Here is a sample from one thread of the article:

For years, commentators of a conspiratorial lean have half-jokingly suggested that humanity is living in a simulation, à la The Matrix. When it comes to economic activity and markets, that is no longer an absurd suggestion.
...around three-quarters of those laid-off workers "receive benefits that exceed their former wage," Goldman says.
Goldman's projections actually call for a small increase in disposable personal income.

Again, we are living in a simulation.

But there is a problem related to living in a simulation:

The Treasury can make up for people’s lost wages, but people need the things wages buy. So replacing lost wages and revenues will not be enough for long: the economy has to produce goods and services.

Another thread of the article discussess Modern Monetary Theory and ties it into current Fed and Treasury activities. Here is a sample:

The US can always buy whatever there is to buy that's denominated in US dollars. It has no need to borrow dollars from anyone else because it is the issuer of those dollars. The US can spend too much, which risks stoking inflation, but the US does not, will not, and has never, needed to borrow dollars. Suggesting otherwise is to traffic in patent nonsense.
Why do governments sell bonds whenever they run deficits?...By selling bonds, they maintain the illusion of being financially constrained.

Here is the link to the article:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4345783-simulation-game

These articles hardly ever get the info you need/want. The most interesting are funds in the 3-6% yield where you find good risk/reward + yield.
Over the years I find myself using many times HY Munis + Multisector/NonTrad funds, especially securitized/MBS. Many of these got hit hard in 2008 and 2020 but they will be back.
FAGIX is an interesting fund I have watched over the years but not used. Did you know that FAGIX performed better than the SP500 for one year since the bottom on 3/6/2009?
In 2020, SPY is better since the bottom of 3/23.

@wxman123, The new baseline asset allocation can be found on The fund's Fact Sheet. As of 5-1-20 it is 50 percent. Under the old Fact Sheet it was 10 percent.
The 31 day trading rule is to prevent the fund from having wash sales. The fund's 31 day trading rule also prevents it from changing investment direction for 31 days from its last buy or sell transaction.

Kinda tough placing a standard HY fund against FAGIX for a compare. Over the period of FAGIX existence, the fund usually has an equity exposure of 15-20%. A unique HY fund.

Unusual but not unique. WHGHX "has a neutral allocation of 80% of its total assets in debt securities and 20% of its total assets in equity securities."
Two funds that on the surface look similar, but despite their equity sleeves and junk bonds, very different profiles. They sit at nearly opposite ends of the risk spectrum for HY funds.
WHGHX tends to invest in higher quality junk (BB vs. category B). Perhaps as a result, WHGHX has below average volatility and below average performance, except this year, even with its equity. FAGIX in contrast, is very volatile and has had a dreadful YTD.

It seems that CTFAX CAN make changes in less than 31 days depending on the S&P. Its just that to avoid wash sales it cant have an increase then a decrease in stocks in less than 31 days. Also not clear about what impact the baseline has insofar as in the brief period between 3/16/20 and 4/28/ 20 the fund's stock allocation shifted between 35% and and 70%.

Hi @davidrmoran
Kinda tough placing a standard HY fund against FAGIX for a compare. Over the period of FAGIX existence, the fund usually has an equity exposure of 15-20%. An unusual HY fund.
PHYZX appears to be doing some other magic in the cash position with "longs" in something. I don't see anything out of the ordinary to suggest that the fund likely has had more than an average yield when compared to others in this category.
COMPARE begin Jan. 1999

@Puddnhead,
My take is that fund has been now positioned in a more aggressive posture. I'm thinking that this is because of recent FOMC's interest rate and easing policy. Plus, the Fed's have and will probally continue to inject money into the financial system. This no doubt will lift most all asset prices especially equities. Therefore, to caputure this anticipated uptrend the fund managers have elected to make the fund more aggressive in the coming year. Is this good? Or, Bad? It depends. I held the fund in my hybrid income sleeve because of its normal conserative risk off positioning that could load equities during a stock market pullback, For me it was a risk off ... risk on ... fund. With it's new allocation moving from a low of 10% equity to a new low allocation of 50% equity it is ... for me ... no longer a risk off ... risk on fund.
At the end of the quarter I'll be reassigning CTFAX to another investment sleeve within my portfolio. Most likely to the domestic hybrid sleeve found in the growth & income section of my portfolio.

A state by state experiment involving moving beyond the pandemic shut down is underway. It involves both numbers and attitudes. We will see over the next several weeks and months how it plays out. Hospital patient volume limitations may place a cap on the willingness of states to open up. But, within that cap, it may turn out that the effective end of the pandemic for most people includes acceptance of monthly death and infection numbers that force the more vulnerable portions of the population to be quite cautious.
That type of ending could accelerate the rate at which the economy rebounds.

When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how?
According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes.
“When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they are asking about the social ending,” said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins.

https://nytimes.com/2020/05/10/health/coronavirus-plague-pandemic-history.html

Hi @Level5, For someone that has not followed the fund I can understand why one could become confused. It took me, years back, a while before I fully understood how the fund works. Know, I am not trying to change your thoughts on the fund ... Just, trying to help bring a better understanding on how it works from my past experiences.
Here is the link to the fund. https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/Columbia-Thermostat-Fund/Class-A/details/?cusip=197199755&_n=1
First, know that it has a 31 day trading rule and it can not change position direction once established until 31 days have expired.
Second, to see how the fund is positioned follow the link and open The Asset Allocation Update which will be a pfd. On this pfd you will find the last six asset allocation changes the fund made with the last one taking place on 4/28/2020 where it moved to a 35% stock / 65% bond allocation.
Third, once annually (May 1st) the fund managers set the trading ranges for the fund going forward for the coming year. With this, on May 1st of 2020 the fund made an asset allocation change from a baseline 10% equity allocation to a 50% baseline equity allocation before adjusting for the movement of the 500 Index. Since, the 31 day traiding rule is in effect the fund will not make the actual declared adjustment until the 31 days has expired from the date of the last asset allocation change. This will be done somewhere around May 29th.
For me it was a risk off ... risk on ... fund holding. Now with the baseline asset allocation change from a 10% baseline equity allocation to a 50% equity allocation it is no longer, from my perspective, a risk off ... risk on ... fund. With this, I have it under review, myself, to determine just how much of it I will continue to hold going forward.
I hope my above comment bring some clairty for a better understanding of how the fund positions.
Skeet

https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/investing/T052-S005-earn-up-to-9-on-your-money-now/index.html
/in addition to taking a vast human toll, the coronavirus pandemic has mercilessly infected virtually every corner of the investment world. As markets plunged and seized up, the Federal Reserve dropped its short-term interest rate to zero and began injecting trillions of dollars into the financial system to shore up credit markets and keep money flowing to beleaguered companies, households and local governments. Yields on 10- and 30-year Treasuries plummeted to record lows, and yields briefly turned negative on some short-term T-bills/
Couple good ideas presented
Enjoy

@_sir MikeM...I feel you 55% of the time, 47 yo but mentally 28 yo, physically 65 yo (especially after long hrs/days of work).
Been adding more energy vde vang2045, and start new positions in biogen/vong few days ago.
Holding on for the rough volatile rides ahead

hmmmm. no thoughts. i already made all the money on pot stocks that i think i can and don't want to go back there. day trading on hot tips nearly killed me, though i did come out ahead by like 25k. too kooky. but that was a few years back and maybe things have settled down since then.
as re CTFAX (and RLSFX, for that matter) -- yup, 52 week highs. which makes me a FOMO investor of the most worstest kind. going to keep a short tether on both, however. or at least i hope to.

Hi Linter,
I agree with you. No faith in the market. Also, AKREX was crossed off a watch list due to finance sector weighting. It's also why YCGEX was sold. Too many maybe(s) in this area. Also, CTFAX is at 52-week highs. So I would be not a buyer of it. Also, any thoughts on CANNX, KAIBX or FARMX?
God bless
the Pudd

mcm: i just don't have a lot of faith in this market and, if that's the case, i'd rather be in something that held up better into march.
https://ishort.ink/BTTq
that said, the posts by old skeet and level5 have given me a certain amount of pause regarding CTFAX.

@Old_Joe
I agree completely. I think this is not going to be a "V" shaped recovery; It may not even be "U" shaped, but more "L" with a long tail.
All it will take to close movie theaters again is a couple of cases linked to a local theater. Same with restaurants, cruise lines fitness centers.. any business that depends on face to face public interactions etc.
Most REITS have reported collecting less than 70% of the rent owed them in April. How long before that number is lower?
If you can accept a 3 to 5 year stock market sag, I guess you are OK staying in the market, although it was down 80% in 1929- 1933 and did not fully recover until 1954, right?
People really need to consider why they are in the market. IF it is to fund a retirement 20 years away go for it. But if it is to get a dependable income stream for your current retirement I would be very very careful. I would much rather spend principal for a few months to live on than run the risk of a 25% decline
While I doubt the feds will help, maybe by mid to late summer if there is enough contact tracing and testing there will be the ability to identify cases quickly and keep the infection rate low. However, given the way the right wing is "weaponizing" Covid Politics, I think there are likely to be large areas of the country with significant disease for a long time
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/us/politics/coronavirus-death-toll-presidential-campaign.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Hi @Old_Skeet,
Thanks for your link to COTZX & CTFAX. I have been curious about his fund since it was noted here at MFO recently. M* lists it as a 15-30% equity allocation fund, while Columbia lists it’s Mar 31st allocation as 70% equity / 30% FI. M* shows its’ equity investment now as 62%. Here is their strategy for how they change allocations:
https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/content/columbia/pdf/LIT_DOC_3C97987F.PDF
Very confusing and unfortunately I’m losing interest.
Best to all - Brian

Hi @linter, Recently as of May 1, 2020 COTZX & CTFAX changed it's equity weighting scale. With this, I am now rethinking just how much of it I am wanting to hold as it has now become more aggressive. This may help increase long term fund performace. It now takes on more risk in raising its threshold equity allocation from 10 percent to 50 percent before adjusting for the movement of the 500 Index.
You can find its new equity weighting scale under the Asset Allocation section in the below link ... Fact Sheet button.
https://www.columbiathreadneedleus.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/Columbia-Thermostat-Fund/Class-A/details/?cusip=197199755&_n=1

Howdy folks,
Please, dear God, get a grip. Take away NYC and the Curve is still spiking for the nation. That means that when it peaks we'll have an equal number of deaths on the downslope. Do the math. 3000 deaths per day. 20 days left in May, 80K right now. Er, 150k by June 1. Double that for June. At this rate of 'smart' living we'll hit a million by fall when the second wave starts. Oh, and every scientist on the planet says the second wave is going to be much worse.
Sorry.
Rono

The 68-69 flu killed a ~100k in the USA over 1.5 years... we're getting there in 4 months with COVID19 and only 400k-500k attended Woodstock.

Added more to vanguard 2045. VDE a few days ago. Took new positions in VONG [Thx Dr DavidrMoran for recs]