Are corporations in the United States struggling?

In its cover article last week, The Economist (a British publication), suggested there is not enough competition among American companies. It pointed out:

There is ongoing debate about whether markets behave in rational ways.

The efficient market hypothesis suggests it’s impossible to outperform the stock market because current share prices reflect all relevant information. In other words, stocks should always trade at fair value and it should be impossible to invest in a stock that is overpriced or underpriced.

There’s been lots of coverage in the news the past couple weeks about changes to Social Security claiming strategies, so we’d like to share a few key highlights about what’s changed and how it may affect you.

One-in-seven Medicare enrollees will pay higher Medicare Part B monthly premiums during 2016. Their premiums will be $121.80 each month, an increase of 16 percent. While that’s not good news, it’s better than it could have been.¹

Last November, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA) was signed into law averting a United States default and deferring further discussion of U.S. debt and spending levels until after 2016’s presidential and congressional elections.

When Mark Twain’s death was reported in the United States, he was alive and well in London. He responded to news accounts with a note saying, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

Last week’s jobs data suggest the same is true of reports that a recession is imminent in the United States. Barron’s explained: