News The Fed’s Reverse Jinx Posted on August 31, 2023 By Matt The Fed wants inflation to drop to 2%. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says that getting to that level will require below-trend GDP growth and softer labor market conditions. Did he just say recession without saying recession? On one hand, things would be so much easier for the Fed if the… Read more
News What the Media was Worried About – May 2022 Posted on July 23, 2022July 20, 2022 By Matt I’m catching up. May had fewer headlines, but they were pretty huge. Page One Leak from the Supreme Court that they will overturn Roe vs Wade, making abortion a state issue, not federal. Economy/Markets Federal Reserve raises rates 0.75% (huge raise). Equity markets rally 3% on the day. Bank of… Read more
News What the Media was Worried About – April 2022 Posted on July 20, 2022 By Matt Looks like I fell behind in updating monthly crises. Expect a relative flurry of posting as I catch up. The world is ending, after all. April’s headlines were dominated by Ukraine and Elon. Ukraine Atrocities reported in Ukraine NATO strategy might not be to win, but to prolong the conflict… Read more
4 Things I’m Watching Posted on October 25, 2021 By Matt My last post was one year ago. The topics dominating headlines have changed (other than the pandemic), but what hasn’t changed is uncertainty. The longer I’m in this business, the more I realize that uncertainty is always present. That is, it’s a present-tense issue. Uncertainty is misremembered in hindsight. Things… Read more
Investing Election Season Posted on August 14, 2020 By Matt Election season can be difficult for investors of all political stripes. Uncertainty abounds. It’s easy to tie a piece of one’s identity to a candidate or party. If they win, we feel like winners. If they lose, we feel diminished. As far as investing goes, however, our candidates’ fates have… Read more
Investing Where are the Bees? Posted on August 5, 2020 By Matt “Where are the bees?” I saw this question asked on a local social media group recently. Several replies expressed the same sentiment. It seems like the neighborhood has a bee shortage, likely due to the overwhelming collapse of the world’s insect population. Surely the only insects left standing in a… Read more
Headlines, Mulch, and Evangelical Misery Posted on April 24, 2020 By Matt Toilet paper aisles may be sparse, but one thing we’re not lacking is opinions on the pandemic. Everyone’s got their take and a pet conspiracy theory to go with it. Here’s mine: From a human standpoint, the United States has done a great job mobilizing (or immobilizing in this… Read more
Family 9 Ways to Wait Out the Remainder of the Quarantine Posted on April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 By Matt Depending on how prepared you were, the early days might have been manic, establishing supply lines and hoarding toilet paper. As churches and bars (trying to cover all bases here) stopped regular service it sank in that this was something that would last weeks, not days. Now you’ve reached the… Read more
Investing Long-Term Posted on March 12, 2020 By Matt Long-Term There’s an old joke on Wall Street that investors like to say that they invest with a long-term mindset. It’s just that long-term means only until the next bear market. Stock is a claim on a company’s assets and future earnings. There are a bunch of different ways to… Read more
News Super Tuesday and Re-Branding the Coronavirus Posted on March 4, 2020 By Matt Super Tuesday Joe Biden took control of the Democratic Primaries last night on Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders was expected to win California which was supposed to maintain his lead even if Biden managed to close the gap somehow. It looks like Bernie’s momentum ran out instead. Joe Biden has taken… Read more