They Are Back
April 25, 2017 Congress is back in session. Not that we are 100% sure that anyone missed them, but certainly there is some unfinished business on the table. For the past few weeks, international news has dominated the markets. Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and Russia have led this domination, and certainly these world conflicts have […]
Read MoreA Stark Reminder
April 18, 2017 Actually, we have had a few stark reminders recently. The most recent was the escalation of our engagement in Syria and another, a show of force near the Korean peninsula. Since the election, much of America’s attention has been focused upon domestic issues such as the health care bill, a nomination to […]
Read MoreAnticipation Meets Reality
April 5, 2017 We have used some rather broad terms regarding describing the mood of the markets over the past few months. Words such as “confidence” and “uncertainty.” Today we would like to use another word — “anticipation.” One reason for the markets’ confidence in the past several months has been the anticipation of changes […]
Read MoreAlternative Reality
March 28, 2017 No, we are not delving into the world of science fiction. We can’t change what happened. But sometimes it is interesting to wonder what would have happened if an event did not take place. In this case, we are referring to the Federal Reserve Board raising short-term interest rates. As we have […]
Read MoreThe Fed Has Spoken
March 21, 2017 Since we spent the past several weeks explaining why the Federal Reserve Board was likely to raise rates last week, we can definitely say that the Fed’s decision was not a surprise — especially since the increase was limited to .25%, which was also expected. A disappointing jobs report could have caused […]
Read MoreThe Barrage of Executive Orders
February 14, 2017 As we indicated previously, we are not about to speculate as to what might happen as a result of the policies of the new Administration. There is still a tremendous road to be laid. However, we can say that the President has moved quickly to issue a barrage of Executive Orders during […]
Read MoreThe Inauguration
January 24, 2017 We now have a new President to go along with a new Congress. During the past year or so, we have endured what can only be described as an excruciatingly long election season mired in controversy and then even more controversy leading up to this time. With all this has come an […]
Read MoreWhere The Real Estate Market Stands
January 17, 2017 Last week we focused upon the employment situation in the long-term — looking back at 2016 and for the past eight to ten years. If there is one economic indicator which rivals the importance of the employment situation, it is real estate. Looking back, the real estate boom contributed to the great […]
Read MoreThe Employment Situation
January 10, 2017. We just saw the last unemployment report of 2016. The December numbers came in at 156,000 jobs added for the month, which was a bit lower than expected–but the previous two months were revised upward by almost 20,000. The unemployment rate came in at 4.7%, as expected. Wage growth came in higher […]
Read More