Financial Thought Leaders
SARGEN & LIPSKY: THE DECLINE OF U.S. FINANCIAL DOMINANCE
The Decline of U.S. Financial Dominance
The Effectiveness or Lack Thereof of Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy
It has been four years since the start of the worst financial crisis in the post war era. It feels like a lifetime to me. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, tipping the world into a systemic financial meltdown which we have been recovering from ever since. It’s helpful to step back every once and while and see how far we have come since the market lows of March 2009, when the S&P closed under 700. It has more than doubled since then, but oh what a ride it has been!
Read MoreOne of this week’s guests, Fort Washington Investments Nick Sargen, points out that there have been three distinct market phases since the financial crisis began. First, “the sell off” from September of ‘08 to March of ‘09 when global credit markets froze, economies fell into recession, and the Fed drove interest rates to zero. During the sell-off, the S&P lost 46%, other markets plummeted; U.S. Treasuries and gold were the only major asset classes to gain.
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Niall Ferguson (R)
The Decline of U.S. Financial Dominance
We believe in having a long term perspective on WEALTHTRACK and helping our viewers and ourselves build financial security to last a lifetime. But sometimes it is necessary to step back even further and think beyond a lifetime, in terms of centuries, to really grasp the era we are living in. That is what we are doing this week as we revisit a timeless interview from last year with British historian Niall Ferguson. According to Ferguson, we are living through one of those seismic epochal shifts that require rethinking the old rules, including our investment ones.
Read MoreFerguson is one of those rare individuals who has the intellectual and educational fire power to tackle such a broad sweep of history. And as you will see in a moment, he also has the gift of gab to bring it alive. A professor of history at Harvard, Senior Research Fellow at Oxford and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Ferguson is the author of numerous articles and columns, a recent one became the cover story of Newsweek. He has also authored several books, including The Ascent Of Money and more recently Civilization: Civilization: The West and the Rest
. Both were turned into PBS specials.
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Charles Ellis & Mark Cortazzo
The Myths About Investment Management Fees
How much do you pay in investment fees every year? What is the actual dollar amount you pay to your financial advisor, let alone the mutual funds you own and the firms that have custody of your investments? How much do they really take away from your portfolio and its performance over the years? According to a ground breaking article by legendary financial consultant and WEALTHTRACK guest Charles Ellis, “investment management fees are much higher than you think.”
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