A reader asks: Technology has made investing easier (indexing, direct indexing, robo advisors, etc.). With AI in vogue right now, what does the RIA space/ financial planning look like in another 20-30 years? Will there still be a human need to hold hands/talk you off a ledge, or will the only human interactions be those maintaining the tech behind the scenes? No one knows for sure how AI will transform our lives but specu ..read more

Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by New York Life: See here for more information on New York Lifes indexIQ ETFs On today’s show, we discuss: Welcome to the superprime banking crisis  Here’s what retirement with less than $1M looks like in America  The age of AI has begun  Attention is all you need (Packy on AI) Housing market update: Demand for mortgages ticks up as rates drop amid banking turmoil  ..read more

The last new all-time high for the S&P 500 was on January 3, 2022. That means it’s been almost 450 days since we’ve experienced new highs in the stock market. That feels like a long time. But based on the history of bear markets, it’s really not all that long. It might be a while until we hit new highs again if we use history as a guide. I looked at every bear market going back to 1950 to see how lon ..read more

On today’s show, we are joined by Brandon Arvanaghi, Founder and CEO of Meow, and Devon Drew, CEO and CIO of DFD Partners to discuss fintech solutions for small businesses and asset managers. On today’s segment with Brandon, we discuss: What Meow does for businesses What’s changed about cash management in the past month Who the counterparty is when buying T-Bills Who Meow works with On today’s s ..read more

Dustin Hoffman is one of the finest actors of his generation. He is also notorious for going all out to get into character. In one movie where Hoffman’s character gets held underwater by a group of killers, he rehearsed by holding his own head underwater until he almost drowned himself. It put him in the hospital on an oxygen tank. In Marathon Man, Hoffman played an obsessive runner. Before his running scenes, he wo ..read more

A reader asks: My friend recently sent me an article saying that young people shouldn’t save money. The argument is based on the life-cycle model. It argues that in order to maximize happiness out of your income every year, and to avoid changes in standard of living throughout life, high income earners should not save at a young age, and instead it should be made up in middle ages. Some context: (not to brag, I coun ..read more

Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by YCharts: Enter your information here to get 20% off YCharts (new clients only) On today’s show, we discuss: The 72-hour scramble to save the United States from a banking crisis Why failed Silicon Valley Bank was an outlier  The bank panic should not exist  Prescriptive View: Three layers of Fed failure  What gets lost when you rescue markets  US Bank deposits fell $54B ..read more

Today’s Talk Your Book is brought to you by US Benchmark Series: On today’s show, we spoke with Alex Morris, Co-Founder and CIO of F/m Investment to discuss the 2023 banking crisis and investing in treasuries. On today’s show, we discuss: The need for a treasury product for investors How US Benchmark runs their treasury ETFs What “on the run” means Why focus on one treasury duration The volatility ..read more

Last week Wednesday two year treasury yields closed the day at 5.05%. It was the highest level since the summer of 2006. That’s a pretty juicy yield for short-term government bonds. Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Look at the plunge in rates since the banking crisis took hold late last week: It looks like a stock market crash. This is not normal. And it’s not just the drop in rates that stands out. The v ..read more

There were a lot of surprising details that came to light from the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco. It was surprising how quickly a bank run took hold for such a large institution. It was surprising how quickly the bank’s customers fled one of their most trusted partners. It was surprising how seemingly little oversight this now systemically important bank had. It was surprising the Fed was kind of asleep at the wheel in ..read more