News, insights and thought leadership from the City Different team.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...” Rudyard Kipling Yesterday, I noticed Warren Buffet was in the press quoting this Kipling piece, one of my...
If you’ve ever seen the movie A Beautiful Mind (filmed on campus while I finished my degree in economics!), you’ll remember the pickup scene in the bar. John Nash (played by Russel Crowe) stumbles...
Around age 40, my annual checkup started including additional tests. These tests are meant to keep me healthy, but they also have the ancillary effect of stressing me out while I await the results....
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...” Rudyard Kipling Yesterday, I noticed Warren Buffet was in the press quoting this Kipling piece, one of my...
When we’re chatting with clients, we often get the same flavor of questions about bonds (we would bet if you have exposure to the bond market, you’ve wondered some of these as well…). So we wanted to...
Vanguard just dropped the hammer on ETF fees again, slashing its average expense ratio to a jaw-dropping 0.07%. That’s a big deal in an industry segment where “fees are one of the most important...
Every few years, it seems like the municipal bond market can’t resist a good scare story. This time, it’s the potential for Congress to alter the tax-exempt status of muni bonds — an idea making the...
Explaining Wednesday’s complete market route. All markets, be they equity or fixed income, took a proverbial kick in the shorts on Wednesday. The S&P 500 index finished the day 178.45 points lower...
Given Trump’s upcoming policy guidance, there are reasons to believe that inflation could soon be on the rise. This begs the question, “Are we in a temporary inflation lull? To answer that, let’s...
We believe that a strategic, actively managed approach to fixed income investing often outperforms the alternative. You might be familiar with active management when it comes to equities, but what...
Much as truly active equity investing can result in greater returns for investors (even net of fees), so too can active management of fixed income securities. We’re big believers in the power of...
A decade ago, fixed income trade analysis was like a country club — very few people had access to it, the asymmetry of information was staggering, and so much of the market was effectively word of...
We think it’s a good time to buy bonds because: The markets’ irrational exuberance about rate cuts in 2024 has been exercised. We started the year expecting 6-7 rate cuts, which dwindled to 2-3 in...
Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) have grown from 3% of the total Municipal Market to approximately 23% market share in the last decade (as of 3/31/2023). Mutual funds, on the other hand, make up...
Size can have its advantages — when going with a bigger firm; you may be hoping to experience lower fees because of volume and scale. But, it can also leave many advisors feeling like a “drop in the...
“Don't fight the Fed” — it’s an adage for a reason, and it’s one we believe in. Why? Because history has mostly demonstrated the Federal Reserve, with its monetary policy tools, is overwhelmingly...
Last week, the Fed announced that it would not raise the Fed Funds rate in September. By our way of thinking, though, they left the door open for future increases (data dependent). This left us...
We have long written about the two periods when the municipal bond market organically generates the most cash flow into the market — the January / February period and the June / July period. These...
Companies have been rethinking how they do business across industries, geographies, etc. Remote vs. hybrid vs. in-office, fractional executives, outsourcing, you name it. But we think a huge change...
Are we headed for a recession or what? Why are mortgage rates still going up? Why shouldn’t I put all my cash into CDs right now?
The week of August 14, 2023, has been a tough one for most markets. Stocks are down, and bonds are up in yield. Many street analysts are changing their outlooks from “a recession is around the...
5.5% seems like a pretty great investment return for cash-equivalent instruments. Given how low the risk is for a CD or money market funds, taking the 5.5% and running seems like a solid bet right...
It’s the Friday before Memorial Day, a national holiday honoring all those who died while serving in the U.S. military. It’s also seven days before the United States hits the default wall. The...
The problems/resolutions of both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank bring to mind a Theodore Roosevelt quote: “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next...
