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Posts by: Ian Mathias

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Ian Mathias

Ian Mathias is the managing editor of Agora Financial’s Income Franchise, where he writes and researches about retirement, dividend and fixed income investing. Much of his work is featured in The Daily Reckoning and Lifetime Income Report – Agora Financial’s flagship income investing advisory.  

Previously, Ian managed The 5 Min. Forecast, a fun, fast-paced daily look into the future of global markets and macroeconomics. He’s also worked in public relations, where media outlets like Forbes, AP, Yahoo! and MSN Money have syndicated his writing. If he’s not at work, you’ll probably find Ian on a bicycle, racing up and down the “mountains” of Baltimore County. Ian has a BA from Loyola University in Maryland.

  1. Daily Reckoning

    Fixing Social Security… Some Other Day • November 16, 2010

    How exactly does one unwind a Ponzi Scheme? People like Bernie Madoff have done a fine job showing investors, and eventually the American public, how to build one up. Essentially, you use the contributions from incoming investors to pay “profits” out to departing investors. And you repeat this process for as long as the incoming …Read more…

  2. Daily Reckoning

    The Really, Really Long Bond • October 14, 2010

    For the time being, income investors are probably better off being owners than lenders. Many solid US companies are paying dividend yields of 2%, 3% and 4%. Short-term corporate bonds, meanwhile, yield next to nothing. The bond market is getting nuttier by the day – offering ever-lower interest rates at ever-higher risks. The recent spate …Read more…

  3. Daily Reckoning

    What’s Really in the Social Security Trust Fund? • September 29, 2010

    “You’re kidding, right?” a Daily Reckoning reader wrote after our briefing from last week: “The End of Social Security As We Know It.” “Are you the only ones who believe in the accounting farces that are the Social Security and Medicare ‘Trust Funds’? Every dollar in both of those funds has been spent by the …Read more…

  4. Daily Reckoning

    Opt Out of Social Security • September 27, 2010

    “The Social Security Trust Fund is misnamed. It cannot be trusted, and it is not funded.” –Former US Comptroller General David Walker, July 2010. If David Walker – who was essentially the US government’s accountant from 1998-2008 – can make jokes like that about Social Security, we’re in trouble. Indeed, as we noted in our …Read more…

  5. Daily Reckoning

    The End of Social Security as We Know It • September 20, 2010

    On September 30, America will quietly begin a generational shift. This will be the final day of the government’s fiscal year 2010, and consequentially, a very notable day for Social Security. September 30 will be the last day – maybe for a long time – that Social Security could possibly be operating at a surplus. …Read more…

  6. Daily Reckoning

    Indian Markets Open the Foreign Floodgates • August 23, 2010

    Ease of access is a staple of market booms. It’s hard to imagine American stocks, for example, surviving these days without support from retail, institutional and international investors alike. In the same way, much of China’s incredible market boom is thanks to Hong Kong, whose exchange opens the gate to millions of investors who want …Read more…

  7. Daily Reckoning

    Another Warning Shot for Bond Investors • August 21, 2010

    The United States experienced another interesting first on Wednesday. For the first time in the history of our union, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against a State. The powers that be in New Jersey had been deceiving and misleading investors in regards to the fiscal well-being of the Garden State, and the SEC …Read more…