Paul Volcker, Inflation Tamer Who Set Bank Risk Rule, Dies At 92

That finding, from an annual health-care spending report the federal government released last week, is feeding the fire the insurance industry is continually lighting under Congress to delay or even repeal the health insurance tax they've bitterly dubbed the “HIT.” Insurance lobbyists are urging lawmakers to tack a delay of the HIT– and two other Obamacare…

But a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services shows the nation remains in a period of relatively slow growth in health spending. Health spending in the United States rose by 4.6 percent to $3.6 trillion in 2018— accounting for 17.7 percent of the economy— compared to a growth rate of 4.2 percent in 2017. Federal officials said the slight…

Hospitals sued the Trump administration yesterday over its requirement that they disclose their negotiated rates, the latest of the industry's moves to protect itself from policy changes that could hurt its revenues. Why it matters: Hospitals account for the largest portion of U.S. health costs — which patients are finding increasingly unaffordable. The big picture: Hospitals…

The manufacturing industry got a huge boost from President Trump's election, seeing a groundswell of job gains during his first year in office. But the trade war with China has undone that progress: Jobs in the sector have stalled out and turned negative in 2019. Why it matters: Reviving American manufacturing was a central tenet of Trump's 2016 campaign, and the industry's…

The unexpected contraction in the U.S. November manufacturing ISM report was responsible for the dollar's currency downturn, which came concomitantly with an erosion in the dollar's yield advantage against other major currencies. The 10- year U.S. T-note yield spread over the Bund, for instance, has shrivelled by about 7 bp since the data release.

President Trump threw another curveball into the trade picture Monday when he announced on Twitter that he would reinstate steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentina. He accused the two nations of weakening their currencies to gain competitive advantage against the United States, an oft-repeated claim that he has cited in his ongoing push for lower…

A new study by Investor's Business Daily and indexing leader MSCI pushes ESG investing a step further. Investors get the tools to find top-performing socially aware companies on their own.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 2, 2019/ PRNewswire/– Nearly three in ten Millennial advisors say that adding new technology is the most important thing they will do over the next 12 months to enhance the profitability of their practice, roughly three times more than Baby Boomer advisors. Likewise, two in ten Millennial advisors say that consolidating existing technology is…

A decade of historically low interest rates has allowed companies to sell record amounts of bonds to investors, sending total U.S. corporate debt to nearly $10- trillion, or a record 47- percent of the overall economy. Some of America's best-known companies, including AT-T, General Motors and CVS Health, have splurged on borrowed cash. Investors hold nearly $4…

Nothing is forever, not even debt. Every borrower eventually either repays what they owe or defaults. We borrow faster than we repay previous borrowing— and I mean governments everywhere, China as well as the US.

Data: The Conference Board; Chart: Axios Visuals The gap between consumers' confidence in the current state of the economy and their outlook for future economic conditions shrunk slightly in November, according to closely watched data released by The Conference Board on Tuesday. Why it matters: “For some time, consumers have been more positive on current conditions, but have had a…

The Treasury has issued proposed regulations to update tables used to determine requirement minimum distributions, incorporating current mortality tables reflecting longer life expectancies. The proposed regs would extend the number of years for making distributions from qualified retirement plans, IRAs and annuities and certain other tax-favored…

2020 could be “one of the strongest years on record” for the U.S. commercial real estate industry, according to a market outlook released Wednesday by CBRE, the world's biggest commercial real estate servicer and investment firm. Why it matters: Commercial real estate activity tends to be a leading economic indicator, and growth in the sector translates to more jobs and…

Last Friday, Warren went back on her word yet again– this time, retracting her plan for immediate implementation of Universal Healthcare in response to criticism from the moderate left. Warren’ s new plan is to push for Universal Healthcare in her third year as president, she said in New Hampshire last Friday, which is not much better than a cop-out of the whole…

Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade are hooking up. So what does the planned marriage mean for the average investor?

FX Update: The dollar firmed up during the London morning, though lost ground to an underperforming pound, which benefited by the latest opinion polls showing PM Johnson's Conservative party has increased its lead, while paring Asia- session losses against the dollar bloc currencies. This follows Friday's below-forecast Eurozone PMI data versus the…

The U.S. stock market hit record highs this week as a stunning surge of optimism has flooded Wall Street and fears of an imminent recession have all but disappeared. The market' melt up' is driven by three main factors: belief that the trade war has peaked, belief that there won't be a U.S. “or global” recession in 2020, and belief that the Federal Reserve has the market's…

Wealthspire Advisors, the $10 billion registered investment advisory firm created via the recent merger of Sontag Advisory and Bronfman Rothschild, has launched a digital wealth management platform that will couple an automated investment management platform, powered by Schwab, with access to a Certified Financial Planner. The firm hopes Wealthspire…

The University of Michigan's final sentiment index advanced to 96.8 in November from 95.5 in October, data showed Friday. That may give some comfort to Federal Reserve officials, after some policy makers flagged concerns about low inflation expectations in supporting a third straight interest-rate cut last month, according to minutes of their meeting.

Solid consumer spending has helped power the U.S. economy through rocky conditions this year, as the sugar high from tax cuts faded and businesses hunkered down in the face of trade-war uncertainty and new threats to global growth. “All three of the major consumer credit agencies— Equifax, Experian and TransUnion— report double-digit growth in this market in…

Charles Schwab’ s estimated $26 billion acquisition of rival discount broker and RIA custodian TD Ameritrade would, if finalized, cement Schwab’ s position as the largest RIA custodian in the industry by far, holding more than half of the assets managed by registered independent advisors. The merger, assuming it’ s approved by regulators, will combine Schwab’ s…

Charles Schwab is in talks to buy TD Ameritrade, according to multiple media reports this morning. Why it matters: This would create a discount brokerage behemoth with over $5 trillion in assets under management. The combined company would be just behind BlackRock ($6.9 trillion) and Vanguard ($5.6 trillion). Schwab already was in third place with $3.85 trillion but adding TD…

Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker squared off over higher taxes on the ultra-rich.. For the first time, Warren faced a sustained challenge from a rival to what has emerged as a signature plank of her platform— her plan to impose a 2 percent tax on households with more than $50 million, and a 6 percent surtax on net worths above $1 billion, to fund a massive expansion of…

WASHINGTON— Federal Reserve officials do not plan to cut interest rates again unless economic data begins to show cracks, a message reinforced by the minutes from their October meeting. While Mr. Trump has urged the Fed to stimulate the economy and cheapen the dollar, the central bank operates independently. Trump’ s trade war and slowing growth abroad weighed on…

Tired of the interruptions, the Houston- area marketing and Web design expert at one point tried to take matters into his own hands, ringing back the robocallers to get them to stop bothering him and his family— but the calls continued. While the calls may be offering perfectly legitimate services, they also appeared to come from a single originator that cycled…

Nov. 19– The Affordable Care Act may be down, but it’s not out, not even in Texas. For years, Texas lawmakers have challenged the health law in court and criticized it in public. Open enrollment, which allows people to sign up for coverage for 2020, began this month on HealthCare.gov and ends on Dec. 15.

But hidden outside this big debate is a harsh reality: If Democrats fail to retake control of the Senate, neither plan has much of a chance to become law. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, has allied herself with the” Medicare for all” wing of the party, saying she would propose a single-payer system. Her transition plan is engineered to pass with only a…

Wall Street billionaires are taking the gloves off, even lobbing thinly veiled attacks against Warren over her claims of Native American heritage. Hedge fund CEO Leon Cooperman, back on CNBC, called out the controversy over Warren’s claims to Native American heritage and saying, “We don’t need another fabricator in the White House.” The California Public…

Will things get even worse for China? There are hopes that the extra tariffs could be averted by a so-called Phase 1 trade deal with China, but Mr. Trump affirmed this week that they could yet be deployed if China does not accede to his trade terms. More trade news: Economists think a U.S.- China truce is unlikely in 2020.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell told Congress’s Joint Economic Committee on Wednesday that he saw’ no reason’ the economic expansion can’t continue and that the central bank has no imminent plans for further interest rate cuts, despite ongoing pressure from President Trump. Powell’s comments came 24- hours after Trump bashed the Fed for not slashing…

EF Legacy Securities, a broker-dealer platform owned by Edelman Financial Engines, has been acquired by RetireOne in a bid to expand insurance and annuity back-office services for RIAs who are interested in transitioning from commission-based to fee-based annuities options, the platform announced today. In April 2018, Hellman& Friedman purchased…

If you’ ve wondered what material effect Senator Elizabeth Warren’ s proposed tax increases for the wealthy would have, look no further than the estimates by two economists who advised her, Patricia Cohen of the NYT writes. •“If her wealth tax had been in effect since 1982, for example, Mr. Gates, who had made his first billion dollars by 1987, would have had $13.9…

The top 1% of American households have enjoyed huge returns in the stock market in the past decade, to the point that they now control more than half of the equity in U.S. public and private companies, according to data from the Federal Reserve. The very richest had assets of about $35.4 trillion in the second quarter, or just shy of the $36.9 trillion held by the tens…

BNY Mellon Investment Management recently conducted a national research study that revealed the majority of Americans surveyed have limited understanding about fixed income investing— with only 8% of those surveyed able to identify the definition of fixed income investments. While 67% of those surveyed believe stock-picking requires more skill, in…

Many people use their last will and testament to make bequests to charity. She considered outright gifts and contributions to a Donor Advised Fund or Charitable Remainder Trust, but ultimately decided that she was not ready to part with control of the assets for fear she may need them someday and would regret the irrevocable donation. A PPVA is a uniquely…

Ten years ago, when the Illinois estate tax exemption was $2 million and the federal exemption $3.5 million, I started working with a couple whose farm was worth about $10 million. The Bush tax cut was phasing out the federal estate tax, but it would boomerang back to a mere $1 million exemption in 2011.. The Illinois estate exemption has doubled to $4 million.

A California congressman’ s plan would lower federal barriers to letting states experiment with health care policy. As presidential hopefuls campaign on a national“ Medicare for all” system, a California congressman is pushing for a different path to universal coverage: letting the states go first. Mr. Khanna concedes that his bill will not move forward during…

The families Dr. Jaffe analyzed have avoided falling into the trap in which grandchildren dissipate what the grandparents built. But Dr. Jaffe said his research kept bringing him back to one central point: 100- year families are better at communicating than other families. For the better part of four decades, Dr. Jaffe has been a leader in the field of family…

Written by: CION Investments for IRIS.xyz. And because we have been in a history-making economic expansion– 10 years and counting as of July 2019– both the stock market and some parts of the bond market have been posting gains year after year.. However, Wall Street consensus has now coalesced around the opinion that the economy has entered the“ late stage” of the…

Mr. Gilbert, the son of a Manhattan hedge fund manager, was raised with a silver-spoon lifestyle, attending the elite Buckley School for boys in Manhattan, the exclusive Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass., and Princeton University, but he had trouble holding down a job after graduation. When his father cut the allowance, an outraged Mr. Gilbert, then 30, took a gun…

Worries of an ETF bubble just won’t go away. But two ETF professionals say they have proof the biggest worries about ETFs are just “fake news.”

Somewhere around Halloween, the U.S. economy started to look a bit less scary. Top U.S. and Chinese officials are talking about a trade war truce. As recently as August, some models predicted a fifty-fifty chance of a U.S. recession in the next year.

Stocks rose Friday after a strong jobs report reassured investors about the health of the United States economy. The anticipation of that deal, which President Trump refers to as a“ Phase One” trade deal, and the fact that the Federal Reserve this week cut interest rates for the third time since July, have helped lift shares back to record territory.

WASHINGTON— When Senator Elizabeth Warren laid out her plan for“ Medicare for all” on Friday, she said she would raise taxes on the top 1 percent of households to help pay for it. On Saturday night, Ms. Warren presented an even narrower description of who would face higher taxes under her plan. “It doesn’ t raise taxes on anybody but billionaires,” Ms. Warren told reporters…

President Trump keeps arguing the stock market is rising and falling on impeachment developments. But Trump just issued an impeachment-related threat that could cause investors to take notice: He is refusing to rule out shutting down the government if congressional Democrats expand their inquiry into whether the president traded access and aid for…

But it is far from clear whether “tax cut 2.0” will play a meaningful role in the 2020 election, as Republicans are still struggling to convince the public of the merits of the GOP’s tax cut 1.0.. Republicans had high hopes for their first tax package when it was approved narrowly by Congress and signed into law by Trump at the end of 2017.. But the party’s push for a…

Employers kept hiring at a steady if unremarkable pace, adding 136,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The report capped a week of otherwise disappointing economic news. Manufacturing activity in the United States fell for the second month in a row, while the World Trade Organization predicted that the growth in global trade would slacken…

Many people don’t fear dying. His daily hospice rate was $300. “That was more than the $3,300 monthly rate at the assisted home where he lived for the last four years,” she wrote.

In a new survey from The New York Times as well as the Commonwealth Fund and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, we forced the issue. One resembled the Medicare for all proposal; one was like more incremental Democratic proposals; and one was like a plan proposed by congressional Republicans, which would reduce federal involvement in the health system…

The Federal Reserve has been on an unprecedented listening tour this year in an effort to hear views about the economy from Americans far from the White House and Wall Street. Wall Street is pricing in a 97 percent likelihood that the Fed will cut the rate from under 2 percent now to below 1.75 percent. Wall Street investors do not expect another reduction this…

V.R. and online visual aids are giving workers a better idea of how much they need to save. Picture this: You are in the country, on a trip through a pleasantly green, rolling landscape dotted with trees. It has a slightly dreamlike quality.

Stocks Touch Record Amid a Thaw in U.S.- China Trade Fight. The S&P 500 was on track to hit a record on Monday, as optimism surrounding trade talks between China and the United States lifted consumer and technology stocks. And comments from President Trump gave the broad market a lift, after he suggested that trade talks with China were going better than expected.

As open enrollment nears for the Affordable Care Act, large swaths of Florida are doing without the health care“ navigators” who help Americans understand and sign up for insurance plans. Yet Florida remains an exception, an Obamacare juggernaut. “While we managed to get people enrolled across the whole state last year after some severe cuts, we still saw…

HANOVER, N.H.— Surging to the front of the crowded Democratic primary field, Elizabeth Warren has taken heat over the past few weeks for not saying how she would fund a Medicare for All plan. But when it comes to defending another piece of her platform— a wealth tax on fortunes over $50 million— the Massachusetts senator has gleefully gone to battle with her critics.

Administration officials credited Mr. Trump with the resiliency of the law even as they echoed his contempt for it. “The A.C.A. simply doesn’ t work and is still unaffordable for far too many,” Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said on Monday.“ But until Congress gets around to replacing it, President Trump will do what he can to fix the problems…

As investment banks and hedge funds struggle, private equity—a business predicated upon raising capital subject to long-term lock-ups to invest in assets using large amounts of leverage—is enjoying go-go times.

Many commercial insurers are likely to lower premiums if they face competition from a public option on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges, according to a new analysis.