Daniel Amerman CFA's Contributions

Riding a tiger is one thing. But getting off the tiger, without that tiger then whirling around and consuming you – now that is another thing altogether. A short non-econospeak translation of the results of...

There are two ways a nation can use economic growth to reduce budget deficits. The first method is to participate in economic growth, with a growing economy increasing tax collections. A second method is to raise taxes so drastically that they consume all economic growth.

It can be difficult to completely avoid a $5 trillion elephant in the middle of one's own living room. In an ironic twist, millions of people who are investing for retirement specifically to escape from dependence on Social Security may find that no matter where in the room they go — that elephant is still there.

The very common belief that it must be one or the other — either inflation or deflation — is one of the myths that we will explore.

By executive order of the President of the United States, as announced in the State of the Union address, there is now a new type of tax-advantaged retirement account.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the total US federal debt now equals 100% of the size the US economy. But while that is obviously a situation of great concern, it may not be the worst of the danger.

The United States government has six interrelated motivations for destroying the value of the dollar...

The potential "tapering" of quantitative easing can be likened to a lessening of chemotherapy treatments when a cancer patient's symptoms change. It means one thing if the patient is being cured.

When revolutions start, it's not uncommon for almost nobody to notice. It may take years or even decades before historians can look back, point a finger and say "that's where it really began."

What if bottom line investment results for a nation as a whole were very different than the great majority of investors understood? What if most long term investment plans were based on what could be quite easily shown to be "bad information"?

A new method of taking private sector wealth has been spreading around the world this year. This mechanism is called a "bail in", and it is based on the premise that there are certain entities which are too important for the well-being of the general public to allow them to go into bankruptcy or to be liquidated.

Why is there a fundamental mismatch between stock market performance as reported in financial headlines – and the actual retirement behavior of the many millions of Americans who own those stocks in their portfolios?

As we will explore in this analysis, when we look at two of the largest sources of net worth in the United States – housing and stocks – then what history shows us is that for 22 out of the 40 years between 1972 and 2012, much of the...

The number one reason why stocks are a core component of most long-term financial planning strategies is their purported ability to reliably compound wealth over time.

A confidential internal International Monetary Fund report was recently leaked to the Wall Street Journal, with the contents later being made public by the IMF. The contents of this report have major implications for Europe, but even greater implications for the United States.

People are used to goods being in global competition, where the prize goes to those nations who produce the best goods at the lowest cost. However, there is a loophole in this simple relationship,

There was a major battle that took place in the United States in November of 2012, but it wasn't fought between the Republicans and the Democrats. The result was an overwhelming victory – because only one side showed up for the fight. For the most part, the other side didn't even realize that a battle was being fought.

Perhaps the single greatest danger facing investors over the long term is to be investing for the wrong paradigm. That may sound a little theoretical, but we have a very clear and quite dangerous real-world example going on in front of us right now, which is the false dichotomy between the "Mainstream" and the "Gloom & Doomers".

Among many politicians and much of the media there is an accepted narrative about deficits, taxes and the so-called "Fiscal Cliff". It goes something like the following: "The United States is running massive deficits that are bankrupting the country. These deficits are so high because of the Bush era tax cuts.