If you were a particularly nervous child, you might have been frightened by the idea that monsters could be hiding under your bed while you slept at night. Today, economists have a similar fear, but this one has a name. It’s called ‘stagflation.’

The so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ finally squeaked through the Congressional legislative process, sending it to the President’s desk over the holiday weekend. He signed it in a triumphant Fourth of July ceremony, making the various complex provisions the tax law of the land.

Following an awful first quarter that saw negative returns across the board, the U.S. investment markets staged a remarkable comeback, banishing (for the moment) worries about the risk of a recession, a slowdown in consumer spending and the uncertainty over trade wars and tariffs.

If you have trouble getting to sleep at night, one of the surest cures is to read the minutes of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee—the summary of a group conversation among the economists who set policy every quarter, mostly to decide if fed funds rates should be raised or lowered. The prose is generally bland and somewhat technical, and rarely offers a lot of insights that most of us wouldn’t know already.

We’ve now experienced four months of a very bumpy ride in market returns. In February, the S&P 500 fell 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 3.9%. March: down 5.6% and 7.6%, respectively. April: down 0.8% for the S&P 500 but a small (0.88%) gain for Nasdaq. May: the S&P 500 jumped up 6.29% while the Nasdaq Composite surged 9.6%.

Investors appeared to be encouraged by an inflation report which showed an increase in core inflation of just 2.3% in March, down from February’s reading of 2.7%. Maybe the massive new tariff regime won’t raises prices after all.

The tax code we have lived under for the past decade was written as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which created the existing tax brackets, expanded the standard deduction, provided exemptions to the Alternative Minimum Tax and generous gift and estate tax exemption amounts, a $10,000 limit on state and local tax itemized deductions and created the Section 199A deduction for up to 20% of qualified business income for pass-through business owners.

Long-term market watchers no doubt find it fascinating how the investment markets are engaging in a surprisingly frank dialogue with the White House over the tariffs. Whenever the news involves a hardening stance on tariffs, the markets drop. Whenever there is a pullback or pause, the markets rally.

For as long as trade has existed, there have been duties, fees, levies, tariffs, or taxes that have been applied in all shapes and sizes on goods entering a country. Some folks continue to promote the idea that free trade exists, but it has never truly existed.

After two years of stellar returns, the U.S. investment markets have decided to give back some of their recent gains. We are not in bear market territory quite yet, but the risk of a recession, a slowdown in consumer spending and the uncertainty over trade wars and tariffs, has created some market jitters that are raining on the bull market parade.

The most eye-catching news making the rounds currently is the initial public offering of the Newsmax channel, which took place when the bell rang on Monday. The stock rose an astonishing 735% on the first day of public trading, and then rose another 60% on the second day. The investment bankers were asking for $14 a share in the initial offering, but by the end of the second day, some investors were paying more than $200.

It’s fair to say that the Trump Administration’s tariff announcements have not had the desired effect — at least, not immediately. The S&P 500 fell 2.7% on Monday after dropping more than 5% the previous week. Investors are clearly rattled about the uncertainty of waging escalating trade wars on America’s biggest trading partners, and there are additional concerns that the trade barriers being erected in retaliation could lead to a recession.

You can forgive people with student loan debt from feeling confused and somewhat frustrated. The Department of Education has shut down a key portal, without explanation, that defines the repayment amounts for millions of college-related loans.

The price of eggs is in the news today—and no wonder. A dozen white Grade A chicken eggs—not the more expensive kind laid by free-range-chickens—reached a shell-shocking price of just under $5.00.

With the unprecedented restructuring wave going on across the federal government, unorthodox (to put it mildly) personnel management, appointment of candidates with little or no background in the departments they’re running and a wave of tariffs the like of which the world hasn’t seen since the 1930s, it’s easy to imagine that something might go wrong with the U.S. economy in the fairly near future.

The stock market was rocked over the past weekend by the announcement of a new artificial intelligence system called DeepSeek, which threatens the business models of the entire U.S. AI industry.

One of the focal points following the presidential election is the potential for an increase in tariffs applied to goods produced outside the US. Many investors have wondered what this could mean for markets.

Learn more about the latest cybersecurity threat (and how to protect yourself).

A recent survey of more than 1,000 financial planners asked whether they had experienced any attempted or real scams with their clients. Many had, and reported varying levels of success dealing with what appears to be a dramatic upsurge in sophisticated ways to separate people from their assets.