February 12, 2019 Analysts are still assessing the economic reverberations of the government shutdown. The Congressional Budget Office released the official tally at a whopping eleven billion dollars, but we wonder what secondary and tertiary effects may have multiplied the costs. It is certainly hard to measure the psychological damage that was done. Even the […]
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February 5, 2019 The government shutdown dominated the news in January. Many economic reports were delayed, including the preliminary report of economic growth for the fourth quarter. But important events did occur last week, including the Federal Reserve Board announcement after their meeting and the jobs report release for January. Analysts were wondering whether the […]
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January 29, 2019 Tomorrow the Federal Reserve Board releases their decision on rates after their first meeting of 2019. Based upon comments made by members after their increase in December, there is little possibility of another increase in January and only a slightly greater possibility during their next meeting in March. The comments continually talked […]
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January 22, 2019 Regardless of the fact that the government will not stay shut forever, many analysts are asking whether the shutdown might have a significant negative influence on the economy in the short-run and even some repercussions going forward. Even though back pay will be taken care of, the fact that almost a million […]
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January 15, 2019 Last year was very interesting. The previous year we had great gains in the stock markets and enjoyed lower interest rates. We began 2018 with even more stock gains, fueled by a significant corporate tax cut. But the boost to the economy at a time when we were already at low employment […]
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January 8, 2019 Actually, the data is from 2018, but it is the most significant data thus far released in 2019. On Friday, the jobs numbers showed the addition of 312,000 jobs last month, more than making up for a miss the previous month. In addition, the previous two months’ numbers were revised upward by […]
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January 1, 2019 It is officially 2019! Every year high-paid economists come out with their predictions for a host of economic indicators, from economic growth to the pace of inflation. It is always interesting to look at these in hind sight, especially when forecasting the direction of interest rates. It seems that just about every […]
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December 25, 2018 The new year is almost here and the Federal Reserve Board has made its last key decision of 2018. The increase of short-term interest rates by one-quarter of one percent was not unexpected. The clues as to what 2019 will look like were the real keys to the meeting. The statement after […]
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December 18, 2018 Tomorrow, the Federal Reserve Board releases their announcement from the conclusion of their last meeting of the year. The Fed will also release their economic projections and Fed Chair Powell will conduct a press conference. The markets have been predicting another 0.25% rate hike all along, though the probabilities have been lowered […]
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December 11, 2018 On Friday we had the last jobs report before the Federal Reserve Board meets again next week to consider whether to raise interest rates one more time in 2018. Heading into the report, market analysts were pegging the probability of a hike at close to 80%. The volatility in the stock and […]
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