Retirement accounts are ending the year in better shape than we could possibly have expected. But stock prices and investor euphoria are now in dangerous territory. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m starting to hear echoes of another Christmas when a boom gave way to years of bitter disappointment.
That would be Christmas, 1999—the year of the dot-com mania.
And it turns out, I’m not the only one seeing ominous parallels.
First, though, let’s start with some good news. The average retirement account has posted healthy gains this year, despite the virus (but thanks to the Federal Reserve). Investment giant Fidelity Investments says the average IRA at the end of the third quarter was up 7% from a year earlier at $118,000, and the average 401(k) was up 4% at $110,000. Read more…..
Chart of the Day
Icarus TV
During an event with The Economic Club in Washington, Microsoft founder Bill Gates says that the federal government should help regulate technology firms like Google and Facebook and that if he were 20-years-old today, he would start an artificial intelligence company whose goal would be to teach computers how to read.
