
Advisers Should Counsel “Cautious Optimism” Amid Cooling Inflation
Retirement experts weigh in on how advisers can help plan sponsors and participants understand news of cooling inflation, but continued rate hikes into 2023.

U.S. Drops to 18th on Natixis Retirement Index, Due to Economic Issues, Aging Population
This year’s report warns that “key risk concerns for retirement security are coming to a head in today’s rapidly changing economic environment.”

Volatility, Inflation and Stagflation Concerns in Context

Welcome to the Rising Rate Environment

Inflation Worries Continue Into the Second Quarter
Managers say the markets will continue to grapple with the trade-offs between inflation and growth for the foreseeable future.
Useful Advice as Rates Rise and Markets Move
With markets off to a choppy start in 2022 and rate hikes on the horizon, inflation is top of mind for many investors, as demonstrated by a D.A. Davidson survey.

Making Sense of the Interest Rate Evolution
The economy is expanding fast, and the U.S. Federal Reserve is growing more worried about inflation than employment; that much is clear in early 2022, but what comes next for the markets and the economy is not.
Delta Air Lines Faces ERISA Actuarial Equivalence Pension Lawsuit
The complaint challenges the use of both allegedly outdated mortality tables and artificially high interest rate assumptions in the conversion of annuity types under multiple pension plans.
Groceries and Gas Fuel Inflation Concerns
Based on worries about inflation and Federal Reserve policy decisions, market watchers say it would be natural to see a market correction heading into the end of the year, though that fate is far from certain.
Inflation Fears Ease (for Some) Amid a Murkier Market Outlook
As some investment analysts argue inflation has peaked, and that it should soon return to an average annual rate in line with recent history, others are focused on the effects of growing wage pressure and the competition for labor.

A New Telling of the Story of Persistent Inequality
Commitment to Low Rates Eases Stock Bubble Fears (for Many)
Assessing the relationship between interest rates and debatably inflated stock prices is a useful exercise, sources say, especially at a time when stocks are about as ‘expensive’ as they have ever been.
Another Uneventful Fed Meeting Unfolds
As a highly contentious presidential election plays out in the U.S., the Federal Reserve is working to project a message of stability and consistency to support the markets.

Interest Rates’ ‘New Normal’

Federal Reserve Head Reviews Why Inflation Matters
A recent speech given by Jerome Powell included some important reflections on history and a few basic lessons about the critical—and often misunderstood—role of inflation in the U.S. economy.

FOMC Action Cements New Normal for Rates, Inflation Outlook
The economy is always evolving, says Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and so the nation’s monetary and fiscal strategies for achieving its goals must evolve as well.

A Bad Time to Stretch for Yield
We were already in a new normal of very low interest rates before the coronavirus pandemic struck. It now seems even less likely that the old rate regime will re-establish itself any time soon.

The Business Cycle, Geopolitics and Retirement Investing
Interest Rate Risk a Growing Concern for Boomers
This should be a focus when looking at target-date funds (TDFs) often used as the default investment in employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plans.
A New Normal? Time To Recheck Interest Rate Assumptions
Among the remarkable characteristics of today’s global fixed-income marketplace is the $15 trillion invested in negatively yielding bonds.