From Joe
Everything You Need to Know About Money is Now at your Fingertips
I've created a library of training material to teach you how money works so that you can make more money and protect it.
It's more important than ever to understand how to allocate your portfolio to eliminate risk. How to use the advanced options strategies that professionals use to hedge, produce income, and make low-risk trades with huge payoffs. How to get out of debt fast. How to pick the best stocks and make sure you are buying them at a great price.
Members of Heresy Financial University get all of this, and more. As a member you'll get access to every course in the library of training material, and you'll get automatic access to every future course I launch as well.
There's never been a time where financial education is more important. Don't wait any longer, sign up today.
News
Billionaire investors see an ‘existential crisis’ and ‘very, very ugly market’ in commercial real estate—and Moody’s just downgraded a key regional bank to junk status
In January, Barry Sternlicht, the billionaire founder and CEO of real estate giant Starwood Capital, warned that there’s going to be an “existential crisis” in the commercial property market. His comments followed a prediction from Cantor Fitzgerald’s billionaire chairman and CEO, Howard Lutnick, for between $700 billion to $1 trillion of commercial real estate defaults over the next two years just days earlier. “I think it’s going to be a very, very ugly market,” Lutnick told Fox Business, warning of a “generational change” in the space. This month, the stock market is digesting some ugly facts indeed. On Tuesday, Moody’s downgraded the credit rating of regional bank holding company New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) to junk status owing to “multifaceted financial, risk-management, and governance challenges.”
Yellen Says Commercial Property Is a Worry, But Regulators Are on It
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that while losses in commercial real estate are a worry, US regulators are working to ensure that loan-loss reserves and liquidity levels in the financial system are adequate to cope. A combination of factors “is going to put a lot of stress on the owners of these properties,” Yellen told lawmakers Tuesday in the first of two days of congressional testimony this week. She cited the increase in interest rates, higher vacancy rates thanks to shifting work patterns triggered by the pandemic and a wave of commercial real estate loans coming due this year. “I’m concerned,” she said in responding to a question from Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. “I believe it’s manageable, although there may be some institutions that are quite stressed by this problem.”
As S&P 500 breaches 5,000, its valuation hits lofty levels as well
As the S&P 500 continues to hit fresh milestones with a first-ever break above the 5,000 level, its valuation is reaching new heights as well. The S&P 500's (.SPX), opens new tab forward price-to-earnings ratio -- a commonly used metric to value stocks -- this week rose to 20.4 times, a level last reached in February 2022, according to LSEG Datastream. That puts it far above the index’s historic average of 15.7. It isn’t unusual for valuations to climb along with stock prices, and equities can stay expensive for a long time before returning to more moderate levels. Still, some investors believe the index’s growing multiple has made buying into the broad market a less enticing proposition. The S&P 500 has surged 21% since late October, making new record highs along the way. It briefly crossed the 5,000 level at the end of Thursday's session, before closing just below the mark.
Social Insecurity: It’s Not Wrong to be Concerned about Facts
A December 19, 2023, article by Brett Arends on MarketWatch caught my eye with the oh-so-clickable title of “This Is the Scariest Number for Social Security.” Given the fact that many corporate media articles today focus on pointing out to the rubes how their senses are wrong and, gosh golly, everything is just peachy, it did not shock me to learn that Mr. Arends was not referring to the program’s unfunded liabilities or the projected depletion of the trust fund. No, Mr. Arends contends that the real problem is the dragooned citizens who foolishly worry about Social Security’s solvency—and the “quiet effort” to rabble-rouse: