What does the political standoff in Washington mean to you? -- not in terms of your politics but in terms of your bottom line - your after-tax income and your family's wealth. One layer of variables hinges on Congressional processes and timing, and another set of possible outcomes is posed by actual changes in the U.S. Code. And overlaying all of these variables are hard fiscal realities and politics. It is a bit of a mess! No matter your politics, however, you want to keep as much of your income and wealth as possible and pay as little tax as is legally allowed. So, keep your eye on four possibilities. Watch this week's video

With the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index breaking record highs lately, what do you expect from stocks for the rest of 2021? As a booming expansion begins and inflation uncertainty grows, here are three scenarios for how the rest of 2021 might look to investors. Watch this week's video

It's looking like the months ahead could be a real nail-biter for making financial decisions, with the rate of inflation that U.S. monetary policy is pegged against more than doubling in the past two months. Watch this week's video

The Federal Reserve says the current spike in inflation will be temporary, but some economists say the Fed is just winging it and could easily be wrong. Inflation-risk is likely to cloud the investment outlook for the rest of 2021 and into 2022. Watch our Video Series

Todays jobs situation report confirmed the recovery is on track and stocks closed a fraction from their all-time high. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 559,000 in May, and the unemployment rate declined three-tenths of 1% to 5.8%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Read this week's weekly e-newsletter

The U.S. Index of Leading Economic Indicators hit an all-time high and housing starts weakened but were still at a 15-year high. Amid the booming April data released this past week, the big news for investors was in the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting on April 27 and 28, revealing that some members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) want to begin talking about cooling down the fast growth of the economy.  Read More

Heightened volatility experienced this past week should be expected for the foreseeable future. Inflation fears are likely to persist for many months because the Federal Reserve has repeatedly said it will not raise rates to slow the economy even if the inflation rate continues to rise to 3% or higher. So it is likely to be a nervous stock market for many months, as the inflation rate continues to rise and the Fed stands on the sidelines and does nothing to quell the spike in consumer prices in the works. Read our latest Weekly Investment Update

After closing at a record high yesterday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index dropped about seven-tenths of 1% today. The index returned 5.2% in April -- more than five times the monthly gain stocks averaged for nine decades. And, now, for the good news.

With the Federal Reserve indicating repeatedly that it will not raise lending rates to quell a spike in inflation -- from the current rate of about 1.6% to its target rate of 2% -- the U.S. economy is rocketing like never before. Read Our Latest E-Newsletter