Image by F1 Digitals from Pixabay Money might be the most misunderstood topic in finance. Everyone knows exactly what it is, yet definitions greatly vary. Most reduce money’s meaning to some combination of the four functions famously stated by William Stanley Jevons in his 1875 essay Money and the Mechanism of Exchange: a medium of..
Image by Carlos Lincoln from Pixabay Central banks endlessly fascinate me. The more I research them the more contradictions I find, particularly since their missions and impacts changed over time. Take the Federal Reserve (Fed), for example. It was originally created to countercyclically balance volatile market forces in times of stress. However, the evolution of..
Image by Dinh Khoi Nguyen from Pixabay Inflation is one of the most important, debated, and controversial investment themes today. It’s impacting every asset class from fixed income to commodities to equities. Yet, inflation’s widely misunderstood. While well-known among layman and expert alike, inflation’s definition changed over time. However, not everyone has noticed. As inflation’s..
Image by Tim C. Gundert from Pixabay Many types of currencies have been used throughout history. Sometimes commodities defined them. Other times, private bank notes circulated as mediums of exchange. Today, fiat currencies reign supreme while some eye cryptocurrencies as the future. Like so many aspects of money, currencies are hotly debated. This results from..
Image by Penny from Pixabay Everyone loves to talk about money. While commonplace, money actually means different things to different people. Its many and conflicting definitions lead to vastly different economic conclusions and tend to confirm one’s preferred viewpoint. As a result, money’s lost all utility as an objective investment tool. However, redefining it in..
Image by Christian Storb from Pixabay I can’t shake money from my mind. It features prominently in this age of pervasive central banking, Wall Street bailouts, investment market obsessions, and cryptocurrency culture wars. Many seem to have prospered by betting big on money-related investment themes from speculating on Bitcoin, to buying profitless technology stocks, or..
Image by bridgesward from Pixabay Everyone loves to dunk on the Federal Reserve (Fed). To many, the setters of U.S. monetary policy never get it right. Its stable of Ph.D. economists are always too late, or too slow, or too early, or too fast. Shockingly, many have built prominent careers in peddling this viewpoint. Yet,..
Image by PDPics from Pixabay There’s no escaping the Federal Reserve (Fed) when it comes to investing these days. The Great Financial Crisis (GFC) showed how the movement of money through the financial system can impact markets and mainstreamed these previously obscure discussions. As a result, flexing your financial system “plumbing” expertise is now fashionable…
Image by Kranich17 from Pixabay Not a day goes by without the need for money. Whether buying a cup of coffee, checking your investment portfolio, or contemplating monetary policy, money is always top of mind. Yet despite daily use, money confounds us. Even experts ascribe mythical qualities to it. For example, many believe that banks..
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay As I sat down to write this month’s article, just one topic came to mind: inflation. Readers know that I just wrote on this theme. Yet, it remains topical and I have more to exploring to do. I’m specifically interested in why we’re seeing inflation now and does it even..
