The Flinchum File

Thoughtful Economic Analysis and Existential Opinions
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Welcome to The Flinchum File

I am an Accredited Investment Fiduciary at Bay Capital Advisors, an investment firm headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA. After retiring from Truist Bank, I started this firm to work more closely with a smaller number of clients, and it has been great! Our client load is about 25% of the national average.

Writing is not for the shy or the meek. It exposes a person’s mind and character. I hope you enjoy the view.

The opinions expressed in The Flinchum File are those of the writer, Jim Flinchum, and do not necessarily reflect those of Bay Capital Advisors, LLC

Looking in the TIPS Jar

TIPS are Treasury Inflation Protected Securities. They are issued by the U.S. Treasury and have the “full faith and credit” of the United States government. Of all bonds issued by the Treasury for any given maturity, TIPS pay the lowest interest rate, because they are “inflation-protected”, which means they pay extra to keep the purchasing power of the bonds roughly equal to inflation. For investors…

Disco Diva on Financial Regulation

Today, I watched the President when he visited Wall Street to discuss his pending re-regulation of financial services. Some pundits called it his “closing argument”. Maybe, it was. I don’t know. However, it was certainly not the scolding many of us expected. In his campaign, he said there is no Red America nor Blue America, just America. Today, he said there is no Wall Street…

Enron Redux?

Years ago, I was lucky not to have been one of the many investors who lost money in the Enron debacle. About a year before their fall, Enron got into trouble with the State of California about electricity rates. It quickly became apparent that the people at Enron enjoyed a very high opinion of their own intelligence. Remembering that “pride goeth before the fall”, I…

Beware: Danger

The most dangerous words on Wall Street are “It’s different this time”. Take a look at this chart of the long-term unemployed, which is 27 weeks or more, as a percent of the total unemployed. Almost 45% of the unemployed have been out-of-work over six months, which is the highest percentage since the government began compiling this data. It is not just a little worse!…