Silver Bells

Household equity exposure has rarely been as high as it is today. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Historically, the higher household stock exposure is, the lower the 10-year forward returns tend to be. In fact, the 25% demarcation heading into the 2000 stock...

The Stock Bubble’s Precious Opportunity?

For the last four months, the Federal Reserve has maintained its balance sheet rather than electronically print additional money. It would seem, then, that $3 trillion of monetary “stimulus” earlier in the year was enough to stop COVID’s Q1 bear...

Debt-stricken Small Stocks

Is taking on more and more debt at lower and lower interest rates a good thing? Well, it does not seem to be helping the bulk of public companies on the U.S. stock exchanges. Consider the premier benchmark for small stocks, the Russell 2000. Their very existence may...

No Country For Old Bank Stocks

Bank stocks around the globe dramatically underperformed respective stock markets in 2007. And by 2008, a global financial collapse punished every economic sector. Here in 2020, bank stock troubles are resurfacing. Year-over-year differences between ‘Big...

Zombie Nation

Zombie companies are those that cannot generate enough profits to cover their debt payments. And according to the researchers at Deutsche Bank, the ‘walking dead’ comprise nearly one out of five publicly listed corporations in the United States. The...