July 21, 2020 As we assess the many effects of the pandemic on our everyday life, we are also looking at long-term trends that may be with us for years. Many of these are well documented. For example, it is expected that a greater percentage of the population will work remotely in the future. This […]
Read More
July 7, 2020 In a very strange year, the jobs report takes on more importance because we are in uncharted territory with regard to the economy. We moved from a slow-growth economy in the fourth quarter to a negative 5.0% in the first quarter of this year and what looks to be sharply worse when […]
Read More
June 30, 2020 Most economies have reopened to some degree. And several states have seen a surge in infections at the same time. From this, we can conclude one thing — the virus is not taking the summer off as some had speculated might happen. On the other hand, can we say that the reopenings […]
Read More
June 23, 2020 Last month’s jobs report was certainly a surprise and another example of predictions gone awry. The economy was supposed to lose millions of jobs and instead gained millions of jobs. That is quite a swing, especially considering the fact that we usually are dealing with employment swings in the thousands, instead of […]
Read More
June 16, 2020 The government has injected trillions of stimulus dollars into the economy. This is causing the federal budget deficit to soar as we deal with the devastating effects of COVID-19 upon our economy. At the same time, the Federal Reserve Board moved short-term interest rates down near zero and purchased mortgage backed securities […]
Read More
June 9, 2020 This was the title of one of our economic commentaries in January of this year. It is a message we deliver every year. Now that we have traveled almost one-half the way through the year, we thought we would like to bring this message back, because this year it applies more than […]
Read More
June 2, 2020 It is not often that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is interviewed on national television. But these are certainly not normal times. Perhaps the whole world was not watching, but economists and market analysts certainly were. While acknowledging the seriousness of the economic issues we are facing, Powell indicated that […]
Read More
The current economic environment presents the government with very tough choices. If we open up our economy too quickly, the medical experts tell us that we risk reversing the progress we have seen in fighting the pandemic. That would be a tragedy. On the other hand, if we don’t open up the economy, there will […]
Read More
May 5, 2020 It was almost 50 years ago that the rising price of oil was one of the factors which helped plunge us into a deep recession. And while not the most important factor, subsequent recessions have followed previous peaks in oil prices. It seems that today’s recession has just about turned all of […]
Read More