Barrett Wealth Connection

07/31/2026

Swimming with the Undertow

Rather than fighting the market current, consider going with it to build wealth over time.

07/01/2026

Guarding Against Financial Fraud

06/22/2026

06/03/2026

https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/insights/market-returns-during-past-geopolitical-conflicts

Data from 21 global events since 1990, shows that stocks may fare better than you think during geopolitical incidents.

04/23/2026

https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/insights/geopolitical-risk

Investors should be cautious about making asset allocation changes in response to periods of global conflict.

03/30/2026

Dimensional Founder David Booth shares some valuable lessons drawn from a century’s worth of reliable stock-market returns data.

02/27/2026

While US stock market valuations remain high, recent profitability growth paints a different picture from the late 1990s.

01/22/2026

https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/insights/market-review-2025-us-stocks-ride-rocky-road-to-a-third-straight-year-of-gains

US stocks rose almost 18% after weathering a spring swoon tied to tariff policy and concerns about the durability of AI’s gains. International stocks went even higher.

12/29/2025

Using QCDs to Unlock the New Senior Tax Deduction

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has brought about many new tax planning opportunities and challenges. With the arrival of a new temporary senior deduction, taxpayers age 65 and older should start discussing ways to manage their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) with their tax preparer now...

08/30/2022

In line with the GSCPI (chart) supply chain improvement we have been monitoring, we found this study on quantifying inflation causes this morning and wanted to pass it along.

In this new study from the Fed, they say that 60% of the 2019-2021 (pandemic years) inflation was caused by DEMAND issues, and only 40% from SUPPLY issues.

Although Demand is the majority reason for higher inflation, Supply Chain issues are still a significant explanation and now we have them quantified.

Get those supply issues fixed (and they are improving) and we get down to maybe 5-6% inflation in this model.

Get some demand to wane by Fed hikes, and the bond market says we get down to 3-4% inflation?



Really interesting (and kind of geeky, sure).



Summary of article:

· In the Fed’s model analysis, CPI inflation was 9.2% (left brown bar) between 2019 and 2021, close to the actual reading of 8.5%.

· The next blue bar, (“Backed out AD – Aggregate Demand – shock”) represents the portion of inflation caused by strong consumer spending. Their analysis shows this was responsible for about 60% of total inflation over the 2-year period.

· The remaining 40% was from “sectoral Supply shock” (mostly due to fewer workers producing output) and much less from “sectoral demand shock” (changes in consumption habits between different goods and services).

What factors are behind the recent inflation surge has been a huge topic of debate amongst academics and policymakers. We know that pandemic-related supply constraints such as labor shortages and supply chain bottlenecks have been key factors pushing inflation higher. These bottlenecks started with....