Can The Machine Continue Humming?
April 4, 2023 The employment sector of the economy has been nothing short of amazing. Close to full employment, we lost an amazing number of jobs during the pandemic – close to 25 million. By July of last year, we had recovered those jobs and it was expected that the pace of job creation would […]
Read MoreAnd The Hits Keep Coming
March 28, 2023 Last week was another eventful week for the markets. There was a lot of anticipation regarding the meeting of the Federal Reserve, especially after Chairman Powell testified before Congress just a few weeks ago. In this testimony, he continued to pledge to keep up the pressure on inflation. On the other hand, […]
Read MoreStill No Answer
March 14, 2023 Almost one quarter of the year is finished, and we still do not have an answer. By now we were supposed to be experiencing the start of a “mild” recession. Yet interest rates have risen since early February because the economy is too hot, threatening our progress on the war against inflation. […]
Read MoreMore Food For The Fed
March 7, 2023 Two weeks from now the Federal Reserve will be meeting again. Meanwhile the members of the Open Market Committee have been on a feeding frenzy. While mere mortals like us feed on regular food such as meat, carbs and dairy, the Fed feeds on data. And they have had plenty of data […]
Read MoreDue For Another Surprise?
February 28, 2023 There is no doubt that the jobs report was a major shocker at the beginning of this month. We actually thought that we were about to slip into recession, but there is no evidence that the job market is slipping at all. Here is a basic concept—you can’t have a recession when […]
Read MoreThe State of Housing
February 21, 2023 If there is any industry that is more cyclical than the housing industry, we would be surprised to hear about it. The housing industry is subject to multiple cycles, including seasonal cycles, economic cycles, and interest rate cycles. There are even demographic cycles caused by immigration and generations like the baby boomers […]
Read MoreAdvanced Nomenclature For Valentine’s Day
February 14. 2023 Today is Valentine’s Day. Do not forget to say and do something special for your loved one(s). There are so many names of our spouses and other close relationships. Significant other, partners, girl/boyfriend, fiancé, husband, wife, better-half, consort, companion, sweetheart, loved one and more. With so many to choose from, we should […]
Read MoreTriple Play
The Wild Card
January 17. 2023 The pace in which interest rates rose in 2022 was a surprise to just about everyone. There is no doubt that this phenomenon was spearheaded by what was considered rapidly progressive inflation. At the beginning, the Federal Reserve declared inflation a transitory result of the pandemic. However, inflation did not seem to […]
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