Like a half-full bottle of champagne that was left uncorked overnight, stock markets were anything but effervescent during the first few days of 2014. On Tuesday, December 31, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) bubbled upwards, finishing 2013 at an all-time high. On Wednesday, markets were closed as Americans celebrated the New Year. […]
Like the mother of a bride reviewing flower arrangements and fretting that a brilliantly sunny day could be marred by dark clouds hidden just beyond the horizon, pundits have been parsing the exceptional year-to-date performance of U.S. stock markets and fussing over the future. It’s true. U.S. stock markets look like they may be […]
You really need to take predictions with a grain of salt. Consider these esteemed opinions: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, Chairman, IBM, 1943 "Who wants to hear actors talk?" H. M. Warner, Founder, Warner Brothers, 1927 "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Charles Duell, […]
If every piece of positive news was a petal, then you might say the American economy was in bloom last week. Moving into the holiday season, consumer confidence was at a five-month high. Early in the week, manufacturing showed improvement. On Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department unfurled the news the American economy grew faster […]
In 2006, Time Magazine’s Person of the Year was ‘You.’ The magazine declared that 2006 was about: “…Community and collaboration on a scale never seen before… It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the […]
Really?! Okay. Okay. If you’ve been trekking through Siberia or Patagonia for about a year, then maybe it surprised you to hear the minutes from the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting showed it expects to begin tapering Quantitative Easing (QE) in the coming months. However, since the Fed has been telling anyone who will […]
If you found holiday songs or Beatles tunes humming through your head last week, it may have been your subconscious processing world and market events. Over the river and through the woods/To Grandmother's house we go… Janet Yellen, current Vice Chairman and nominee to be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, testified at […]
After last week’s surprisingly strong employment report, it’s almost possible to picture Ben Bernanke slapping trail dust from his leg, ducking his head, and saying, “Just doin’ my job.” After all, running the economy is as laden with complications and unexpected events as a cattle drive. Richard Graboyes, an economist who was once the Director […]
Exceptional… exceeds expectations… meets expectations… needs improvement… unsatisfactory. It’s a rating system familiar to anyone who has ever received a performance review. Right now, the performance of inflation is not meeting expectations – and that may be a good thing. Critics of loose monetary policy and rock bottom interest rates have had high expectations for […]