Try this for the text:
https://fidelity.com/news/article/top-news/202211230959RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KBN2SD11Z-OUSBS_1?print=true
Be sure that you consider the total return of emerging market debts, not just the yields alone. The EM bond prices get crushed as their yields rise. A minus 20% down for this year will take more than one year to fully recover. I learned my lesson in 2008 and it took over 4-5 years to recover. Talking about opportunity cost when the market came back strongly after 2008 when you are still holding 80 cents on a dollar of investment.

I assume the board is running out of interest so I will not answer all of your points in detail, but am happy to discuss further if you want.
When I graduated from medical school in 1978, over half the class went into internal medicine, as it was intellectually exciting, involved doing something for people and was close to other specialties in salary. We had little debt. Neither of these last two points are the case now , and students are following their pocket books so lots of specialists and few Internists. The specialists have manufactured their markets, insisting all older people get "skin checks" and anyone with chest pain see a cardiologist etc.
I was against the AMAs stand in almost everything and remain so today.
All I had to offer my patients when I was in practice was the time they needed, my experience and training and deep interest in their problems and their lives. That could not be crammed into less than 15 minutes. But our office visits became more and more important to them because they never heard from specialists about test results, saw the surgeon once ( maybe) before surgery and usually not after, and got life changing results (ie cancer diagnoses) without explanation by email.
Patents who did not have docs like me to rely on, went to the ED, had more symptoms, got more tests, more visits and more costs.
If this society is to achieve cost control with better results in health care, we desperately need an economic environment where competent well trained PCPs can function effectively, without constantly trying to see more patients in less time and have payors continually cut their fees, add more to their workloads and office requirements. We need to stop incentivizing medical students to go into lucrative subspecialties with ridiculous salaries that add little to the nation's health. Countless studies show PCPs are much more cost effective than specialists in management of most medical problems, and that our medical costs are so high because of an overreliance on specialists that no other western nation needs.
I don't know of the accuracy of your reference, but the table shows a salary increase from $147000 to $189000 or 28% total in 20 years. These increases however hardly beat inflation. Compared to lawyers and MBAs (who have only three years post college, not seven for PCPs) these salaries don't seem excessive. The fact that specialists make three to ten times that of a PCP is where American MD salaries are really skewed far away from other countries averages.
No one I hired or recruited out of residency started at $147,000, and I rarely made that much in 30 years of practice.
My main point remains: with fixed fees the only way to achieve a salary increase with more experience and seniority a PCP has to either see many more patients in less time, do lucrative but unnecessary procedures in the office or work longer hours. None of these are conducive to good patient care.
Medicare rates are set in a complicated political process involving local cost differentials, usual and customary adjustments, advisory boards (loaded with subspecialists), caps on Part B reimbursements requiring budget reconciliation legislation etc, not by "negotiations" with any group. In fact, due to the budget reconciliation process, rates are automatically cut almost every year without a specific restoration from Congress.
Medication costs for Medicare patients are finally going to be negotiated, but this will not stop the enormous political pressure applied by big pharma to get "copy cat" drugs approved at lucrative rates, or get ineffective medications for Alzheimer's approved at $58,000 a year. As some of these will be outpatient services( Part B) , not just drugs, it could decrease physician payments further.
The system is stacked against a specialty that uses it's brains and humanity to talk to patients, hear their concerns, make an accurate diagnosis and determine an individual plan rather than ordering an MRI in 60 seconds or referring to a specialist because there is not enough time to figure out what the problem is.

@Dr.sma3. I think your beef is with managed care. I suspect you would be cool with a health insurance industry that only sold old fashioned indemnity plans. You docs could bill anything you wanted and they would pay 80%. The patient would pay the other 20%. The problem is that it wouldn’t take long for the premiums to go so high that few could afford them. I used to hang with a doc who told me that he understood that without health insurance he would have very few patients and he knew that without managed care very few patients could afford health insurance. Disclosure: I spent thirty years in the health insurance industry. And without managed care I would not have been able the pay for my cancer treatment. I would have gone without or lost my home and maybe gone BK. Just sayin.

A self-employed primary care doctor seeking reimbursements is different from a surgeon working in a hospital. Hospital medical staff do get raises based on experience: https://work.chron.com/rate-salary-increase-physician-27112.html
The other interesting question is whether years of experience are the best measure of quality in medicine. I wouldn’t want to be a surgeon’s first patient, but I also wouldn’t want to be their last either. A doctor with five or more years of practical experience may be more aware of the latest medical research or trends than one with 40 years about to retire. A younger surgeon might also have steadier hands.
Yet in some respects, the question is moot because doctors of any level of experience tend to get paid handsomely here. I feel for the overworked internists with huge student loans still to pay, but that is a different issue. You don’t hear of too many poor established American doctors. The reason we don’t have national health insurance is directly due to the AMA, which lobbied hard to prevent it from happening many moons ago. And Old Joe is exactly right about the different levels of care here. This is not a country to be poor and sick in. And other countries have consistently better outcomes than we do both on the cost and health front for their entire populations.
The problem with just letting the market handle healthcare is the inequality of supply—limited—and demand—unlimited—for necessary life saving care. If it costs you 5 cents to make a candy bar and you want to charge $50 for it, have at it. I’ll just buy something else, but there may be wealthy people who love your candy so much they’ll pay the $50 for it. But if it costs you 5 cents to make a pill that you have an exclusive patent on and it keeps my parents, children, or spouse alive and you want to charge $500 for it—we’ve got a problem.
Note, one of the additional problems our for profit healthcare industry has created is that through lobbying big pharma made it so that Medicare could not use its negotiating muscle to demand lower prices on drugs. That’s why you have poor seniors cutting pills in half. Medicare however does have the power to negotiate reimbursement rates for doctors visits and medical procedures. Doctors are unhappy with those lower reimbursement rates. I have a feeling many seniors are alive today because of them.

I've used TaxAct for over ten years. I image it is too late to try to save my information.

I used to use TaxAct many years ago, but never again.

@ LewisBraham
You are referencing salaries paid to trainees in residency programs, not what a licensed physician bills and gets paid for to see a patient.
I used "medical intern" as the minimal amount of training most states require to get a license. I technically should have said "medical resident" because all states require at least one year ( internship) of post medical school training to be licensed and then to bill. So therefore technically a post internship MD
My point, based on 40 years of office practice is that insurance companies and Medicare pay the same amount for the procedure or office visit, regardless of what physician renders the service.
So a MD 366 days out of medical school gets the exact same $ amount for, say, an office visit that your long term internist with 40 years of experience and advanced training receives. Longer training, board certification, fellowship training etc have no effect on the fee, nor are they usually required to bill for procedures.
Nor is there, at the present time, any easy way to bill for additional time spent with the patient. This may change soon, but cognitive services will remain at a huge disadvantage when a dermatologist can remove a mole in 30 seconds for $100 and an internist only gets a little more to spend 45 minutes with you to diagnose your heart attack, or interpret your CT scan and plan your cancer care.
I too used to think the government was generally responsible for positive things in health care, but 40 years of running a small medical office convinced me otherwise. Most of our overhead, ( 50 to 60% of our revenues ) was due billing staff trying to collect a few dollars more from multiple payors, extra staff to deal with regulations from botht he government and our payors and mandated programing and Medicare mandated computers and electronic medical records. The latter required 3 to 4 hours a day of my time in front of the computer after the patients ( and staff) went home that added nothing to patient care or their health. I rarely left the office before 9 PM.
Is it any wonder why you can't find a primary care MD in practice taking new patients?
I could easily have taken home the same amount of money charging $50 to $100 a visit, and spent a lot less time with far fewer headaches.
I can't speak for specialists or hospitals and what what would happen to orthopedists, for example if they billed patients directly for a hip replacement. Specialists in high demand would obviously charge outrageous amounts. This is already happening in some states where subspecialty societies have limited sub specialist training.
Every study I have read demonstrates at least 30% of American health care expenses goes to needless administrative overhead and outrageous salaries of executives.

When purchasing a long term CD , say 5 years, & the interest accumulates until the maturity date, does Uncle Sam want interest payments taxed & paid on a yearly basis ?
Do all CD's have a POD or TOD , or is this info part of due-diligence ?
Thanks for any info, Derf

White collar crimes tend to get away with light sentences. Each convicted count carries a maximum of 20 years sentence, and she was convicted on four out of 12 counts. She is going to appeal for lighter sentences than the 11 years she received. Her asset is nearly gone so she may have to pay very little.
Not only she stole from investors. The worst was the wrongly blood test results from the Edison machine when in fact these patients are free of diseases. Is that amounts to malpractice?

any idiot who walks into a state of the art Clinical Lab and looks at the enormous size of machines that run even simple lab tests ( ie blood count) would know that they could not be miniaturized
Thanks for the link. I hate to pay $ to Amazon, but watching this will be such a guilty pleasure.
Both Andy Fastow and his wife both did time for Enron, but only 6 and 1 years respectively. He at least fully cooperated with the DOJ ( of course after this schemes were exposed). I think the judge let them serve the sentences one after another so the kids would not be left alone.
They had to pay back at least $25 million but I think they put a huge pot into their house in Houston to protect it, but nothing restored the life savings of all of the Enron employees
I have heard Holmes's judge still has to decide if she will be required to pay back the $500 to $800 million lost in Theranos scheme.
She is not only a crook, but a mean and vindictive woman. She tried to destroy George Shultz's grandson's life and reputation with private detective surveillance and threats after he blew the whistle on her. Read the victim testimony from his father at the trial.
She deserves more than 11 years, new mother or not.

There is dirty like going into Target and stealing Laundry Detergent and there is another level of dirty like messing with little kids, stealing from old folks, putting things in peoples food and now this, messing with folks blood tests when she clearly new what was going on.
Why only 11 years I ask?
How do these screwballs (her, the FTX slob) get into these positions? Who in their right mind funds them? Due diligence? My rear end...greed, pure greed I guess...
Baseball Fan

FDIC and SIPC coverages are quite different.
Federal FDIC related to banks and nonprofit SIPC relates to brokerages.
Confusion arises for brokerage cash, money-market funds, brokered CDs.
To begin with, consider brokerage firm A and financial product B (cash, market fund, CD). Then, the SIPC coverage is at the brokerage firm level (for fraud, failure; total $500K including $250K for brokerage cash) while the FDIC coverage is at product-CD level ($250K).
Case 1 - Firm A is fine, but product-CD fails. The FDIC coverage kicks in (if the issuing bank is covered by FDIC). The SIPC is not involved.
Case 2 - Firm A is fine, but product-money-market fund fails. The SIPC coverage doesn't kick in; the FDIC has no business in this. There has been only one major money-market fund failure - Reserve Primary Fund. Much of the money was recovered after being frozen for several years. That situation was not covered by the SIPC or FDIC. More realistic risks of money-market funds today are not failures, but gates and/or redemption fees (least likely for government money-market funds) but those situations are also not covered by the SIPC or FDIC.
Case 3 - Firm A fails, CD is fine. The FDIC isn't involved. The SIPC coverage kicks in for securities and brokerage cash. The SIPC coverage of $500K would be for the total account value (net equity for margin account) including $250K for brokerage cash.
Case 4 - Firm fails, CD fails, money-market fund fails. A total disaster, may be an economic collapse. In that unlikely and absurd case, the SIPC will cover $500K and the FDIC $250K, for a combined total of $750K, more if the brokerage firm has excess insurance coverage beyond SIPC (most major brokerages do).
Securities are stocks, bonds, money-market funds, Treasuries, CDs, options; excluded are futures, warrants. While we may think of money-market funds as cash equivalents, for the SIPC, they are classified as securities. It goes without saying that there is no FDIC or SIPC coverage for the money-market fund itself, and the SIPC coverage will kick in for the total brokerage account only if the brokerage firm fails.
Brokerage cash is the cash held from securities sales or that waiting only to be deployed for purchases of securities (and for no other purpose). When in 2018, Robinhood foolishly launched an interest-bearing checking account with SIPC coverage, the SIPC rejected that notion immediately and publicly - because that Robinhood money wasn't really waiting to be deployed for security purchases only. Robinhood mistakenly thought that it could stretch the definition of brokerage cash into an interest bearing product (i.e. a banking product without really saying so). The SIPC wasn't amused, nor was the FDIC. An embarrassed Robinhood withdrew that product, and a couple of years later, relaunched a cash management product in partnership with banks with FDIC coverages.
In conclusion, Vanguard Cash Plus savings is a FDIC insured banking product that allows ACH withdrawals (for money transfers to brokerages/banks or bill pay) but there won't be any credit/debit card associated with it at this time. If your brokerage account is linked to an online savings account now, then VG Cash Plus can be a better alternative.

There are a number of key elements to produce nanoscale complex chipsets that China does not have today. They are trying to the entire factories from Germany and England lately but they were blocked for national security reasons. China has come a long way to build up this part of semiconductor infrastructure but they are years behind. Eventually they will catch up. Industrial espionage have been on going with them in stealing someone else intellectual properties and know-hows.
Same applies to biotechnology such as mRNA-based vaccines. Their version of mRNA vaccines is barely passing the 50% effectiveness requirement against COVID while Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 90%+ effective. China wants to buy Moderna vaccine but Moderna must disclosed all the secrets within their patents. Moderna refused and there are lots of customers around the world.

As 'Roseanne Roseannadanna' (portrayed by the late, great Gilda Radner) was known for saying in the 1970's SNL news: "...it just goes to show you, it's always something — if it ain't one thing, it's another."
Staying with thoughts and reactions of bond markets since the melt of 2008, and the continuing aspect of 'this time is different'; which I believe still applies, those with the big strings to pull, will continue to attempt to fix the problems. Not that this hasn't happened in past decades; but those decades are now for reference and study; and for me, are not so meaningful for trying to preserve and improve one's capital position, here and now.
Nov. 15 PPI down .2%, a baby trend. And missiles strike Poland
, killing 2. Not Russian missiles? Thursday...some folks talk about a peak/terminal rate of 7%??? Is the FED gonna break the back of the economy, with what ever it takes?
The FED board are a chatty bunch, eh? Although, I don't have a degree in psychology; one may observe over the years, that often when folks become excessively chatty about something they're connected to; in part, it may be from being nervous, twitchy. So do they have their fingers crossed behind their backs, that their plan will actually work and they won't look like fools at a future date? Some inflation is taken care of by the consumer not willing to pay a price. Other inflation sectors in the current environment, are not readily able to be controlled by the FED or the consumer. As there are no real rules to all phases of the game, perhaps I'll keep my fingers crossed, too; and hope to spot a trend here or there.
What is Terminal fund rate?
The terminal rate is the level at which the Fed is expected to stop raising interest rates.
I'm imaging the FED using CPI or an index gauge they choose and increasing interest rates until the two numbers are near the same value; and then take a look around at the results, to determine the next move. I.E. : CPI at 5.5%, stop the terminal rate at 5.5%.
Numerous recent posts have discussed the yield curve and other factors that may be affecting current and future yields. I can't improve on those commentary; and I've rambled enough.
NOTE: I've kept the prior dated reports in the beginning of this thread; and have added YTD to this data.
A few positives remain for this week.
For the WEEK/YTD, NAV price changes, November 14- November 18, 2022
--- AGG = +.51% / -13.4% (I-Shares Core bond etf) widely used bond benchmark, (AAA-BBB holdings)
--- MINT = +.12% / -1.7% (PIMCO Enhanced short maturity, AAA-BBB rated)
--- SHY = -.21% / -4.4% (UST 1-3 yr bills)
--- IEI = - .07% / -9.9% (UST 3-7 yr notes/bonds)
--- IEF = +.2% / -15.2% (UST 7-10 yr bonds)
--- TIP = -1.02% / -13% (UST Tips, 3-10 yrs duration, some 20+ yr duration)
--- STPZ = -.8% / -5.2% (UST, short duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- LTPZ = -1.2% / -32.8% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- TLT = +1.8% / -31.5% (I shares 20+ Yr UST Bond
--- EDV = +2.7% / -39.6% (UST Vanguard extended duration bonds)
--- ZROZ = +3.1% / -41.5% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds, PIMCO
--- TBT = -3.5% / +96% (ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (about 23 holdings)
--- TMF = +5.1% / -72% (Direxion Daily 20+ Yr Trsy Bull 3X ETF (about a 3x version of EDV etf)
--- BAGIX = +.63% / -14.3% (active managed, plain vanilla, high quality bond fund)
*** Other, for reference:
--- HYG = -.3% / -11.1% (high yield bonds, proxy ETF)
--- LQD = +1.2% / -18.2% (corp. bonds, various quality)
--- FZDXX = 3.79% yield (7 day), Fidelity Premium MMKT fund
*** FZDXX yield was .11%, April,2022 Yes, short term yields have changed rapidly.
BONUS MATERIAL. For many of the younger, well; you had to be there and then.
Remain curious,
Catch

"the stock with no comparable competitors for semiconductor manufacturing"
Yes, thanks to a non-financial article several years ago in The Economist.
So I said to myself... cutting edge technology, world is going to need this stuff for quite a while, company safely located in Netherlands, restrictions on selling to China, wide competitive moat... hey, why not?

Thank you YBB...I'm just the other side of 59.5..so that is that.
But still, say you have a SPIA, 5 year term. After 5 years, you can pull the money out and put it into a money market somewhere else if you wish, you are not tied to that company forever so to speak, correct? Apologies if this is a non-informed question.
Interesting reading your comments...I do remember my wife inheriting an annuity after her Mom passed. Oh my gosh it was a taffy pull getting the money from the insurance company...long drawn out process. I'm wondering if it was just the specific company (I probably shouldn't mention which one, but most would recognize the name) or if it would be like that with all/most of them.
I do know the Schwab's, Fidelity's of the world, they DO NOT like to lose qualififed, 401k rollover etc monies either...."sticky money" to your point.
Best,
Baseball Fan

That was the terminal rate that we have been discussing here. Holding on CDs or treasuries with yields near that rates would be good for next several years. Don’ want to hold bond funds until the Fed starts to cut interest rates. My guess would be the latter half of 2023 unless the recession gets really bad and inflation reaches a level the Fed is comfortable with. The 2% target is not realistic today.

"My experience with overseas investing has been mixed depending on the time period."
Same here. Did very well years ago, but because of our age have no exposure to market at this time (other than ASML, which is quite enough excitement for me).

Gents - I was dabbling in CCOR a while back and then sold...interday it was all over the place...it was somewhat unpredicatable as to how the fund would perform vs markets any day.
What made me (overly cautious, nervouse nelly investor) give pause, it appears to me that many of the Bitcoin Bros/Gals are trading options like crazee. How do you explain ARKK going up by like 15% over two day last week. Heard on a podcast, maybe it was Wealthion guest that a lot of very short term options are being put on...folks trying to get rich quick with options rather than holding the JNJ, MRK, WMT, Rattheon's. etc.
Also I am starting to get real nervous re the futures/combo funds out there....the BLNDX, MAFIX, still waiting for the hard trendreversals to take place when the interest rates go down or dollar goes down...could be a whammo moment.
Have taken my CCOR monies and put them in FORKX, Abraham Fortress Fund...run by Salem Abraham...yes, some futures/hedgey part of portfolio, but only a 25-30%. Il like his experience investing over many different market cycles and his no nonsense Texan background. We'll see how it goes.
Also started small entry position in TWEIX and added to smaller position in TSUMX recently.
Still way way heavy into rolling T bills, laddering CDs up to 5 years.
Good Luck to All,
Baseball Fan

Good Morning - any thoughts why you would (assuming you still could, they don't seem to be available any longer)...but comparing brokered 5 yr CD vs a SPIA annuity fixed term 5 year from A++ rated NY Life...4.9%APY
brokered CD is FDIC insured, can't touch the monies without taking a ding until 5 years are up
Annuity, you can do partial withdrawls, something like up to 10% of funds ea year if you desire or need to.
The Annuity seems to be a better yield...if you go with an A(+), Nationwide etc, you can get 5.15% APY
I see you can get with 7 year SPIA, A+ rated co, 5.25%...
I've been very conservative past several years, always thought markets were kind of "artificial" due to money printing CBs etc, those rates above are kind of appealing...I've never had any annuities before so kind of cold feet. Also thinking that maybe, just maybe going forward, PMEFX and maybe PVCMX will outperform those SPIAs, dunno?
Baseball Fan