11 Nov 2016

Posted at 12:20h in The Friday Brief by

Whether or not President-elect Donald Trump has a mandate to pursue the huge changes he aspires to make is a matter of debate. He won impressively from an electoral standpoint, but the popular vote looks razor-close. What is practically inarguable is the fact that the...

24 Jun 2016

Posted at 11:09h in The Friday Brief by
The latest reminder of how divided we are around the world and how poorly our political systems understand and have adapted comes this morning as British citizens voted yesterday 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. The referendum itself was the result of a risky campaign pledge Prime Minister David Cameron made in order to gain re-election. He calculated the referendum was the only way he could placate anti-EU Conservatives in his party, while holding off the growing threat that the U.K Independence Party might fracture his majority in Parliament.

01 Apr 2016

Posted at 11:53h in The Friday Brief by
The Federal Reserve continues to be the guiding light for stock and bond investors. This week Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in a speech “Given the risks to the outlook, I consider it appropriate for the committee to proceed cautiously in adjusting policy.” Following the last meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on March 15-16, the Fed sharply reduced its projected path of interest-rate rises this year, forecasting a total increase of half a percentage point, down from the full percentage point increase they expected in December. “The major thing that’s changed between December and March that affects the baseline outlook is a slightly weaker projected pace of global growth,” she said. “Global developments pose ongoing risks,” she added, citing specifically the dangers posed by the economic slowdown in China and the collapse in the price of oil, according to reports in the WSJ.

27 Feb 2015

Posted at 16:50h in The Friday Brief by
Last week during her Congressional testimony before the House, Fed Chair Janet Yellen did a good job of expressing the Central Bank's view that interest rates needed to rise eventually and she did so without jarring the markets. Since the financial crisis of 2008 and 09 the Federal Reserve has pulled out all the stops to keep the US economy moving ahead. The last and most controversial phases of their policy were labeled QE1, 2, and 3, short for Quantitative Easing.