The European situation continues to be the dominant force moving the markets. This week the market continues in its volatile ways with intraday moves of 1% or more now seeming to be common. I don’t think the market has ever seen such large seesaw action in percentage terms in such a short period of time. Markets rallied in the early part of the week on the prospect that the Europeans would begin moving on a much larger solution to contain the crisis. Words are one thing and action another....

Written by Dave Young, President of Paragon Wealth Management Ever since the market initially sold off the third week of July the volatility has been extreme. We saw the Dow go from 12,800 to 10,600 as our politicians presided over...

The economic data is still presenting a mixed bag on whether a recession is coming or is here. For example, industrial production and manufacturing increased in August contrary to the ISM data that slipped negative for the first time since May 2009. Industrial production is up 3.3% on a year over year comparison which indicates moderate economic growth. Overall, the economic leading indicators are still pointing up (anemically so, however) and a recession has never started when they have been...

The President is going on another of his "grand" stages tonight with his jobs speech before Congress. I keep hoping, praying, and wishing that the President will finally pull a "Clinton" and present some real structural solutions to help the economy. Anything less will be very disappointing and now that most of the points seemed to have come out ahead of tonight it seems like we are just going to get more of the same stimulus that we've already got. More style than substance. The economy and...

Written by Dave Young, President of Paragon Wealth Management After spending most of the year in a back-and-forth uneventful trend, the world markets abruptly changed course. A severe lack of fiscal leadership from Washington coupled with a sovereign debt mess...

During the financial crisis of 2008 to 2009, there were many Europeans who scoffed at our troubles and blamed us for dragging them down. How irresponsible we Americans were was the general tone. Oh the irony. How's that Greek investment feeling right now? It felt good to get that off my chest... With the markets continuing its record moves and volatility and testing the recent lows, what is next? In the short-term, the market is extremely oversold and sentiment is extremely negative. It can...

ver the past couple of weeks we've seen extremem volatility in the financial markets. The volatility started with political drama over the debt ceiling, which initially created uncertainty for investors. After a high drama last minute agreement, which apparently didn't solve anything, the markets sold off hard. Uncertainty in Europe exacerbated the situation. It looked like we might have put in a market bottom last Friday with the selling reversing midday. Then Friday evening I saw news...

he Dow Industrials dropped 512 points today. Its worst point drop since 2008. Over the past 10 days the Dow has lost 1341 points or about 10 percent of its value. Why have we seen these steep losses in such as short amount of time? As we've seen in the past, starts with our "leaders". President Obama and his Senate seem to have one focus. Their focus has been to spend every dime they can find. This administration has taken government spending to an entirely new level. Unfortunately, when they...

Several of our clients at Paragon have been asking us how we got into the debt ceiling mess. This Wall Street Journal article gives a good summary of what has brought us to this point. THE ROAD TO A DOWNGRADE...

Enjoying your retirement may seem difficult with all of the craziness in the world today such as: China's Growth Rate- Increased demand, fueled by China's growth, has been pushing up prices of commodities for some time. Their rate of growth going forward will have a significant impact on world financial markets. Low growth will create one set of problems - high growth will create another. Bottom line, China will significantly affect the world market one way or another. Oil Prices - Increased...