Michael Ashton

E-PIPHANY

Contributor since: 26 Feb 2010

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• The Challenge Of Reducing The Trade Deficit

  Published 27 March 2018 | viewed 2,499 times

  The market gyrations of late are interesting. Higher volatility not only implies that lower prices are appropriate in theory but it also tends to happen in practice:…

• What's Wrong With the Long Run?

  Published 06 June 2017 | viewed 0 times

  In my last article, I talked about the importance of getting clients to focus on their progress towards a long-term goal rather than on near-term…

• How the BLS Methodology for Wireless Plans Exaggerated a Small Effect

  Published 23 May 2017 | viewed 0 times

  NOTE: The following article appeared in our quarterly inflation outlook, distributed one week ago to clients. We thought it might be interesting to a more…

• Pre-Existing Conditions and Fire Insurance

  Published 04 May 2017 | viewed 0 times

  When it comes to health care, I continue to be amazed at the utter nonsense that gets tossed about when the discussion comes to insuring…

• Tariffs are Good for Inflation

  Published 26 April 2017 | viewed 0 times

  The news of the day today - at least, from the standpoint of someone interested in inflation and inflation markets - was President Trump's announcement…

• Book Review: The Mandibles (related to inflation)

  Published 08 April 2017 | viewed 0 times

  For something a little different, I wanted to write a book review today. But this is not as far removed as it seems, from my…

• Is This Bubble Smaller Than We Thought?

  Published 04 April 2017 | viewed 0 times

  I haven't written in a few weeks. It has been, generally, a fairly boring few weeks in terms of market action, with inflation breakevens oscillating…

• Profits and Health Care: A Beneficial Connection

  Published 17 March 2017 | viewed 0 times

  I usually try to avoid political commentary in this space, because it has become so personal to so many people. If I point out that…

• Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 15 March 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles…

• Good Models and Bad Models

  Published 13 March 2017 | viewed 0 times

  I have recently begun to spend a fair amount of time explaining the difference between a "good model" and a "bad model;" it seemed to…

• That Smell in the Fed's Elevator

  Published 07 March 2017 | viewed 0 times

  A new paper that was presented last week at the 2017 U.S. Monetary Policy Forum has garnered, rightly, a lot of attention. The paper, entitled…

• A Short Remark About an Ominous Count

  Published 01 March 2017 | viewed 0 times

  This will be a very short remark, partly because I am certain that someone else must have observed this already. The Dow Jones Industrial Average…

• Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 15 February 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles…

• Pension Fund Perils: Why Conventional Pairing of LDI with De-risking Glide Paths Produces Inferior Outcomes

  Published 09 February 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Milla Krasnopolsky, CFA and Michael Ashton, CFA[1] Combined use of traditional Liability Driven Investment (LDI) and funded status responsive de-risking strategies should be decoupled or…

• Entering the RINF Cycle

  Published 06 February 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Because I write a lot about inflation - we all have our spheres of expertise, and this is mine - I am often asked about…

• The Fed Needs More Inflation Nerds

  Published 30 January 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Earlier today I was on Bloomberg<GO> when the PCE inflation figures were released. As usual, it was an enjoyable time even if Alix Steel did…

• Summary of My Post-CPI Tweets

  Published 18 January 2017 | viewed 0 times

  Below is a summary of my post-CPI tweets. You can (and should!) follow me @inflation_guy or sign up for email updates to my occasional articles…

• The Yield Curve is Critical of Fed Credibility

  Published 05 January 2017 | viewed 0 times

  I was planning to write an article today about the shape of the yield curve. Since the Global Financial Crisis, the Treasury curve has been…

• A (Very) Long History of Real Interest Rates

  Published 23 December 2016 | viewed 0 times

  One of the problems that inflation folks have is that the historical data series for many of the assets we use in our craft are…

• Add Another Uncomfortable First for Stocks

  Published 15 December 2016 | viewed 0 times

  It hasn't happened yet, but it is about to. Not since just before the financial crisis has the expected 10-year real return from stocks been…