Good Financial Reads: Current Events and Trends

Despite earning a reputation as a “do nothing” Congress, they’ve actually passed a lot of bills in recent years affecting taxes and retirement. It started with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Then the SECURE Act of 2019. The CARES Act of 2020. And now they’re at it again. While the current bill making its way through Congress doesn’t make as dramatic of moves as the SECURE Act did, there are definitely more retirement changes coming with SECURE Act 2.0.

Eight times a year the Federal Reserve holds a meeting to determine current monetary policy. These events are always a big deal for markets, but some meetings take on greater importance for investors. The meeting this week was one of those “big” meetings given the recent rise in inflation. While there was no major change in policy for right now, we believe the Federal Reserve’s Policy is boxing them into a corner by signaling future rate hikes starting in 2023.

It’s hard to believe but we’re nearing the half-way point in 2021. Six months ago the economy was completely locked down because of COVID. Now, airplanes are full as people rush out to vacation for the first time since 2019. With all that’s happened, it’s a good time to do a mid-year review of the investment landscape.

The first half of 2021 is over (already!?!?) and data about investor activity is coming in. Of all the charts and graphs we’ve seen in the past week, the ones sticking out the most deal with how investors are piling into stocks at a record pace. If there were any doubts that investors’ fears about COVID are gone, these charts should erase them!

In last week’s blog post we tackled the question of whether or not the recent increase in inflation is transitory. This week, we want to bring some potential good news to those who are already receiving Social Security. Because of the recent rise in inflation, we expect a big Social Security Cost of Living increase for 2021!