at night? Financial Advisors Holly Simeone, CES™ and Lauren Russo, CEPA, FPQP™, CVB, together with Paraplanner Angela Elzner, FPQP™, invite you to invest in your financial health by joining them during Open Office Hours at Berkshire Money Management’s Dalton and Great Barrington, MA, offices. Open Office Hours are free and open to the community, and no appointment is necessary. Simply drop in during the event to receive one-on-one, professional guidance on topics including budgeting, saving for retirement, leaving a legacy for children and grandchildren, and getting the most from Social Security. Open Office Hours…
Open Office Hours Bring Financial Advice to the Whole Community
Are financial questions keeping you up at night? Financial Advisors Holly Simeone, CES™ and Lauren Russo, CEPA, FPQP™, CVB, together with Paraplanner Angela Elzner, FPQP™, invite you to invest in your financial health by joining them during Open Office Hours at Berkshire Money Management’s Dalton and Great Barrington, MA, offices. Open Office Hours are free and open to the community, and no appointment is necessary. Simply drop in during the event to receive one-on-one, professional guidance on topics including budgeting, saving for retirement, leaving a legacy for children and grandchildren, and getting the most from Social Security. Open Office Hours…
Will SALT be repealed?
The state and local tax cap, called SALT, has been the bane of many high-tax states since its passage as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It created an effective tax hike for many high earners in high tax states, as well as many middle-class workers. That may be about to change, at least for some income earners. Last week, the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, presented a draft outline of a $6 trillion budget resolution. It included $120 billion for SALT relief over five years. Readers may recall that the controversial tax…
The carbon market comes of age
At the beginning of this year, the global price of carbon was $24.05 per ton of CO2. In order to achieve the emissions reduction goals of members of the Paris Agreement, prices need to reach a range of $50-$100 per ton of CO2. That makes buying carbon an attractive investment.The ongoing concerns about climate change have spawned several emission trading schemes over the last decade. The reasoning is simple: if left unchecked, carbon emissions (among other factors) will have a material impact on our environment and will do severe damage to the global economy.The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol of…
Fed puts markets on notice while crypto crashes
It had to happen at some point with economic growth spiking as high as it has, and inflation beginning to creep up. Investors should have expected the Fed to think about a change in policy. This week, we had our first mention of the dreaded “T” word. T is for taper and in the minutes of the Fed’s April FOMC meeting released on Wednesday, the entire financial community jumped on just one phrase: “it might be appropriate at some point” to consider tapering asset purchases if the economy shows “rapid progress.” In other words, the Fed is signaling that they…
Inflation fears weigh on investors
Most stocks took it on the chin earlier this week. Technology shares lead the rout, but it didn’t take long before just about everything else followed tech lower. By the end of the week, it was as if nothing had happened. That’s called “chop.” Get used to it. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which investors use to gauge future inflation, took the lion’s share of the blame for the downdraft in equities. Economists had warned that we should expect a higher monthly reading (0.2%) for April, but the data came in at 0.8%. That computes to a 4.2% price gain…
Are Inflation fears real or imagined?
If you have been grocery shopping lately, there is no question that prices and inflation are going higher. The same can be said for the price of a gallon of gas. But is it a transitory event, or are we at the beginning of an inflationary era not seen in decades? Clearly, commodity prices, which are usually the harbinger of future inflation, are soaring. Copper, oil, sugar, corn, steel, aluminum and lumber, as well as many other food and material prices, are hitting multi-year highs. But it is not just commodities that are seeing a price surge. Shipping costs are…
Fed signals an ‘all clear’ for equities, but the markets don’t care
Investors were bolstered by the Fed’s message this week. Low interest rates and monetary stimulus will remain pillars of the nation’s economic recovery for as long as it takes. Investors were comforted, but not enough to materially move stocks higher. It was indicative that despite bullish news on a variety of fronts, investors ignored the good and focused on the negatives. First quarter earnings results, for example, have been better than good, but not enough to satisfy the bulls. Apple smashed earnings estimates, sending its stock price higher in after-hours trade, but the next day it finished down. It has…
Empty oceans
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface. For centuries, these bodies of water have supplied us with a bountiful harvest of ocean wildlife and millions of well-paying jobs. Unless something changes, however, the future of fisheries is in serious jeopardy. The demand for fish is growing with aquaculture trends reaching a growth rate of 527% from 1990 to today. At the same time, fish consumption has doubled as well. Declining fisheries, the destruction of the marine habitat, and the near-depression-like economic conditions of more and more coastal fishing communities, is no surprise to most of us. It has…
Stocks hit with possible tax hike
It was a losing week for stocks. Most of the blame can be pinned on a proposal by the Biden Administration to double the capital gains tax on investments. It is not official yet, but investors are counting on an announcement next week. Before you hit the sell button on all those huge capital gains you have accumulated over the last few years, know the facts. Right now, there aren’t any. What we do know is that Joe Biden ran his winning presidential campaign on increasing taxes on the rich and on corporations. He plans to do just that, so…
Our hospitals are in trouble
COVID-19 effectively put a halt to most elective surgeries. As the nation gets vaccinated, however, medical authorities have given the all-clear to a resume those surgeries. But will patients come back? The answer to that question is important to the nation’s hospitals, whose bottom line has suffered as much as, or even more than, most of their patients. Last year, hospitals were forced to shut down surgery in order to create capacity for skyrocketing cases of the coronavirus. But even after beds opened up again (as a result of the reduction in new, serious Covid-19 cases), most patients are still…
Selling dirty
According to a survey performed by AlixPartners (AP), U.S. consumers are the “most anxious” about their health and finances. Chinese consumers rank the lowest in terms of anxiety pertaining to those issues. AP’s April 2021 survey concluded that “half of all global consumers say their spending habits have changed permanently due to the pandemic.” Whether you are a business owner or an investor, it is essential to understand where consumer spending will be directed. To figure out the “where,” we have to understand the “why.” According to the AP survey, nearly one out of every three U.S. consumers identified as being very…
Jobs and jabs
Bank of America (BoA) has been tracking the credit card use of clients who received the stimulus payments authorized by the American Rescue Plan (ARP). For the seven days ending March 27, 2021, aggregate credit card spending was up 82 percent from a year ago. Where is the money being spent? Everywhere. Furniture stands out, which reflects the heated home-building industry. And then electronics, clothing, airlines, home improvement, and restaurants (in that order of year-over-year growth). The two-year percentage change tells a better story because the world came to a halt the week of March 27, 2020. For the seven…
Stocks grind higher as bond yields retreat
April is usually a good month for markets. Historically, it is one of the three best months of the year for equities. We all know what happens in May (‘sell in May and go away’) but we will worry about that later. Over in the bond market, the bond vigilantes may have started to doubt their conviction that inflation is a fait accompli and so yields must go up. This week, yields declined a bit, which gave a boost to some sectors (gold and silver, for example), while banks pulled back a little. But Friday’s Producer Price Index report for…
How the Berkshire economy emerges from the pandemic
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and the economy rapidly changed for the worst. The impact on Berkshire County was larger than that of the nation. According to Moody’s, the gross metro product of Pittsfield was down 6 percent in 2020. That compares to a 3.5 percent decrease for the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP). On a relative basis, employment in the Berkshires fell more than the nation and has been recovering more slowly. Notably, payrolls in the vital tourism sector are down significantly. According to Google Community Mobility Reports, 2021 year-to-date…