Will Government Layoffs Affect the Job Market?
March 11, 2025 The Administration has put their plans in place to eliminate tens of thousands of Federal employees. As the February jobs report was just released last week, we must start to ponder if these layoffs will affect the overall jobs market. If the private sector is strong enough, those unemployed could be absorbed […]
Read MoreThe Fate of the CFPB
February 25, 2025 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created by the Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis which spawned the Great Recession of 2008. Unlike the pandemic-induced recession of 2020, the recovery of the economy from the Great Recession was long and painful, especially within the real estate industry which is […]
Read MoreA Big Ho-Hum?
February 11, 2025 By all rights, we should have seen extreme market volatility during the past several weeks. After all, we have a new President implementing many new initiatives – from back to the office for federal employees to a constant threat of tariffs toward various countries. Yet, the stock and bond markets have been […]
Read MoreA Better Picture
December 3, 2024 We have had so many months of jobs gains that the monthly employment report has held little intrigue lately. As a matter of fact, the ancillary numbers such as wage inflation have garnered more attention than the number of jobs gained in some circles. For at least one month, this is no […]
Read MoreThe Budget Deficit
November 26, 2024 The initial response to the President-elect’s victory was a huge Wall Street rally. Despite the fact that there were already significant gains in 2024, stock market indices reached new heights immediately after the election. The bond market? Not so much of a rally, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve lowered their […]
Read MoreBack to the Inflation Picture
November 19, 2024 The election is over. The Federal Reserve has met and made their decision regarding short-term interest rates. The next question is – where do we go from here? While the Fed has lowered their rates, mortgage rates actually increased leading up to the election and the meeting of the Fed. And this […]
Read MoreThe Results
November 12, 2024 A lot has happened in the past few weeks. First, we had a slew of data showing that the economy is still on solid footing. The advanced estimate of economic growth (GDP) for the third quarter came in at 2.8% — a solid, but unspectacular number. The October jobs report was obviously […]
Read MoreThe Inflation Picture
October 15, 2024 Last week we had the latest inflation readings. The Consumer Price Index was reported to be up 0.2% monthly and 2.4% annually in September. The core readings excluding food and energy were higher. The Producer Price Index was reported unchanged for the month and up 1.8% annually, but again higher at the […]
Read MoreWe Want More!
October 8, 2024 The Federal Reserve has lowered their Federal Funds Rate. As we have indicated, the move was expected – and the bond markets had strongly anticipated this move. But the Fed lowered their base rate by 0.5%, yet mortgage rates have moved down approximately 1.25% from their peak earlier this year. Why is […]
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