Uncategorized Putting a Name to the Fear Posted on September 25, 2019 By Matthew Garrott Putting a Name to the Fear “I’m afraid there will be a recession soon.” No, you’re not. “I’m afraid the stock market will go down.” No, you’re not. “I’m afraid I will lose my money.” Close, but no. What does losing money mean? Money is not the thing we want… Read more
Uncategorized iPhones, IPOs, and Interest Rates – The I’s Have It Posted on September 12, 2019 By Matthew Garrott iPhones, IPOs, Interest Rates Lots of random news today, none of which warrants a full post from me due to either lack of opinion or lack of expertise. However, here are some places that have worthwhile views on each of these subjects. Also, don’t forget about the Northeast Ohio PKD… Read more
Uncategorized A Gift That Makes a Difference Posted on September 11, 2019 By Matthew Garrott 2019 Northeast Ohio PKD Walk It’s that time of year again! The 2019 Northeast Ohio PKD Walk is on September 21st. As usual, Team William will have its walking shoes on. We’ll trek through the Bedford Reservation and then head back to the Garrott house for hotdogs, burgers, and maybe… Read more
Uncategorized Why Don’t More People Smoke? Posted on August 30, 2019 By Matthew Garrott Another prominent figure in the world of finance has declared passive investing a bubble. Josh Brown has a good take on this here, saying that active investing is the true bubble. I don’t think you can declare a decades-long phenomenon (as both active and passive investing have achieved) a bubble, but we… Read more
Fun with TINA Posted on August 28, 2019 By Matthew Garrott I’ve heard today’s investing environment described as TINA. There Is No Alternative. I don’t necessarily agree that this is the case, but the argument goes something like this: US Treasurys yield around 1.50% The rest of the world is yielding zero (or less!) US stocks yield 2% and the US… Read more
What Happened to the Recession? Posted on August 22, 2019 By Matthew Garrott Last week was recession week as the brief yield curve inversion launched a thousand headlines promising economic destruction. Every newspaper had a recession headline or story above the fold. Although there were several days of decent market swings, the recession story seems to have run out of gas as people… Read more
When the Recovery Will End, Emotion, Controversy Posted on July 5, 2019 By Matthew Garrott When Will the Recovery End? (Spoiler Alert: It’s Already Over) After 10 years, surely the end of the recovery is near? I still see investment products pitched with this kind of wording. It turns out that the recovery ended 84 freaking months ago. Since then, we’ve been in expansion. 84… Read more
Uncategorized Student Loans Posted on June 26, 2019 By Matthew Garrott $1.6 trillion of student loan debt is spread among 44 million Americans. More than even avocado toast or a daily latte, student loans are being blamed for Millennials not being able to afford housing (even though they are the largest home-buying cohort). Some Presidential hopefuls say they’ve got the answer… Read more
Uncategorized Zombie Apocalypse? Posted on June 21, 2019 By Matthew Garrott The bull market is (take your pick): in the late stages of the market cycle in the late innings long in the tooth Let’s get another cliche out of the way and say that bull markets don’t die of old age. Are we headed for a recession or a bear market? … Read more
Uncategorized Do It Yourself or Visit the Barber? Posted on June 17, 2019 By Matthew Garrott Feed your kids when they are hungry. Clean your kids when they are dirty. That’s all that should be written in stone when it comes to parenting and even that cleaning them thing is not necessarily correct 100% of the time (I was the kid that would go straight back… Read more