ACM’s wealth advisors joined our investment committee earlier this spring in Washington DC for our annual conference with our senior economic advisor Dr. Alan Greenspan. The former Federal Reserve Chairman along with ACM’s Chief Investment Officer Dr. Charles Lieberman laid out an economic analysis of which our advisors will use for client portfolio allocation and risk profiles.
Dr. Greenspan repeated his warnings about the weight that Social Security, Medicare, and other programs are having on what has been otherwise solid gains over the past few years. “Without any major change in entitlements, entitlements are going to rise. Why? Because the population is aging. There’s no way to reverse that, and the politics of it are awful, as you well know,” Greenspan added.
Dr. Greenspan ran the Fed 19 years from the Reagan to the George W. Bush administrations. He noted that signs for growth have turned more positive lately. And that much of the improvement has come from a rise in stock market prices. A rise of 10 percent in the S&P 500 corresponds to a 1 percent real GDP increase, he said.
Amongst other speakers at the conference was Fox News anchor Bret Baier. Bret Baier is the host of Special Report with Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel and serves as the chief political anchor for Fox. He previously worked as the network’s Chief White House Correspondent and Pentagon correspondent. Mr. Baier was invited to speak on the workings of Washington DC. Conference goers were interested in his opinion on the chance of any additional fiscal policy coming from Congress of which he replied, “Don’t count on it.”
The ACM Washington conference brings former Federal Reserve officials, academics, politicians, media, military, and authors for two days each spring exclusively for our advisors. The annual conference provides our advisors with a wider perspective on the economy, central banks, and the markets.
