30 Oct 2015

Posted at 12:00h in The Friday Brief by
[caption id="attachment_7450" align="alignleft" width="300"]Fed Chair, Janet Yellen Fed Chair, Janet Yellen[/caption] The financial news is dominated by speculation of when the Fed will increase interest rates. It matters because the Fed is the only economic policy maker with any potential or apparent willingness to stimulate our economy. The Administration continues to pile on regulations and complicate the tax structure, while the Congress, through its brokenness, allows sequestration to continue cutting more deeply into the areas of government spending (defense and social) that are actually stimulative to economic growth.

28 Feb 2014

Posted at 15:24h in The Friday Brief by
One of Wall Street's wisest admonishments is to avoid positioning one's investments contrary to Fed guidance or actions. After all, they are the only buyer or seller in the US with an unlimited supply of money for their purposes. Since the Great Recession our Federal Reserve has been bent and determined to stimulate employment, with few references to the inflation it might cause. In fact, they have been far more concerned with deflation than with the threat of too much money driving up prices.

17 Sep 2010

Posted at 16:31h in The Friday Brief by
The mood on Wall Street has brightened considerably over the last couple of weeks. With only one down day in the last 12 (not counting Tuesday’s decline of .06%) the S&P has rallied 7.5% so far this September, following the worst August since 2001 losing 4.7%. September is traditionally a bad month for stocks as companies begin warning of earnings disappointments for the third quarter and mutual fund managers return to stir their pots as they return from summer vacations.

25 Jun 2010

Posted at 15:47h in The Friday Brief by
The ‘green shoots’ of economic recovery characterized by Ben Bernanke in mid 2009 are withering as the housing slump drags on, unemployment remains chronically high, consumer spending remains stagnate, Europe’s debt crisis eludes resolution, state governments grow increasingly insolvent, and the economic and ecological catastrophe in the Gulf grows worse by the day. For the second time, the government revised downward their estimate of US gross domestic product from to 2.7%. The first estimate was 3.2%, followed by a correction to 3.0%. Year over year real GDF (inflation adjusted) is up 2.4%, compared to up .1% for the fourth quarter.