Insights

Fourth Quarter 2009|Jim Williams| 2010 is the year of Roth. The tax rules contain special provisions for 2010 for Roth conversions. This column should give you a head start on our current thinking on the matter.

Third Quarter 2009|Jim Williams| This last year has been a searing experience for investors (and investment advisors). The scary panic- driven declines from September into early March brought talk of a return to a Great Depression-like economy. Fear was palpable, and financial markets responded to the nightmare scenario by driving stocks to the lowest level in years.

Second Quarter 2009|Jim Williams| In his book, The Road to Serfdom, the classical economist F. A.Hayek describes clearly and succinctly the hazards and peril associated with pervasive intrusion of the state into private commercial transactions and personal decisions. It’s not pretty.

First Quarter 2009|Jim Williams| A recent email exchange led me to consider and comment on an abiding and exasperating sense of concern over what appears to be ill considered and undisciplined government intervention in the economy.

Fourth Quarter 2008|Jim Williams| We are all economists these days. We try to consider whether the proposed stimulus will be good or bad for ourselves and/or for the country. What to do about market uncertainties. How do we manage our own affairs in these times that seem to be so worrisome?

Third Quarter 2008|Jim Williams| In the last few weeks we've seen considerable turmoil in the financial markets. It is difficult to keep your equilibrium when what you have been reading and hearing is relentlessly negative.