Today, the Senate Budget Committee voted to pass the tax reform bill, and it will now make its way to the senate. In the background, Trump is working to get tax reform through. He's turned from against the Alexander - Murray bill to supportive of it. He's also agreed to the risk pool legislation sponsored by Susan Collins. To be blunt, it appears he's working overtime to gather the necessary votes to get tax reform through the Senate. However, tax reform still has a number of significant hurdle… View More
Some will dismiss the growth as "the rich getting richer," but the facts say otherwise. Usual weekly earnings for full-time workers at the bottom 10% are up 4.6% versus a year ago; earnings for those at the bottom 25% are up 5.3% from a year ago. By contrast, usual weekly earnings for the median worker are up 3.9% while earnings for those at the top 25% and top 10% are up less than 2%. Yes, that's right, incomes are growing faster at the bottom of the income spectrum than at the top. A higher e… View More
Markets were mixed Last week, with small and mid-cap stocks gaining while large cap stocks were mostly unchanged. Tax reform once again dominated headlines: the House passed its version of the legislation, while the Senate bill advanced out of the Finance Committee on a party line vote; the Senate may schedule a vote in two weeks. Retailers outperformed; Wal-Mart’s digital and e-commerce initiatives helped produce a +2.7% increase in same-store-sales, the company’s best quarterly performance… View More
Click here to view a side-by-side comparison of the House and the Senate versions of a new tax plan. We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available. … View More
Stocks lagged last week as competing visions of tax reform weighed on investor sentiment; small cap stocks and sectors which respond to economic growth, such as Materials and Industrials, underperformed. On Thursday, the Senate revealed its proposal for tax legislation which differs from the House version that was released last week. Republican lawmakers now face the challenge of crafting a bill that can pass both chambers with a simple majority vote. The market’s negative reaction this week m… View More