Weekly Brief
This Too Shall Pass
Last week, we outlined how the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking productivity and what that could potentially impact your investments. I had a nice post teed up to carry on with that theme, but a few events happened this week that I thought deserved the...
Testing The New Layout
H ow is productivity defined and why is it important for our investments?The US continues to recover from the 2020 pandemic and companies are resuming their productivity. How is productivity defined and why is it important for our investments? How is productivity...
Future of Inflation
For the past year, a key concern among investors has been rising inflation. The press has been noting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been increasing at a faster pace not seen since the early 1980’s. However, as usual, the media is only reporting part of the...
How Productive are We?
Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor released the US economic productivity report. Productivity measures the growth of labor efficiency in producing the economy's goods and services. Unit labor costs reflect the labor costs of...
Learning from the Media
Right on cue from last week’s Brief (Feelings and Market Volatility), last Friday’s Wall Street Journal top of fold front-page headline reads, “Economy Caps Strong Year as Worries Lurk.” Awesome. In other words, the US economy had a stronger 2022 year of earnings,...
Feelings and Market Volatility
The question among behavior economist is whether declining consumer confidence precedes market weakness or does market weakness cause people to lose confidence? To expand the question, what causes consumer confidence to decline in the first place even when more people...
Voting Machines, Weighing Machines, and a Market Riddle
In a famed 1993 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, Warren Buffett referenced his mentor, Benjamin Graham, by saying, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine – reflecting a voter-registration test that requires only money, not intelligence or emotional...
2021 Ends Strong! Yea!
Happy New Year! 2021 did not disappoint in the weirdness that started in 2020, and hard to believe that we have been living with the threat of economic shutdowns and stay-at-home initiatives for two years now. The hopes and prayers are that 2022 will have better days...
Markets On Roll to End Strong!
Two weeks ago, we questioned if the US economy and stock market would stumble or sprint to the finish line driving the major stock indices to new highs continuing this year’s momentum. This week, Mastercard SpendingPulse announced that retail holiday sales excluding...
Desperate or Determined Shoppers
For several weeks the main media mantra has been consistent with dooming forecasts of potential Omincron infection rates and the possibility of new health-related restrictions on US businesses and society. Supporting these concerns are several countries shutting down...
Stumble or Sprint to the Finish
It is so painful to watch a long-distance runner performing at their highest level up to but not including the finish line. Even in marathon races, after running 26 of the 26.2 total miles up and down city streets, these amazing athletes then sprint, pushing...
Santa Rally in the Making?
September had the largest monthly decline in 2021, with a solid October rebound. However, the October tailwind behind the market dissipated in November just as the holiday season retail season was getting started, and unemployment has declined to the lowest level...
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