The party however, is nearly over. The spending cuts for the programs designed to help the neediest will do little to please voters when they realize that, should either of these versions pass, the deficit will not be reduced as promised. Not even close.
Week Ending 11.26.05
This holiday has more than just they dysfunctional family gatherings, more than the tryptophan overdoses, and more than the symbolic gesture of giving thanks for whatever one might have. It should prompt us to be thankful for what or who we are not.
Greenspan, the soon-to-be-but-not-soon-enough departed Fed chief has painted himself into a corner using tactics that once worked in a less vibrant, more manufacturing based economy.
Week Ending 11.05.05
Vacation
Week Ending 10.29.05
In all likelihood, the robustness of this growth, currently at 9.5% GDP, and even if it dropped a point or two, would still make most of the other economic powers sit up and take notice.
The Bush administration has done just that. Instead of embracing the possibilities that China could offer our nation, we have sought to have them first revalue their currency and now, adopt western banking practices.
Week Ending 10.22.05
And who can blame us for being short-sighted? When we have to wrap ourselves around pronouncements from the Oracle of Monetary Policy the likes of: "We appear to be revisiting... the notion that the more flexible an economy, the greater its ability to self-correct after inevitable, often unanticipated disturbances", we are bound to be a little blurry-eyed.
Week Ending 10.15.05
I'm not so sure that the Chairman's job should be filled by any of the nominees on the President's current list. If Mr. Bush's choice needs to be, as he has suggested, of unimpeachable independence, then we could be in for an interesting economic shift of policy not to mention a departure from White House policy.
Week Ending 10.08.05
Sure we survived September and the optimists are out in full force suggesting that the fourth quarter will be the one that solidifies those paltry gains. But I'm not so sure.
Week Ending 10.01.05
Greenspan can see it. The Office of the Comptroller for the Currency sees it. Why then, can't the rest of us see this approaching economic storm?
Week Ending 09.24.05
The real shortfall of the federal government, a failing we have been sufficiently informed of in the past three weeks, has not come from concern for and pledges to the people this administration governs. Instead it comes from a general lack of funds to respond to the crisis, in large part because of spending where spending is not necessary.
Week Ending 09.17.05
Here's how it should have worked: the end of the recession should have led to an increase in wages not just jobs. In a normal recovery, companies would have begun to sense that the markets were growing stronger and as a result, begin to ramp up production to meet demand.
Week Ending 09.10.05
The Bush excuse blew on shore last week with the name Katrina. Perhaps that is why no one in the administration seemed too worried about the disaster that was unfolding along the Gulf Coast.
Week Ending 09.03.05
We can safely call August the month of investor angst. In most instances when such ennui takes hold over markets and the overall sentiment begins to wane, there is little to do but wait for the tide to shift. For any sort of enthusiasm to return, investors must be able to meet all of their primary needs before attempting to grow any sort of wealth. And right now, that is becoming increasingly difficult.
Week Ending 08.27.05
Both Washington and Main Street have racked up huge debts that do not seem repayable in the near future. Both Washington and Main Street have not calculated the cost of servicing those obligations into their short-term thinking until recently.
Week Ending 08.20.05
Vacation
Week Ending 08.13.05
Jobs in construction, while not necessarily being filled by teens are still a hot sector as long as money supply and interest rates align themselves in the current environment. But that current environment is due for a change and most folks have already written a last-at-bat scenario for the interest rate hikes. Donšt be so sure.
Week Ending 08.07.05
By offering the 30 year long bond again, the Treasury hopes to show the global economy that we will be around for at least that long and of course, able to repay the debt. The hope is that the yield on these notes will be attractive enough to switch investors into the longer obligations.
Week Ending 07.30.05
In the case of the United States, an economy whose fortunes ride on the current political wave and the indefatigable capitalist belief in free markets, does not operate at its best when it is hampered by huge deficits on both the trade and budgetary fronts. Granted, economies can be nudged along with the right alignment of loose money and accommodative spending, something that has become the norm over the last five years, but it will do nothing more than limp.
Week Ending 07.23.05
Many people are familiar with the optical phenomenon of Deja vu, a feeling that you knew something beforehand. But few are familiar with another paramnesian event called Jamais vu, a corollary illusion that suggest something never seen. When you consider the past week's events and the suggestion that we should somehow be relieved or even astounded, it needs to be reckoned with immediately lest we all go crazy. Because we have never seen this before.
Week Ending 07.16.05
There was a comment passed around the floor of the NYSE last week following the post-London bombing, New York City rush hour. When the city and ones like it on the eastern seaboard were able to get to work undeterred using mass transit, the 3% loss the pre-market anticipated disappeared. Week Ending 07.09.05
The fact is the major indices were already significantly down for the year in spite of what the economists are saying about the return to confidence, the steady but slowing pace of profits and growth, and the continued presence of cheap money for every
corner of the economy.
Week Ending 07.02.05
The process seems simple enough. As you reach for your plastic, handing it to your favorite merchant, you pay little attention to what happens to that information once it is swiped. The labyrinth of security measures, supposedly in place as a system of checks and balances, was in fact the system's very undoing. Have you been stolen?
Week Ending 06.25.05
Vacation
Week Ending 06.18.05
The chairman has a limited number of visits left to Capitol HIll in his tenure before he retires in January 2006. The awe he invokes among these elected officials leaves much to be desired. The belief that firm footing is available to all could not be farther from the truth and this is where Congress has failed.
Week Ending 06.11.05
The attempt at some sort of European constitution by the members of the Union fell short of fruition and the Euro took a hit as the result. That was understandable. What wasn't so clear to me and apparently there are others as well, was the dollar, even when weak is perceived to be solid, was not so tightly tethered to our consumption.
Week Ending 06.04.05
The Federal Reserve could be perceived to be at a cross roads. It has raised rates after eight straight meetings, all in maddeningly small increments. Most believe that these quarter point hikes on the short term, overnight rate are likely to continue higher for the rest of the year. Whether it will reach 4% before Greenspan's retirement party on January 31st, remains a subject of great speculation.
Week Ending 05.28.05
The natural inclination for home buyers to believe they have bought in at the right price is determined by their ability to pay for said homestead should the market tank. Few if any take into consideration the cost of taxes and insurance as well as the possibility that salaries may not keep pace due to inflationary pressures.
Week Ending 05.21.05
The constant flood of financial data that is available, all with relevant numbers to support whatever conclusion is needed, has left many investors with a feeling of inadequacy. One report discounts another only to be supported by yet another economic news flash.
Week Ending 05.07.05
View it as an admission of guilt. The deficit is not likely to go away
and by offering this note they are admitting to having failed to
estimate the cost of runaway spending and stimulative tax cuts.
Also, a special commentary on Women and Finances
Week Ending 04.30.05
Don't wait until May pack it in for the summer. Last week's 2% rally on Thursday will repeat itself at various intervals over the next four to five months but with the negative reports beginning to stack up against the spillway of optimism, packing up early and moving to higher ground - or any ground not near equities will be not only wise, but profitable.
Week Ending 04.23.05
Among those right were the select few who had faith in the lingering effect of oil's remarkable run-up. Even if those barrel prices plunged, it is the end product that fuels the ire of middle America acting like a tax on our indomitable consumptive ways.
Week Ending 04.16.05
The idea of raising interest rates to help smooth the rough edges of the economy is necessary. His persistent stumping and his softly worded warnings have fallen on deaf ears however allowing one of the most dangerous financial situations ever to continue grow. This problem is solely Mr. Greenspan's creation.
Week Ending 04.09.05
Vacation
Week Ending 04.02.05
It is good to hear American politicians, accountants, actuaries and wordsmiths coming together to offer so many solutions to what might be a real problem - or maybe not. The President launched the opening salvos across the bow of Social Security well in advance of his inaugural address and is currently stumping his "political capital" on a state by state basis.
Week Ending 03.26.05
The first round of tax cuts has not done what the President claimed it would do. Business has not jumped at the millions of unemployed here in this country because many of them are under trained to do a job that pays so much less on foreign soil. So a second round of tax cuts, proposed in the 2006 budget should do the trick. Right?
Week Ending 03.19.05
Before Social Security can be fully debated, Congress must tweak a budget that intends to rectify those spending errors turned deficits with cuts in programs that will land squarely on the backs of middle and low income citizens.
Week Ending 03.12.05
Jacob Hacker of Yale calls it "risk privatization", a reference to the decrease in security to all Americans previously supplied by our government. Paul Krugman of the New York Times calls it "debt peonage", a reference to the post Civil War repayment of debt, a system that demanded debtors work for the creditor to repay what was owed. Warren Buffet suggested this nation was turning into a "sharecropper" society.
Week Ending 03.05.05
It is an unfortunate fact that the cost of health insurance has become so
prohibitive to some families, that coverage has been allowed to lapse.
Even with 71% of the companies offering some sort of health insurance,
according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, many people who are
healthy are opting not to pay the ever increasing premiums.
Archived articles and commentary reaching back to March 2002
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