Rock Point Advisors is a wealth advisory firm focused on helping clients make sound financial decisions and take advantage of the benefits of long-term investing. We are dedicated to managing portfolios in the context of plans carefully developed with our clients.
Since our founding in 2004, our financial planning and investment management efforts have been guided by our fiduciary duty to our clients and our belief that doing what’s right matters. We work hard to deliver practical advice and responsible investing to help clients achieve their goals.
Be careful what you wish for might be an apt description for the third quarter. If you had given us (and probably most investors) the chance to sign up for lower inflation with higher economic growth, we would have gladly done so. However, instead of a broad-based rally, most financial assets declined in the third quarter. The primary headwind was concern about higher for longer, as longer-term interest rates, especially those five years and out, moved dramatically higher.
Despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool things down, both the economy and stocks have exceeded expectations so far in 2023. Chastened investors were apprehensive after both stocks and bonds registered double-digit declines in 2022, their worst combined performance on record.
The debt limit is the total amount of borrowing authorized by Congress to cover its bills - Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries, tax refunds, interest, and other payments. Since the US government spends more than it takes in, the US Treasury must borrow by issuing new bonds – it has been unable to do so since it reached the limit in January. Now past the annual surge in tax receipts, the Treasury has been paying its bills by shifting cash between various internal accounts. Unless Congress lifts the ceiling, the government will run out of cash sometime in June.
