By Bob Landaas
The people who have been screaming that inflation has to go up should give it a rest. Politicians need to come up with something else to scare us about because this isn’t happening. […]

By Sheila Kilb and Joel Dresang
Although it has tempered its forecast for the eurozone’s growth for the rest of 2014, the International Monetary Fund has declared the region in recovery. Recent visits to two of the more financially troubled European Union countries – Italy and Spain – helped confirm mixed reports of the region’s comeback. […]

Severe weather, China’s slowdown and Fed tapering contributed to a choppy beginning to 2014. But Bob Landaas cites some reasons for midyear investor optimism. Among them: Low inflation and high profitability.
“What I’m so attracted to right now is profit margins. They’re the highest they’ve ever been,” Bob says in a MONEY TALK VIDEO. “That’s borderline rare, halfway through a business cycle for margins to stay so high.”

By some signs, the U.S. economy may be emerging from its winter nap. But earnings and interest rates will determine to what degree financial markets experience a spring awakening, Bob Landaas explains in a MONEY TALK VIDEO.

By Joel Dresang
The Fed announced Sept. 18 that it would continue its $85 billion-a-month stimulus program, which includes buying $40 billion-a-month of mortgage-backed securities to encourage home loans. The third round of quantitative easing, begun a year ago, has helped keep mortgage interest rates low.

By Joel Dresang
Hints of improvements in China recently trumped reports of actual progress in the U.S. economy as financial markets served a reminder that the world’s No. 2 economy keeps gaining stature. One reason investors are more sensitive to the growth rate in China is the size of its population – more than 1.3 billion people, the most in the world, more than four times the U.S. population. Another draw is growth rate. The Chinese economy is little more than half the size of the U.S. gross domestic product, but it’s expanding at more than triple the rate – 7.8% in 2012, adjusted for inflation, vs. 2.2% for the U.S. […]

By Bob Landaas
More than halfway through the year, the domestic stock market has enjoyed a wonderful rally with stock prices up more than 18% through the end of July. Earnings for the second quarter are set to establish yet another new record while projections for year-end remain encouraging.[…]

By Bob Landaas
More than halfway through the year, the domestic stock market has enjoyed a wonderful rally with stock prices up more than 18% through the end of July. Earnings for the second quarter are set to establish yet another new record while projections for year-end remain encouraging.

Part of the fear of inflation is the consequences on bond prices, which fall as interest rates rise. And despite Fed assurances that it would adjust its policies to keep inflation in check, concerns about inflation persist. […]

By Tyler Johnson
A doctor determines a patient is recovered enough to be taken off life support. But instead of taking it as good news, the patient gets upset and fearful. Such a scenario is playing out on Wall Street – where the patient is the U.S. economy and the doctor is the Federal Reserve.

Investors failing to see how U.S. stock indexes can outpace the U.S. economy may be missing the picture of global growth, Bob Landaas says in a MONEY TALK VIDEO.

Everybody loves a quitter. OK, that’s not how the saying goes, but when someone chooses to leave a job, it can be an encouraging sign for the economy. Employees who quit of their own volition usually are moving to another – presumably better – position, or they’re confident that either they can get by without a job or land a new one if they need to. […]