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<\/p>\nSome believe we should extend unemployment benefits and continue to pay some an extra $600\/week.\u00a0 Some believe we should have a payroll tax holiday whereas an employee will not have to pay the 7.65% FICA Tax (Social Security and Medicare Tax)\u2026.<\/p>\n
In either case, we are providing taxpayers more funds than normally working.\u00a0 I have to wonder, if this was not an election year, what would I be writing about?\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe there would be nearly as much stimulus being thrown around if this was not election year. So in the end, as this may help our economy move through this challenging period, it will certainly add a ton to the debts we already owe. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Untitled-1-300x142.png\")
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I am not suggesting that I believe we should not continue reasonable unemployment benefits.\u00a0 This is certainly a time where we have many unfortunate people, who should not suffer.<\/p>\n
Markets<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week most markets, except technology, continued the recent melt up.\u00a0 The Dow Jones increased 2.32%, the S&P 500 1.27% and the Russell 2000 Small Cap 3.57%.\u00a0 The Nasdaq Composite retreated (1.08%), as some believe that the \u201cstay at home\u201d stocks may have seen their run, for now.\u00a0 Amazon very quietly has retreated from a high of 3344 to finish last week at 3000, a 10% \u201ccorrection\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too concerned about Amazon at this point.<\/p>\n International developed equities increased 2.20% as tracked by the MSCI EAFE Index.\u00a0 Some are speculating that International Stocks may now outperform the US because of the combination of cheaper valuations and our Covid-19 situation.\u00a0 I wish I had kept track of how many years I\u2019ve been told by mutual fund companies that International Equities will outperform the US.\u00a0 Perhaps this is the year.\u00a0 As always, time will tell!<\/p>\n What Type of Recovery?<\/strong><\/p>\n As I never make predictions, it was logical to believe that when we started to reopen our stores, activity would aggressively move forward.\u00a0 Pent up demand with money in hand would certainly lead to spending.\u00a0 Keep in the mind the velocity of money was at zero.\u00a0 Without a vaccine, wearing masks and social distancing was certainly no guarantee that the number of new daily cases was not going to increase.\u00a0 We are obviously experiencing many places in the US that are now reaching crisis mode and a reversal of the opening process.\u00a0 I believe until we have an effective, distributable vaccine, we\u2019ll experience a little back and forth to our economic recovery.\u00a0 Just hoping the direction remains upward sloping!!!\u00a0 Perhaps we will then have a new letter!\u00a0 If I\u2019m wrong and it turns out to be a “V,” that works best!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We certainly know we\u2019re into the doldrums of summer.\u00a0 Temperatures are forecasting to pierce 100 degrees this week!! In a \u201cnormal year,\u201d we would now be focusing on 2nd quarter corporate earnings, while looking for guidance for the remainder of the year.\u00a0 NOT THIS YEAR!\u00a0 Instead, we are waiting for the Hot New Stimulus that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_statement":"","post_description":"","post_cta":"","post_button":"Read More","post_button_url":"","compliance_id":"","post_disclaimer":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,7,9,27,13,5,31,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/shutterstock_1668472408-300x200.jpg\")
At least once a day we hear someone on the news suggesting the type of economic recovery we can expect.\u00a0 Many have been saying a \u201cV,\u201d meaning a short, quick recovery back to where we were at the end of 2019…\u00a0 Some are suggesting a Nike \u201cSwoosh\u201d, a U, L or a W.\u00a0 I think that pretty much sums up the forecasting.<\/p>\n