The Federal Reserve has two fundamental mandates: maximum employment and stable prices with an upper limit it sets for an acceptable inflation rate! When employment reaches a level that’s known as full and a strong economy results in a shortage of available qualified workers, upward wage pressure can cause the inflation rate to rise. Similarly, when commodity prices […]
In my first job as a municipal bond analyst and strategist a key datapoint to consider was the steepness of the yield curve! When the curve was at its steepest, investors would be ‘getting paid’ in the form of higher yields to assume the price and reinvestment risk of moving out to longer maturities. When flat, meaning […]
Summary: At levels not seen since the financial crisis, is the distressed debt ratio sending a clear signal about the health of the US economy? Will the Fed or won’t the Fed and, in fact, at the end of the day does it even matter when considering the health of lower rated companies? High Yield Bonds: ‘A […]
