The Fed’s Strong Message
June 26, 2018 We now have had some time to decipher the Federal Reserve Board’s statement after their meeting last week. The tone of the message can be described as hawkish. The Fed used words that were a bit stronger with regard to the economy and the future of interest rates. For example, economic growth […]
Read MoreThe Fed Meets Today
June 12, 2018 This week the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee meets with analysts expecting another hike in rates. While the overwhelming sentiment is for a hike, the enthusiasm for such a move is slightly lower than it was a few weeks ago. Since then there has been a flurry of international news causing […]
Read MoreEarly Jobs Report
June 5, 2018 It is unusual for the monthly employment report to be released on the first day of the month. Friday, the first day of June, was an exception. Logically, you would think that data released this early would be subject to a higher level of revisions, but we have no statistics to support […]
Read MoreInterest Rates: The New Normal?
May 29, 2018 Interest rates have been rising this year. This is not surprising considering the fact that the economy continues to expand, we have added a tax cut into the equation and the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates for the past two years. Most analysts are predicting rates to continue to increase. […]
Read MoreForeign Affairs
May 22, 2018 Foreign diplomacy has certainly hit the center stage during the past several weeks. The sabre rattling has stopped and now we are talking with North Korea. We are meeting with China in order to avert an all-out trade war. And we are pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. We have seen […]
Read MoreAnother Milestone
May 15, 2018 The economic recovery recently hit an important milestone. It is now officially the second longest expansion in our history. For much of the expansion, the recovery has felt more painful than others. For one, the Great Recession was extremely deep and painful. Therefore, most Americans needed a long-term for their personal recovery […]
Read MoreThe Markets as a Predictor
May 8, 2018 If you were looking at the market’s actions heading into a busy first week of May, you would have predicted that the Federal Reserve was going to raise interest rates and we were going to get a “bounce-back” jobs report. Interest rates started rising about two weeks before the Fed was scheduled […]
Read MoreEconomic Sweeps Week
May 1, 2018 The jobs report is the most intensely watched of all monthly economic releases. As far as events are concerned, meetings of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) stand as one of the most important events as well. To have them both happen in the same week is somewhat of an […]
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