26 Apr 2013

Posted at 11:40h in The Friday Brief by
The objective of the sequester was to build an arbitrary cliff so fearsome that the Congress would never steer us over it. Well as we know, they did, with us in the back seat. What is fascinating though, at least during our descent from the cliff, is the unintended consequences of sequester; as invariably happens when government tries to be clever.

19 Apr 2013

Posted at 00:00h in The Friday Brief by
We are beneficiaries of the wealthiest nation in the world. But no matter how intentional we try to be, we still take for granted the countless common conveniences that were unimaginable or wildly extravagant not so many years ago. And despite our boundless resources, education systems, capital, enabling technologies, and the conveniences that make them all work for us, seems we are able to find precious little time to pursue our highest and our best purposes.

12 Apr 2013

Posted at 13:11h in The Friday Brief by
The stock market has been on a tear this week, making new highs while defying negative trending economic news and continued impasse in Washington on vital fiscal policies. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% yesterday to close at a record 1,593.37. It reversed this morning on news that retail sales for March came in well below expectations and that the weakness was broad based.

05 Apr 2013

Posted at 13:22h in The Friday Brief by
Stocks for the week are down between 1.8% and 2.2% according to the S&P 500 and the Broad US Market respectively. Most of the decline comes today on the disappointing news that US employers added only 88,000 jobs in March, the slowest pace in nine months. Economists were expecting an increase of 200,000 workers.