Harley Davidson: A Case Study in Trade War

March 4, 2018Investing, News
Harley Davidson's Exposure to Trade Wars On March 1st, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would impose a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% on aluminum. The economic impact of that, in isolation, would be widely felt, as we covered last week. Just as the world was learning there would be no exemptions [...]

The Potential Impacts of Trump’s Steel & Aluminum Tariffs

March 2, 2018News
The Potential Impacts of Trump's Steel & Aluminum TariffsTrump Tariffs Will Have Large Impact President Donald Trump announced yesterday, March 1st, that he plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports of steel and 10% on aluminum. Global markets reacted strongly, with the U.S. Dollar, Dow Jones, and low quality Corporate Bonds suffering the most. The [...]

Portland Subprime Credit Data Continues to Improve

January 16, 2018News
Portland Subprime Credit has Improved Again for 8th Consecutive Quarter According to a new report from Equifax, there's been another improvement in Portland Subprime Credit. The percentage of Portland (Multnomah County) that is classified as subprime in terms of creditability has declined again. 1 In the new report, updated January 10th, the proportion of Portland's population [...]

Podcast Episode 2: Federal Reserve Beige Book November 29th, 2017

November 30, 2017Podcast
Podcast: Episode 2 Welcome to the Investment Annuity blog with Victor Schramm, CFS®. Episode 2 covers a topic that is very timely- a commentary on today's Federal Reserve Beige Book. The Federal Reserve periodically produces this economic survey, known as the Beige Book for the historical color of the cover of the report itself. This [...]

Podcast Episode 1: When To Sell- Beyond Market Timing Vs Buy and Hold

November 17, 2017News
Podcast: Episode 1 Welcome to the Investment Annuity blog with Victor Schramm, CFS®. Episode 1 covers a topic that is not only evergreen (if the vast amount of "finance" clickbait on the internet is a good indication), it's incredibly relevant as we approach the end of another year without a Bear Market in the U.S. [...]

Oregon’s Leading Indicator Index Barely Above Water After First Negative Month Since 2008

November 14, 2017News
Oregon's Leading Indicators for the Economy Barely back in Black The most recent data shows Oregon's economy slightly back in positive territory in terms of leading indicators. This comes one month after the index flashed alarming signals for Oregon, falling into negative territory for the first time since the 2008 Great Recession with a -0.77 reading. The most [...]

One Year After the Elections, Where Does the Mexican Peso Stand?

November 10, 2017News
[ucaddon_uc_plants_header image="wp-content/uploads/ac_assets/uc_plants_header/banner-pic.jpg" title="ONE YEAR LATER" big_title="THE PESO" sub_title="How the Peso has faired against the dollar since the 2016 elections" button_text="SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER" button_link="http://victorschramm.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=667e27b36f19b286c4fb24341&id=60e6c70abe"]A Wild Ride for the Peso It shouldn't be hard to imagine why the Mexican Peso was highly sensitive to the outcome of the 2016 US election results. During the campaign, Donald [...]

Municipal Bond ETF’s Still Have Illinois Bonds

July 1, 2017ETF's, News
Top Exchange Traded Funds are still Invested in Illinois The largest Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's) in the country are still holding the debt of Illinois. Technically speaking, all 50 states have always had Investment Grade bonds. That is, their bonds are rated at or above Standard & Poor's BBB rating (Moody's Baa rating). ETF's have [...]

The Case for Gold in a Variable Annuity

June 10, 2017Investing
The Vehicle Gold as an investment is as old as it is controversial. Warren Buffett is not a fan of it. 1 First Eagle Global Value Fund's senior leader Jean Marie Eveillard believes gold "cannot be overvalued." 2 Former Federal Reserve Bank chief Alan Greenspan ruminated even ruminated on gold recently: "Gold is a currency. It is still, [...]

Unemployment in Oregon Cities (Portland, Eugene, Etc.) At Generational Lows

June 7, 2017News
Unemployment Across Oregon Hits New Lows Unemployment in Oregon has hit a new low according to recent data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). After hitting a high of 11.4% in June of 2009, unemployment in Portland (Multnomah County) hit 3.1% for April according to the BLS. South of Portland, Marion County- which [...]