In recent weeks, the cryptocurrency industry has dominated financial headlines due to the bankruptcy of FTX, a popular crypto exchange. As an exchange, FTX allowed people to buy, sell, and trade digital currencies. The collapse of FTX began when reports surfaced about the company’s financial structure and levels of debt, which caused the price of FTX’s own “native currency,” the cryptocurrency …
Inflation, Financial Markets, and Bitcoin
INFLATION AND THE FINANCIAL MARKETS As the financial media continues to stress the role of inflation in the financial markets, we will discuss this topic of inflation here in the US. The Ibbotson 2020 SBBI (Stocks, Bonds, Bills, Inflation) Yearbook describes inflation as “the rate of change of consumer goods prices,” with the figures coming from the US Department of …
February Financial Markets in Light of Rising Interest Rates & More About Bitcoin
In February, market interest rates, which are set by buyers and sellers in the bond market, continued their rapid rise from year-end 2020, with the ten-year US benchmark rate rising from 0.93% to 1.40%. Many in the financial media have begun to attribute down days in the stock market to this move to higher rates. We at PPA are quick …
Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology
Last month we focused on whether Bitcoin should be considered an investment, and we agreed with those who concluded it should not be considered a traditional one. This month, we continue the conversation by making the important distinction between Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the one hand, and the underlying technology for these currencies, known as blockchain. Note: The following …
Bitcoin & Interest Rates
Since Bitcoin has become a very popular topic of discussion in and out of the financial world, we thought it was time for Park Piedmont to add our viewpoint. As you might imagine from a firm that advocates long-term investing with asset allocations implemented using low cost index funds, even the mention of Bitcoin would be highly questionable. Nevertheless, we …