Anyone old enough to have been paying attention to the economy in the early 1980s remembers the Fed Chairman Paul Volcker and his iconic cigar, and what came to be known as the “Volcker Shock”. To combat increasing inflation throughout the 1970s, Volcker began to raise the discount rate when he assumed office in 1979, […]
Out of the Mouths of Babes
A few weeks ago, I was invited to teach an introduction to personal finance class to a group of local 8th graders. Two of the concepts we covered were compounding and why you need to have a real return (return above inflation). During the class, we reviewed charts of investment returns since 1926 and the […]
How Inflation Affects Asset Values
In 1980, the inflation rate peaked at 13.5%; higher than it had been in 60 years. The miserable economic conditions of 1980 caused by inflation are lodged into the collective American memory, and we have heard admonitions ever since that excessive money printing would result in the return of hyper- inflation. Those warnings turned out […]