inflation | Choose Stocks Wisely

What a Weird Market!

Hey Friends. I hope your summer is off to a great start. Here in the deep south, we have recently seen unusual rains and electrical storms but it has all calmed down now and it’s the typical summer weather again (hot and humid with isolated showers once in a while).

While the weather has been unusual lately, the market is more unusual, in my view. Feelings can steer you off course, but this market feels very “weird” to me. The uncertainties of runaway debt levels coupled with inflation where the jury is still out on the Fed’s future course of adjusting interest rates just don’t seem to correlate at all with the confidence shown toward stocks. […]

June 23rd, 2023|Balance Sheet, debt, inflation, interest rates|0 Comments

Inflation Has Revealed Some Hard Truths about Money

Hey Friends. I hope you are enjoying the arrival of spring, and that my post finds you doing well. Today’s post will present some of my thoughts on money, in light of the long-predicted arrival of inflation. […]

March 24th, 2023|Balance Sheet, confidence, inflation, money|2 Comments

The Unemotional Stock Market

Hello again friends. Thank you, as always, for your support toward my writing efforts. Thank you for reading my blog posts!

Are we in a recession? Are we going to see inflation brought under control very soon? If so, will it be soon enough to enable a soft landing for the economy, and then followed by a swift recovery? When one has money invested in the stock market, questions like the ones just posed can test the emotions. We don’t like uncertainty but that’s the nature of the stock market. […]

February 25th, 2023|Balance Sheet, inflation, recession, Stock market|4 Comments

Where Does the Fed Go From Here?

Hi friends. I hope you had a great Christmas and will have a blessed and healthy 2023!

Today’s post addresses something many of you are likely pondering, namely our ever-growing national debt alongside our rapidly increasing government borrowing rate. What do you think the Fed will/can do looking ahead? I’m sure most of you feel we have to get government spending down and under control. I would concur with that thinking. But today, I’m wondering given our present course and debt situation, what do you think the Fed will/can do in the coming years?? The Fed has been the principal vehicle of monetary policy for a very long time. […]

January 20th, 2023|inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, national debt|6 Comments

Oil and Inflation

Hey friends. The tentacles of inflationary pressures are many (wage growth, capacity, confidence, etc.). Yet, when oil prices rise significantly, we can count on inflation. And when they fall significantly, we note costs go down, not just at the gas pump. […]

August 13th, 2022|going green, inflation, oil and gas|2 Comments

Supply-Side Inflation

Hey Friends. I hope you are doing well today. This post will posit the idea that inflation may be different this time.

The Fed is trying to rein in inflation by increasing short-term interest rates. This is a tightening, or contracting, monetary policy that increases the cost of borrowing capital and thereby dampens demand for money. How does this help bring inflation under control, one might ask? […]

July 15th, 2022|inflation, interest rates, supply and demand|3 Comments

Tough Inflation Numbers Today

Hey friends. Happy Friday to each of you!

Most of you have probably seen or heard that the inflation data today was not good; and, indeed, it was worse than projected. Americans are really feeling it in their pocketbooks too, especially at the gas pump. The news was not received well by a stock market already feeling less and less sure about how persistent inflation might be. Also, what will it take for the Fed to get a handle on inflation? […]

June 10th, 2022|Federal Reserve, inflation, interest rates|0 Comments

A Paper-Driven Stock Market

Hey friends. I don’t know about you but my thinking is that we are becoming more and more a paper-driven stock market. The money printing press has been running hard for years as the U.S. debt goes ever higher. […]

August 15th, 2020|Federal Reserve, Fiat money, gold/silver, inflation, national debt|0 Comments

Volatility Galore; What’s Going On?

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (ticker symbol, VIX) has been all over the proverbial map this week to date. It is often regarded as the fear index. Go here to read more detail on the Volatility Index. […]

February 9th, 2018|inflation, national debt, VIX|1 Comment