Who’s Afraid of a Little Deflation?
The answer: all of the world’s central bankers. In a surprise move on Friday, the Bank of Japan introduced a negative interest rate policy by charging a .1% fee on commercial banks for holding excess reserves. The BOJ hopes this will encourage banks to make more loans to stimulate economic growth. They indicated that […]
Avista 2015 Global Market Review
After 3 years of double digit gains, the S&P 500 (U.S. large company stocks) returned only 1.4% in 2015 (-.73% without dividends). As can be seen in the chart below, the S&P 500 appreciated through the first half of 2015, then suffered a significant sell-off in late summer. By the end of the year, those […]