August 4, 2020 It is the general consensus that the bottom of the economy was the second quarter of this year. The contraction was expected to be severe as the economy virtually shut down during several weeks of this period. How severe? Just giving a perspective, the largest annual decline in economic growth (GDP) during […]
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July 28, 2020 We have just finished one of — if not the weakest — quarter in history. The corona virus is still raging. Millions have lost their jobs. Yet the stock market continues to rise, recovering from its lows hit early this year. Thus, the question is — why? There are many possible explanations […]
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July 7, 2020 In a very strange year, the jobs report takes on more importance because we are in uncharted territory with regard to the economy. We moved from a slow-growth economy in the fourth quarter to a negative 5.0% in the first quarter of this year and what looks to be sharply worse when […]
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June 30, 2020 Most economies have reopened to some degree. And several states have seen a surge in infections at the same time. From this, we can conclude one thing — the virus is not taking the summer off as some had speculated might happen. On the other hand, can we say that the reopenings […]
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June 23, 2020 Last month’s jobs report was certainly a surprise and another example of predictions gone awry. The economy was supposed to lose millions of jobs and instead gained millions of jobs. That is quite a swing, especially considering the fact that we usually are dealing with employment swings in the thousands, instead of […]
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June 16, 2020 The government has injected trillions of stimulus dollars into the economy. This is causing the federal budget deficit to soar as we deal with the devastating effects of COVID-19 upon our economy. At the same time, the Federal Reserve Board moved short-term interest rates down near zero and purchased mortgage backed securities […]
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June 9, 2020 This was the title of one of our economic commentaries in January of this year. It is a message we deliver every year. Now that we have traveled almost one-half the way through the year, we thought we would like to bring this message back, because this year it applies more than […]
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June 2, 2020 It is not often that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board is interviewed on national television. But these are certainly not normal times. Perhaps the whole world was not watching, but economists and market analysts certainly were. While acknowledging the seriousness of the economic issues we are facing, Powell indicated that […]
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The current economic environment presents the government with very tough choices. If we open up our economy too quickly, the medical experts tell us that we risk reversing the progress we have seen in fighting the pandemic. That would be a tragedy. On the other hand, if we don’t open up the economy, there will […]
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