I listen to a lot of investment podcasts, and one of the ones I enjoy the most is Trillions, produced by Bloomberg. It stars two journalists, Joel Weber and Eric Balchunas (pronounced bal-chew-ness, as best I can tell), and a few other rotating cast members. I enjoy listening because the hosts are Generation Xers (like myself), who are funny and down to earth. They feel like friends who talk in… Read More
Last week, we received inquiries about our “55 Stocks Elite Community” and the “Event Driven Magic Seven.” Of course, we don’t have an elite community or magic anything. It was a scam, and we were being impersonated online. Someone posted market commentaries on WhatsApp, including my photo and others from Acropolis. These scams use well-known investors like Ray Dalio, Bill Ackman, and Cliff Asness. While I would typically be proud… Read More
There have been recent incidents of individuals and groups falsely claiming to be associated with Acropolis Investment Management, LLC. (ACR) on social media platforms. These imposters have engaged in a variety of unauthorized conduct, including soliciting customers to carry out trading activities with them, impersonating ACR using the genuine names of ACR senior executives or employees to offer investment opportunities, claiming to offer investment training courses that are supposedly provided… Read More
As noted above, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index received much attention last week. The index is a monthly survey of at least 500 US households, who are asked about their current financial situation, economic expectations, and attitudes toward purchasing major household items. The consensus estimate for February was a reading of 63, which would have been a little lower than the January reading of 64.7. When the actual… Read More
The headlines have been volatile lately, leading to anxious calls from clients wondering if they should take action based on what they think might happen. If you want to make some changes at the margin, that’s probably okay, but a wholesale change at this moment probably says more about your political views than an unbiased investment outlook. When we set an asset allocation policy with clients, it’s usually in the… Read More
A longtime friend and reader asked me to explain how tariffs work. Of course, it’s a politically charged topic, but a simple description of how they function should be apolitical and straightforward enough. I will start with a made-up product, Wakanda’s Widgets, which are imported to the US. My made-up supply chain has three players: the manufacturer in Wakanda, a US importer that also acts as a distributor and the end retailer… Read More
