Seymour Zises, President and co-founder of Family Management, writes bi-monthly opinions on issues and observations of relevance to clients and investors.
Last year, a record 2,999 Americans gave up their citizenship or terminated their long term U.S. residency, according to new data from the U. S. Treasury Department. That was more than three times the number in 2012 and greater than the combined totals for 2011 and 2012.
There is no “Disputin” that Vladimir has run rings around President Obama.
Whatever the outcome is, there is little doubt that America has been diminished in the eyes of its allies and its foes.
December 2013 capped off a tremendous year for U.S. equities. The Federal Reserve has provided cheap money which has created rising asset prices. The question remains, “Is the real economy actually improving at the rate asset prices have risen?”
This past year may be marked not for what happened, but for what did not happen. The United States did not go over the fiscal cliff, nor did it default on its debt. The Federal Reserve did not stop buying bonds and mortgages, pushing the market to new highs, and inflation did not rise as many had predicted.
The Federal Reserve and its Chairman, Mr. Bernanke, decided last week to continue their bond buying program which has helped keep interest rates low and is supposedly keeping the economy from falling into another recession. With unemployment creeping lower due to the fact that people have decided to give up looking for jobs, the Fed is concerned about the possibility that housing will slow and that a showdown in Congress could lead to a government shutdown.
