Money Life with Chuck Jaffe

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Seafarer's Foster: For emerging markets A.I. stocks, this is a bubble Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Andrew Foster, founder and co-chief investment officer at Seafarer Capital Partners, says he thinks "a bubble has formed amongst certain artificial intelligence stocks, particularly some of those that were propelling Korea higher," but despite that emerging markets are coming out of a lost decade and the "picture in the emerging markets [outside of the inflating bubble] is quite broad-based and good." Fostesays investors should be looking to emerging markets to get non-dollar exposure and diversification, but also for growth that will accelerate over 60 percent in the next year, and while much of the growth is driven by the tech sector — where he worries about the bubble — the growth rate excluding technology is over 20 percent, which should generate strong returns moving forward, even as the building bubble deflates.

Dawn Wotapka, former director of strategic communications and media relations at Honeywell, talks about what it's like to lose a job in an economy that is near full employment but artificial intelligence is making the employment picture murkier. Wotapka, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, recently wrote a piece on LinkedIn on going through a job loss that's been longer than expected from when the layoffs were announced, and how she has made it that her story was not the classic "It's a depression when you lose your job" tale.

Plus, Chuck responds to a listener's question about a recent interview that suggested that investors have no reason to hold bonds, and how his own opinion differs from the expert who was on the show, but not by as much as the long-time listener who wrote the question might think.

Alger's Neuman" Profit growth has outpaced stock prices, creating a 'positive setup' Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

Brad Neuman, director of market strategy at Alger, says the market is wrapping up "one of the strongest earnings seasons in history," which has created "incredible metrics" creating the impression that the market has gotten overvalued while he thinks that stocks haven't been able to keep up with earnings, which actually makes current valuations more attractive even as the market flirts with record highs. Neuman says he is not particularly worried about inflation, because he thinks A.I.-driven productivity gains will offset higher prices, but he notes that with artificial intelligence being "as significant to the human race as fire or electricity" there is the potential for a bubble, but he doesn't see that happening until 2028 at the earliest.

David Trainer, president at New Constructs, calls out trouble in stocks he labels as "five-alarm cash fires," companies that are burning so much cash to keep pace in the artificial-intelligence race that — without an influx of capital — they will soon run out of cash and be forced to dilute investors' holdings to get more. He says the problem is that big-name stocks like Oracle and Amazon.com are now priced as if they will be winners in the A.I. arms race, and they are spending as if they have won the competition, when he considers it very unclear as to just who will be the ultimate victors in the A.I. revolution.

In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses the upcoming earnings reports for WalMart and Target, which he expects to be a better measure of ongoing consumer confidence than any survey results, showing that consumers have not curtailed spending despite inflation concerns. He also discusses Goldman Sachs' big move into the ETF space, and how he feels about the national debt for the United States hitting $40 trillion — a mark it is expected to reach by the end of the month — and whether it impacts his view on government bonds.

YNAB founder on how one simple question can eradicate financial worries Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

Jesse Mecham, founder of the YNAB (You Need a Budget) app, discusses his new book, "Never Worry About Money Again: By Asking One Question," in which he tries to change America's money mindset by getting them to realize that money is a reflection of the efforts, time and inputs that were required to get it, and that spending money should also reflect its true value. By focusing on money's intentions — and the spender's designs for it — Mecham says in The Book Interview that consumers can eliminate their spending problems and, in time, most of their financial worries.

John Cole Scott, president of CEF Advisors, looks at several closed-end funds that were recently hyped in the media for their high yields, and he puts those funds to the challenge of his firm's "trifecta analysis," which shows they may not be worth the hype. Scott — who also serves as chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance — looks at the shortcomings of using rigid rules or looking at only one primary factor in a buying decision, and offers alternatives that investors could consider instead of the hyped fund to build a portfolio that delivers the same kinds of results but with less risk and uncertainty.

In the Market Call, Ray Vars, president at Harding Loevner — which recently opened its first ETF, the Harding Loevner International Developed Markets Select Equity fund — discusses global markets and economics.

MIT's Pozen: Dump the bonds and diversification to load up on stocks Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Robert Pozen, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says that investors with significant savings should eschew classic 60-40 diversification strategies for a mix that is almost entirely stocks, with no bonds at all. That strategy might sound odd, considering the source — Pozen is the former president of Fidelity Investments — but Pozen contends that long-term investors will be better off bucking up for the market's ride than they will be trying to protect themselves from downturns where the pain will be relatively short-lived. Pozen, who detailed his research in a recent Wall Street Journal column titled "You're Probably Overinvested in Bonds," recognizes that his strategy will shake up portfolios, but says it also gives investors permission to let their winnings run, provided they don't have to tap the investments in order to meet living expenses.

In the ETF of the Week, Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi, is highlighting an ETF focused on blue-chip stocks, which requires defining what blue-chips really are and how it's not just the Magnificent Seven or the current mega-cap market leaders. He also notes how active management with brand-name companies can deliver returns that are different from index results, even if there is significant overlap on the names in a portfolio.

Plus, Ken Applegate, portfolio manager for the Wasatch International Growth and Global Opportunities funds, talks international small-cap investing in the Money Life Market Call.

NextGen EMP's Penello: The 'greatest bull market in 60 years' has room to run Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Wayne Penello, president and chief executive officer at NextGen EMP, says he expects the Standard & Poor's 500 to double in the next five years, in the "greatest bull market we have seen in 60 to 80 years," though he acknowledges that this kind of rise ultimately will end in a bubble. He thinks the market can rally, with only modest to moderate corrections, before it reaches that crescendo, and says investors should be watching for the point where artificial intelligence is over-saturating the market to where prices collapse to see when that is likely to happen. Penello, a Wall Street veteran whose firm recently opened the Efficient Market Portfolio Plus ETF — a long-short fund that tries to balance risks by leaning into or away from market sectors, says he is leaning into semiconductors, particularly when the market sorus on them, and is going light or away from consumer discretionary stocks and utilities.

Olivia Valdes, senior researcher at the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, updates us on the group's study of financial frauds. FINRA recently released "Patterns in Fraud Awareness: What Comes to Mind When Americans Think About Financial Fraud," which asked people to name the common schemes and tactics fraudsters use, and found that even identity-based crimes — the thievery that most Americans are aware of and cautious about — was top of mind for only half of the population. Valdes says this helps to explain how even savvy consumers get taken in by schemes, as fraud losses in the U.S. now run at nearly $200 billion per year.

In the Money Life Market Call, Stefan Grater, portfolio manager overseeing the domestic and international value strategies at Eldred Rock Partners, discusses his disciplined, concentrated approach to value investing.

CS McKee's Allen: These times are 'the gilded age repeated,' 135 years lat Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Brian Allen, chief investment officer at CS McKee, says that while stock valuations are at "heady levels," the current spending expectations for the artificial intelligence revolution can justify those high prices, and even make them seem somewhat cheap. He notes that the current economy seems like "the gilded age and industrial revolution repeated some 135 years later." While concerned with valuations, Allen remains constructive on the market, noting that the trend on forward inflation "looks to be more under control" — especially when viewed through some alternative indicators — and that investor concerns don't appear insurmountable for the market, at least for now.

In the Market Call, Laks Ganapathi, chief executive officer at Unicus Research — an independent research firm that specializes in short selling — discusses how she decides which stocks to bet against, what conditions she won't challenge even when she foresees trouble ahead and more.

Plus, Chuck talks about his adventures in spending and saving on a big purchase during the tax-free weekend in Massachusetts and how, to maximize the savings, he agreed to an outrageous credit card interest rate that, for a less-vigilant consumer, would quickly turn a good deal into something very ugly.

Interactive Brokers' Torres says stocks won't have a down year til '29 Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Jose Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, says that while the stock market has been climbing the wall of worry, the one thing overcoming many of those worries has been that government policy is pro-business and pro-market. As a result, he doesn't expect the stock market to have a down year while President Trump is in office, despite real economic concerns that are worrisome but not having much current impact. He discusses Friday's jobs numbers, the current level of inflation and much more in a wide-ranging Big Interview.

In "The Week That Is," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at Regal Point Capital, discusses whether gold's recent rebound will get it all the way back to recent record levels, whether value's domination of growth this year is a sign of long-term market weakness — since value typically dominates only when markets are troubled — and celebrates the 91st birthday of Social Security by noting that he thinks investors with the means to not live off payments shouldn't follow conventional wisdom and wait to collect, preferring instead for them to take the money and reinvest it in the market, to further enhance growth of their long-term retirement portfolio.

David Trainer, president at New Constructs, puts companies that failed his firm's "core earnings leaders" test in The Danger Zone, noting that businesses with higher core earnigns than generally-accepted accounting earnings tend to be more profitable than the market realizes, which means that companies which fail to meet core-earnings tests may be headed for trouble, as they will be less profitable than expected. He cites NXP Semiconductors as an example of a stock that has become grossly overvalued because the market isn't looking at its true earnings picture.

Dragonfly's Harmon: The market's next leg higher is starting now Aug 07, 2026

Show notes

Greg Harmon, founder and president at Dragonfly Capital Management, says the market's bounce this week is a potential sign that the market's next move higher could be starting now. Harmon says the market is broadening out, and has come through "a great earnings season," creating "a strong market, fundamentally and technically." Harmon sees some potential problems, but he says that the market's ability to shrug off bad news will get helped out as some of those worrisome events get solved and fall by the wayside; that leaves him looking at a strong finish to the year for the market, and a good start to 2027 barring "an unexpected crisis."

Rob Shaker, portfolio manager at Shaker Financial Services — which uses a discount-capture strategy with closed-end funds — says that he's seen a lot of "good widenings" of discounts as the market returned to peak levels. A good widening is one where a fund's net asset value goes up more than the price of the closed-end fund itself. It happens when markets get volatile and indexes pull up faster than closed-end funds can move, creating attractive buying opportunities.

In the Other Interview on today's show, James Barra, head of content and research at Br okerListings.com, discusses "Financial Literacy in the TikTo k Era: Who Should You Trust," a research paper the site published that took a scientific approach to looking at the financial information on TikTok. Barra says that there's a wide range of content, but an alarming amount of it is "potentially problematic, high risk and largely untrustworthy." Over 70 percent of creators on TikTok have no clear background in financial services and no relevant qualifications and about two-thirds of the content failed to disclose downsides to the advice, conflicts of interest the creator has and more.

U.S. Bank's Haworth: Yes, the market looks like it is setting up a '5-peat' for '27 Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Asset Management, entered the year saying that the stock market could "4-peat," by posting its fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains. While he says now that the market and economy have legitimate concerns to overcome, they also have fundamentals in place to do just that, setting up the potential for a 5-peat in 2027. Haworth does suggest that investors diversify further to help get them through the trouble spots, but he suggests putting more focus on domestic markets than international, being certain not to get too overloaded in the hot sectors and looking into parts of the fixed-income market where higher yields have been mostly overlooked.

Ron Mastrogiovanni, chief executive officer at HealthView Services, discusses the firm's recent research, titled "Social Security Solvency & Retirement Planning: Calculating Lost Benefits and Income Solutions," which examines the financial impact of potential Social Security benefits reductions on future retirees. The report shows that, without steps to fully fund the program, a 54-year-old couple retiring in eight years receiving average Social Security benefits could lose more than $160,000 over their lifetime, with high-income families losing as much as $500,000. Even if changes are made to extend solvency, Mastrogiovanni suggests everyone — even younger workers — should consider the possibility of lower Social Security benefits as they make retirement plans.

With small-cap stocks staging a strong rally this year — the small-cap index is up more than 20 percent year-to-date — Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi turns to an Avantis fund as his ETF of the Week, noting that the fund brings active management to stock selection, but does less trading than the small-cap index funds that regularly re-constitue as the benchmark changes.

Nomura's Caruso: Supply chain, high yields and market volatility are opportunities Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Anthony Caruso, head of ETFs and product strategy at Nomura Asset Management International, says that while artificial intelligence is driving the market, it is also creating opportunities through its struggles, whether that is by punishing companies in industries like software, or forcing capital expenditures and more. He notes that there are strategies in playing the tight supply chains, particularly if investors are willing to consider emerging markets investments. Atthe same time, Caruso — who does not have recession in his outlook for the next year — says that with interest rates higher for longer, investors should take advantage of fixed-income to balance out a portfolio and help them ride out the volatility story.

Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer for the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont, discusses savings strategies and the importance of knowing the rules for special days, weeks and weekends when states rescind their sales tax. There's one of those this coming weekend in Massachusetts — but Fleming notes that about half of all states have had some sort of tax-relief day in the last few years and 20 are holding them in 2026 — and Chuck discusses his shopping strategy and planned purchase to capture the discount on a big expense.

In the Market Call, Daniel Dusina, chief investment officer at Blue Chip Partners discusses "unappreciated quality stocks" and how even some big names that have run up still qualify.

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