Blog

  Earlier this summer, we celebrated Independence Day, commemorating both the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the revolution that led to America achieving its independence. Today, there is another revolution going on in this country, one that could lead to… More >>

  One of Leonardo da Vinci’s mottoes was “saper vedere”, which translates to “knowing how to see.” It refers to the continual refinement of our senses, especially sight, as a means to enrich experience and test knowledge. With the mountain of economic data released in the… More >>

  As many of our regular readers and clients know, Phillips and Company publishes a Quarterly Look Ahead. Here is a link to the 2014 Q3 presentation with an audio narrative. We attempt to give a look at the most pressing issues that will impact portfolio values in the… More >>

  This week I had the pleasure of spending a few private and public moments with our former US Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson. While any private comments will remain just that, some of his public comments were very appropriate for the times we are in. I thought I… More >>

  Coming off of a spectacular jobs report in the previous week, we should be seeing some pretty strong numbers from the US retail sector. It's pretty easy to argue more people working would support more people spending. After all, 70% of the economy is driven by… More >>

  Entering the Independence Day holiday, we had some pretty good economic news to celebrate. The jobs report from the Department of Labor came out on Thursday and crushed economists’ expectations. The report said the US economy added 288,000 jobs in the month of June and… More >>

  The global equity markets continue to march forward in-spite of valuations.[i] The cyclically adjusted P/E (CAPE) ratio for the S&P 500, a 10-year average earnings compared to current price, is at historic levels only seen a few times in the last 100 years. Robert… More >>

  It seems that no matter what is going on in the world, the stock market has had little reaction and continues to reach new highs. The Federal Reserve recently expressed its concern that investor complacency could “sow the seeds for disruptive market moves that could… More >>

  Not too many weeks ago the world, and especially Europe, was faced with an energy crisis from Russia and its geopolitical adventures with Ukraine. Russia is responsible for about one fourth of Europe's energy needs.[i] With the European Union being the largest combined… More >>

  We all look forward to retiring with sufficient funds to enjoy the latter part of our lives, but data from retirement surveys indicate that many Americans may not achieve this goal. The statistics are frightening: 46% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for… More >>