Social Security
Stocks soared today on the great M&A news that financial companies will be making a bundle of money helping other companies get together.
Bonds are at a nice low interest rate – good for all of us.
Gold and the Dollar are flat today, as is oil /gasoline.
In the news today…..
Social Security – will be paying out more than it collects for the next 2 years as more people are taking early retirement and layoffs have reduced social security tax collections. This happened in the 1980’s so it’s nothing new, but it is a little frightening as it means that social security will run out of money earlier than previously projected. All funds are projected to be depleted by 2037. Remember that all dates are “guesses” or projections as they are so kindly called, and are subject to revision as the guesses could be just bad guesses.
FDIC – is about to force banks to pay about $36B in FDIC fees IN ADVANCE to shore up the FDIC’s sinking funds. You see, the FDIC doesn’t really want to tap the Treasury line of credit that would keep it afloat. It just wants to have the banks cough up the money. And, we are talking about real money at $36B.
Here are the last numbers for today (about 40 min before closing):
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 9789 (up 124 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 3.30% (down 0.03%)
Euro – $1.4619
Gold – $992 (up $2)
Oil – $67.20 (up $1.18)
Gasoline – $1.64 (up $0.02)