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Finding proper care as we age is an important financial and emotional decision. I had the opportunity to talk with Martha Maksym, the CEO of Wake Robin. Located in Shelburne, Wake Robin is Vermont’s only Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). Tell me about your personal experience and how you became the CEO of Wake Robin. […]

Over the year ending last July, the U.S. population grew by the smallest amount (+0.12%) since records began. Births exceeded deaths by 148,000, and net immigration (foreigners coming vs. going) added 245,000. Deaths increased as COVID became the third biggest killer in the country, and many births were probably delayed due to the pandemic. The […]

I am talking about the value of making market predictions. The yield curve (see chart) is rising now, meaning short-term rates are moving higher and long-term rates also. Starting from the bottom, the lines represent the yield curve at the beginning of 2021, a month ago, a week ago, and today. The point is rates […]

Two stock market truisms come to mind when I think about last year. The first is that “Markets climb a wall of worry.” The continued spread of COVID, rising inflation, and the threat of higher rates all weighed on investors’ minds in 2021. The second truism, “Don’t fight the Fed,” served as a kind of […]

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that two Chinese semiconductor foundries just went under and now are among the nation’s six failed chip making projects the last three years. China has thrown billions into building an independent semiconductor industry, but it hasn’t been easy. Throwing money at the problem hasn’t been enough. Everyone knows China […]

It’s been one year since Hanson + Doremus moved to leadership under Sven Eklof, Art Wright, and Julie Won, and we’re pleased to say it’s been a successful one. Though Eric Hanson & Anne Doremus (the H and the D in our logo) stepped down from management at the end of 2020, much about the […]

Not sure exactly who said this, but they were talking about making predictions. It’s just a fool’s errand to try to look too precisely into the future. Unfortunately, this is what we all must do when dealing with our investments. COVID has been a real disruptor to everyone’s daily lives but surprisingly not a big […]

This line is from a New Yorker cartoon dating back decades. We all want to know what is going to happen in the future but it’s a slippery slope. The temptation is there to forecast but the results are often random at best. As Wilmot Kidd, a very successful long-term portfolio manager, recently said in […]

Medical science has made tremendous strides over the past 100 years. New vaccines and antibiotics together with our understanding of the need for clean water and better food have helped global life expectancy levels more than double. And as Eric points out on page 2, the outlook for further progress is bright. But from an […]

We are talking about saving for retirement. Back in the days of Defined Benefit Plans if you worked for a company for 25 or 30 years you were guaranteed a retirement payment of as much as half your ending salary, for life. When you combined this with Social Security, you were all set. Sadly, those […]

Is the delight of a chocolate recipe extraordinaire. Each year since 1998, we have scoured the very ends of the earth for the right chocolate recipe for our December issue. This year’s comes from Art Wright, and it’s a winner. Don’t forget the whipped cream and enjoy. Happy holidays from all of us. Ultimate Bread […]

Wall Street has a long history of coming up with “innovations.” Some new products such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have truly benefitted investors. But for every one of these good ideas there have been many more that did investors harm; the collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that played such a central role in the 2008-2009 […]