04 Jan 2002

Posted at 16:32h in The Friday Brief by
It’s 18 degrees outside with more than a foot of snow on the ground, but news of Washington politics, worse than usual, still manages to make my blood boil.  I know it’s 2002 and control of the Senate and House are up for grabs by Republicans or Democrats.  But, I still manage to allow my optimistic nature the latitude to expect that, occasionally and for longer than a few days, congressmen and women could place concerns of our economy and our national well being above political point making.  Tom Daschle, Senate Majority Leader, in a noon speech today, will call for a tax credit for companies that create jobs as part of an economic policy highlighting the differences between President George W. Bush and Democrats.  The “job creation tax credit” would be packaged with depreciation bonuses for capital investments and tax benefits for business losses in previous years under the plan.  These measures are essentially Trojan horse with tax increases lurking inside.  In his speech, Daschle, will attack Bush's $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut enacted last year and call for budget discipline. He'll argue that a return to government surpluses will help keep interest rates low and that this is the best way to spur growth.  “The most important thing we should do is restore long-term fiscal integrity to our budget so we can bring long-term interest rates down,” Daschle will say, “the tax cut has taken away our flexibility and left us with only two choices, both of them bad.”  Those choices include shortchanging needs such as homeland security or raiding the Social Security surplus, he says. 

07 Dec 2001

Posted at 15:42h in The Friday Brief by
In April of 1991, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that a recession had begun eight months earlier in July of 1990.  They later announced that same recession had ended in March of 1991.  The recession was actually over and recovery in progress before the recession was officially declared.  The same official body recently declared that our economy entered a recession in March of this year. The economy contracted at a 1.1% annual rate between July and September as consumer spending slowed, business spending slumped, and companies slashed inventories. It is the largest decline since the first quarter of 1991, at the end of the previous recession. 

28 Sep 2001

Posted at 09:22h in The Friday Brief by
To wish for something with the expectation of its fulfillment Our expectations for a market recovery were growing stronger in the days before the attacks as factory orders began showing improvement.  After the markets’ week long close investors sold stocks with renewed fears of recession.  The theme among pundits was that we were probably in recession before the attacks and that likelihood seems almost certain now.  Experts further agree that the recession will be deeper than before, but of a shorter duration.  There are several rationales for a shorter, deeper, or “V shaped” recession.   The consumer, credited with holding this economy afloat for months, is undoubtedly shaken by recent events and will likely slow his spending.  In effect, consumer confidence dropped in moments instead of grinding down slowly, over a period of weeks under the constant drone of layoffs and disappointing corporate profits.  So, we have reached lower consumer confidence numbers much faster than we would have before the tragedies.