As you can read in my column of Monday, March 24th, there is a strong conviction on the part of many experts that, in spite of all the liquidity the Fed is creating, there is still a great possibility of DEflation. What IS deflation? Something that few Americans have lived through -- a decline in the value of assets. That kind of decline makes the burden of debt even greater. And it creates an economic slowdown that challenges our ability to grow our way out of our troubles.
The best example is Japan. Their real estate bubble burst in 1990, and has not yet come anywhere near its previous levels. Their stock market is measured by the Nikkei 225, currently trading at 12,500. That's far below its peak at 40,000 in 1990. So the question is a very real one: Can the Fed do a balancing act between creating liquidity to prevent deflation -- or sparking inflation down the road? What do you think?
Terry Savage writes a syndicated personal finance column for the 
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What do you know about Index Annuity. I attended a meeting with Sam Tapie, MBA, Senior Advisor of AmeriTrust Corp, Oak Brook and he recommended Index Annuity, guaranteeing no loss of investment. If it sounds too good to be true, is it?
I'm new at this online business and hope this gets to you with a reply go me. Thank you.
SAVAGE SAYS:
Avoid these like the plague! Sales people have figured out two things:
1. Seniors have money.
2. Seniors are mad at low interest rates.
But most indexed annuities are a true ripoff -- high fees, and not tied to the entire performance of the index that makes stocks so attractive. They either don't give you the full benefit of the index growth, or don't give you the benefit of the dividends that are a significant part of index growth.
I'm not against all annuities, for sure. In fact, I own some annuities that have "links" to market performance, guarantees of a "highest value" opportunity to annuities the highest value of your account, even if it subsequently drops. And they have reasonable fees for these guarantees.
But they're difficult to explain -- and not what most of these sales pitches offer. Sadly, the entire world of good annuities suffers from the rip-offs being sold at most "senior advisor" events!