Informed Tip of the Week: If you’re looking for other investment alternatives with more growth potential, Informed will soon be launching its seed round. We will be raising money from individuals (accredited investors) and institutions. If you read this blog, you are welcome to inquire about investing. To learn more, Continue Reading
How The Era of Free Money Ends…Badly
I don’t think most people understand just how extraordinary a financial moment we’ve been living in for the past dozen or so years. We’ve all become so numb to the Fed printing money that we get distracted by more urgent matters like the latest election or the job growth number Continue Reading
Recurring Transitory Inflation and Personal Lines Profitability
With Fed Chair Powell changing his tune about “transitory” inflation, I thought it would be worthwhile to begin a deep dive on the challenges inflation brings to insurers because there appears to be a lot of false confidence out there. I guess that makes insurance companies more like the Fed Continue Reading
Path Dependency, Shortages, and the Future of Inflation
I’ve written a number of times about the Fed and inflation, both with regard to asset prices and in the general price of goods. While the concern over inflation is arguably now consensus, and thus worth questioning if it has been overplayed, I actually think it is just the opposite. Continue Reading
The Socializing of Debt Bubbles aka Leverage Has Costs
As the US government debates how much “free” money to give out as stimulus, I realized there is something important missing from the conversation. Where does this free money come from? And do we have to pay it back to someone? Given the desire to keep raising the bid on Continue Reading
The Fed Copies Progressive’s Approach to Target Messaging
Last week, the Fed updated its approach to managing inflation. Rather than maintain its old target of keeping inflation under 2%, it has now moved to allowing inflation to average 2%. This obviously suggests there will be times where the Fed is comfortable with inflation over 2% in order to Continue Reading
Does Inflation Deserve Its Bad Reputation?
How’s that for a provocative title? American policymakers have lived in fear of inflation since the 70s. But that’s nothing! The Germans have feared it for approaching 100 years! But is inflation really that bad? Certainly, uncontrolled inflation is disastrous. Nobody wants the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. But what if Continue Reading
Asset Inflation is Always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon
The great Milton Friedman had many famous quotes. Probably the most well known is the one about there being no such thing as a free lunch (not originally his, but he popularized it). But perhaps the most influential, at least for me, was his observation that “inflation is always and Continue Reading