April 6, 2021 Inflation, inflation, inflation. This year, rates have been headed up and we keep hearing this word being uttered again and again. Rates have been rising because there is an elevated threat of inflation. The question is – why are these two concepts linked together so often? Today, we would like to reintroduce […]
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March 23, 2021 Well, the issue of additional stimulus is resolved. We keep hearing the term “trillion” being bantered about. How much is a trillion dollars? A trillion dollars is a million dollars multiplied by a million. Or if you prefer, a thousand billion. It has 12 zeroes: $1,000,000,000,000. That is a lot of zeros. […]
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March 16, 2021 During the Great Recession, a little more than a decade ago — the value of real estate was hit significantly. We spent ten years recovering as values reached pre-recession levels and then some. During the COVID-induced recession of last year, home appreciation actually accelerated. Just recently, CoreLogic confirmed that house values rose […]
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March 9, 2021 What is the definition of a “K-shaped” economic recovery? A “V-shaped” is a quick and sharp recovery and a “U-shaped” recovery is more gradual. The “K-shaped” recovery is bifurcated. This means that certain segments of the recovery are happening at different speeds. In this case, the real estate sector definitely represents the […]
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March 2, 2021 Interest rates have been so low for such a long period of time that many have taken these record low rates for granted. Though we have said this many times during the past year, we must understand that these historic rates will not be with us forever. Record low rates for an […]
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February 23, 2021 Just in case you are getting nostalgic for the past few years, we began 2021 with an impeachment trial and a debate concerning the size and need for a stimulus package. Sound familiar? And because this commentary is focused upon economics and not politics, we are more concerned with the arguments for […]
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December 29, 2020 By the end of this week, 2020 will have ended. It is hopeful that we will never have to say goodbye to another year like 2020. Indeed, economists around the world are predicting a vastly different year for 2021. And while we may present some of these forecasts, we always caution that […]
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November 17, 2020 The election is over, and the analysts have spent two weeks telling us what the results mean. The stock market rallied just before and after the election was called, but we don’t know if that was just the euphoria of uncertainty being removed, or the start of a longer-term rally — especially […]
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October 20, 2020 Could anyone had predicted one year ago that a major topic in Presidential debates and campaigns would revolve around mask-wearing? It has been that crazy of a year. We actually started the year with some semblance of normalcy, at least for a Presidential election year. But in late winter the entire world […]
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October 13, 2020 Previously, we mentioned that there will be no more monthly jobs reports before the Presidential Election. In addition, the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee will not be meeting in November. Coincidentally, they meet again the day after the election. Thus, this period is sometimes known as the quiet period before the […]
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