Healthcare

In his most recent Investment Outlook letter, PIMCO founder Bill Gross suggests that investors need to prepare for difficult adjustments in a world of near zero real returns from financial capital. 

Gross describes the dying cult of equity that has evolved over the past century, and advises readers to expect future equity returns that are much less than 6.6 percent average real return (the “Siegel constant”) since 1912. 

Gross considers the 6.6 percent real return on stocks since 1912 to be an “historical freak, a mutation likely never to be seen again as far as we mortals are concerned.” 

This view is based in part on...

Laurence Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics and Boston University. Professor Kotlikoff is one of the nation’s leading experts on fiscal policy, national saving and personal finance. 

Professor Kotlikoff is the author or co-author of 15 books and he publishes extensively in newspapers, magazines and blogs on issues of personal finance, financial reform, taxes,...

Mark J. Warshawsky is Director of Retirement Research at Towers Watson.

Dr. Warshawsky served as assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department from 2004-2006 and he has held senior level economic research positions at the Federal Reserve Board, the Internal Revenue Service and...

Consumer discretionary spending is the major driver of the U.S. economy as household purchases make-up about 71 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

Without growth in consumer spending, the economy would most likely go nowhere.

Since economic growth is generally considered a good thing, it stands to reason that we should be looking for things that contribute to consumer spending.

An interesting piece of research from an economist at Credit Suisse shows that health spending has been the primary...

A price index such as the consumer price index (CPI) is intended to provide a rough gauge of the general direction of prices in the economy.

An increasing consumer price index represents price inflation while a decreasing price index may provide an indication of...