THE ACA FOUNDATION
  • Home
  • Our Story
  • The What's Up Newsletter
  • What's Up Finance Podcast
  • Contact
  • ACA Dashboard!

Blog

Italy's Political Crisis Summarized

5/30/2018

1 Comment

 
  • Euro cut to an 11-month low
  • 3rd largest economy in Europe
  • Italian bond yields, a sensitive gauge at political risk, soared as much as 80 basis points
    • When bond yields rise, finance costs are going to go up
  • Dramatic selloff in Italian bonds
  • Fears of an Italian debt crisis 
  • Two Populist parties failed to form a government that can pass constitutional muster
    • Populism: support for the concerns of ordinary people
  • Italy's overall economy is 10% smaller than it was a decade ago
  • Unemployment is at 11% because of Italy's inability to devalue its own currency or use significant deficit spending to boost demand 
  • Rumors of Italy wanting to leave the European Union
  • Italy's debts are 131% of GDP
  • Poor economic performance
  • Too big to bail out and also too big to collapse 
Picture
1 Comment

Things That Keep People From Being A Millionaire

5/27/2018

3 Comments

 
  1. They don't trust that the assets their "wealth" is in will hold its value
  2. The lack of trust in "paper" wealth
  3. They get caught up in building wealth on paper and ignore the need to counterbalance with cash flow
  4. The urge to be liquid 
  5. The overuse or improper use of debt
  6. The high cost of living causes them to need to liquidate regularly to cash in tomorrow's future earnings potential so they can live high today
  7. They don't see people as an opportunity to invest in. They don't understand that the greatest return on investment is usually when money and time are invested in people
  8. Don't have a written-down wealth-building plan they trust
  9. They spend more than they make OR they spend all they make
  10. They don't study money or the rules of investing
Sourced by KW Kids Can, Inc. and Rellek Publishing Partners, Ltd.
3 Comments

5 Rules to Help Avoid Investing Disaster

5/13/2018

1 Comment

 
  1. Avoid new products
  2. Too many investors never learn from History
  3. Never buy anything you don't understand
  4. Beware of institutional products repackaged for retail
  5. Greater returns always come with greater risk
Picture
1 Comment

10 Lessons on Leadership

5/11/2018

0 Comments

 
  1. Know who you are
  2. Know why you're here
  3. Think independently
  4. Build trust
  5. Listen for the truth 
  6. Be accountable
  7. Take action
  8. Face challenge
  9. Practice leadership
  10. Dare to dream
Picture
0 Comments

Using Gross Output as an Economic Indicator

5/10/2018

0 Comments

 
*Taken from Mark Skousen's "Forecasts and Strategies" paper (January 19, 2018)*

Gross Output, the top line of national accounting that measures spending at all stages of production, gained momentum in the 3rd quarter of 2017.

The latest GO data indicates that the economy is poised for strong expansion in 2018 even before the tax reduction bill that was passed in December 2017.

By focusing solely on final spending and the end of the economic chain, GDP can sometimes be a misleading indicator of economic performance. GO is a much better, more comprehensive view of total economic activity along the entire supply chain.

GO anticipates changes in GDP by as much as 12 weeks in advance and thus serves as a reliable leading indicator. 

The spending increase in the early stages of production, such as manufacturing, is usually a reliable leading economic indicator that overall economic growth should continue to expand.
It is important to monitor the growth rate in the mining sector as an early indicator of economic expansion, but the manufacturing sector accounts for 18% of total GO and 18% of GO is also finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing sectors.

The largest drop of 10.6% was in the Utilities sector. 

Gross Output and GDP are complementary statistics in national income accounting. GO is an attempt to measure the "make" economy (total economic activity at all stages of production).

GDP is an attempt to measure the "use" economy (the value of finished goods and services ready to be used by consumers, business, and government. GDP is similar to the "bottom line" or "value added".

GO tends to be more sensitive to the business cycle, and more volatile, than GDP. 

Business-to-business spending is in fact a pretty good indicator of where the economy is headed, since it measures spending in the entire supply chain.

GO is a more comprehensive measure of economic activity. GDP leaves out the supply chain and business to business transactions in the production of intermediate inputs.

GO and GDP are complementary aspects of the economy, but GO does a better job of measuring total economic activity and the business cycle and demonstrates that business spending is more significant than consumer spending. By using GO data, we see that consumer spending is actually only about a third of economic activity, not two-thirds that is often reported by the media. Business spending is almost twice the size of consumer spending in the US economy. 
Picture
0 Comments

How the Federal Reserve Manages Money Supply

5/10/2018

0 Comments

 
The Federal Reserve was created to help reduce the injuries inflicted during economic downturns by changing the supply of money.

The Fed primarily manages the growth of bank reserves and money supply to allow a stable expansion of the economy.

Their tools include: changing reserve requirements, changing the discount rate, and by open market operations.

Changing the reserve ratio is the percent change of reserves a bank is required to hold against deposits. A decrease will allow the bank to lend more and thereby increasing money supply. An increase will have the opposite effect.

Discount rate is the interest rate the central bank charges commercial banks that need to borrow additional reserves. If the rate is low, it encourages spending and if it is high, it encourages saving.

Open market operations consist of buying and selling of government securities by the Fed. If the Fed buys, it increases the money supply. If the Fed sells, the money supply decreases.
0 Comments

    Author

    My name is Camden Alchanati and my goal is to teach you how to create a future of financial stability and growth! 

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017

    RSS Feed

Picture
Phone: (323)-553-2411
[email protected]

Term of the Week

May 3, 2020
Earnings Estimate:

An analyst's estimate for a company's future quarterly or annual earnings per share.
Term of the Week

Subscribe to our weekly 'What's up Friday?' Newsletter

* indicates required

View previous campaigns.

All Proceeds Go to charity!
Picture



All information stated does not represent The ACA Foundation's opinions and we do not claim responsibility for most of the content. This website does not provide individual or customized legal, tax, accounting, or investment advise.
​All Rights Reserved

Photos from Go-tea 郭天, Anthony Quintano
  • Home
  • Our Story
  • The What's Up Newsletter
  • What's Up Finance Podcast
  • Contact
  • ACA Dashboard!