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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
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 […]
Read More
November 27, 2018 This week’s topic is very interesting. The economy is rolling along and, thus far the housing sector has contributed to this economic growth. But recent evidence is pointing towards at least a slight slowdown in the sector. The question is, how much will this slowdown affect the overall economy? Generally, real estate […]
Read More
November 13, 2018 Though we are not in the business of predicting the future, it is sometimes very interesting to go back and see how forecasts play out after the fact. Especially when there is a lot of news happening during a short period of time. First, we had the jobs report released on November […]
Read More
October 30, 2018 It will likely be a very busy end of the year and this current period will significantly contribute to that forecast. Last week we had the first reading of economic growth for the third quarter and minutes released from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee. Those minutes […]
Read More
October 23, 2018 For the first time in several years, the real estate market is a lagging part of the economy. For some time, the real estate market has led the economy forward, but in the past year or so, the economy has outshined the real estate sector. In most times a stronger economy helps […]
Read More
October 9, 2018 The first major data has been released during the last quarter of the year. The September jobs report showed an increase of 134,000 jobs, less than expected; however, the previous two months of job gains were revised upward by 87,000 jobs. The headline unemployment rate moved to 3.7%, the lowest in almost […]
Read More