13 May 2011

Posted at 14:53h in The Friday Brief by
Prices are rising where we notice them the most; the grocery store and the gas pump, so it feels like inflation is rearing its ugly head again.  On an unadjusted annual basis, headline inflation was up 3.2% in April while the core (excludes food and energy) was up 1.3%. A headline rate of 3.2% is not unusual for recent history. It peaked once in 2008, reaching 3.8%, but has not sustained highs much above 3% since the 70’s and late 80’s.

06 May 2011

Posted at 14:54h in The Friday Brief by
Our economic recovery has, in the opinion of most economists, become self-sustaining, but remarkably slow relative to former recoveries. Job growth has been a primary drag and remains exceptionally slow to recover. Ben Bernanke, during the first-ever press conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting said “the labor market is improving gradually. We would like to make sure that that is sustainable. The longer it goes on, the more confident we are.” Economic growth slowed to 1.8% in the first quarter, following at 3.1% rate in the fourth quarter of 2010.

29 Apr 2011

Posted at 15:28h in The Friday Brief by
In perhaps the most audacious and partisan verbal tempest so far as we approach the looming budget storm, Treasurer Geithner said “what I want to make sure they [italics added, referring to Republicans] don't do is take us too far into June, take us too close to the edge.” Amplifying those remarks, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said any Republican effort to hold out on a debt-ceiling vote for deficit-reduction measures “could in fact tank the global economy.” He added “it would be foolhardy to play chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States of America. It is simply too risky.”

15 Apr 2011

Posted at 15:30h in The Friday Brief by
Based on the rhetoric flying around Washington, it seems unlikely that meaningful budgetary reform will come in the next two years. In his Wednesday campaign-like speech Mr. Obama stated his intention to raise taxes more clearly than any other part of his plan. Just as clearly, House Republicans claim that tax increases are dead on arrival in their chamber. It even turns out that $38.5 billion ‘savings’ in government spending, triumphantly celebrated by Boehner, Reid, and Obama, will only cut this year’s deficit by $352 million according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Don’t these guys get it that Americans are fed up with reckless spending, political posturing and outright lies?