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Bitcoin looks here to stay, but will it be a niche or something more? The analogy to gold is useful, but with notable differences. At present, bitcoin is difficult to sell short, which can lead to near-term upward price pressure. That hedge funds, private equity firms, and other institutional investors are currently taking positions in bitcoin will...

More than any other segment of the population, the wealthy understand the power of leverage in today’s environment. Borrowing against an investment portfolio not only has the possibility of boosting returns, but it can also provide liquidity in a tax-efficient way. With relatively low current interest rates, investors may want to consider bor...

Trump kicked of the month of March by announcing import tariffs of 10% on aluminum and 25% on steel. The U.S. financial markets, as expected, reacted negatively to the initial announcement with the Dow Jones Index falling over 400 points and major aluminum and steel users such as Ford and GM being particularly hard hit. Canada and the EU, the two l...

2017 failed to produce any break in the private markets trends observed in 2016. General partners and limited partners enjoyed the spoils of a healthy exit environment and correspondingly new fund sizes ticked upward resulting in record setting dry powder levels across the industry. Entering 2018, valuations top the list of concerns shared by gener...

Despite an improved outlook, it is possible that the U.S. political authority will trigger a six-month review period for exiting the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) sometime during the next 90 days. At stake is more than $1 trillion in cross-border trade and more than 14 million jobs across three economies. While Mexico has the largest ...

Over the past four decades, the economic and trade relationship between the United States and China has been dramatically transformed, growing from about $2 billion in 1979 to approximately $612.5 billion in 2017. This places it among the most important bilateral economic relationship in the international economy. Now, however, that relationship is...

Investors awoke from their multi-year slumber in late January to a nasty reminder that stock prices are volatile. After a period of calm in the stock markets that rivals the longest in recorded history, a jump in average hourly earnings and the recent backup in bond yields refocused investor concern on the prospect of higher inflation down the road...

The Trump administration’s recent effort to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States has provoked a significant backlash among free-market economists, business leaders, and Republicans in Congress, among others. They worry that the imposition of protectionist measures designed to insulate domestic manufacturers from...

As the economic cycle progresses, the next recession draws inexorably closer and brings with it the next downturn in the credit cycle. Recognizing this, institutional investors are increasingly considering allocations to distressed debt managers. While lumping all distressed managers into one group is tempting, different managers have meaningfully ...

Following the first negative quarter for domestic stocks since 2015, the second quarter of 2018 began on a sour note, with the S&P 500 Index falling 2.2 percent and the technology-heavy NASDAQ dropping 2.7 percent today. Consumer discretionary stocks were also notably weak performers while international stocks fared only slightly better than th...

The United States has been the world’s undisputed economic superpower for more than a hundred years. Yet in the long arc of history, that dominance has been relatively brief. For thousands of years, China stood as the world’s economic leader and a true global power. For that reason, many Chinese believe that the United States’ eco...

Flying privately has become increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, including convenience, security, and lifestyle, but there are several considerations in determining what usage and ownership structure is right for you. Like making a real estate investment, owning or leasing a plane poses many financial, tax, and regulatory issues, as well ...

Family office investment vehicles often are organized as limited partnerships or LLCs treated as partnerships for federal income tax purposes. Typically, the manager of such a partnership receives an interest in the partnership’s profits (a carried interest) in connection with the management services, in addition to management fees paid by th...

One of the most important elements in portfolio construction is positioning the portfolio properly to allow it to meet personal and investment liquidity needs under various market conditions. Understanding how volatility impacts cash management—including reviewing cash flow sources and uses typically contained in liquidity planning—is c...

For centuries, corporate and consumer lending has followed a traditional model in which financial institutions act as centralized counterparties, making loans funded by deposits. Around 2006, this model was turned on its head by a new breed of fintech companies leveraging the network effect of the internet to directly connect lenders with borrowers...