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Imagine the Federal Reserve as a skilled dancer, gracefully navigating the dance floor of the economy.  Right now, they’re performing a delicate waltz, trying to keep in step with a weakening labor market and persistent inflation that refuses to approach their two percent target.

It’s the holiday season.  The time of year when Hershey Kisses are wrapped in green and red in addition to their traditional plain foil packaging.  Years ago, they ran an add reading, “Big things come in small packages.”  You can see an example here.  In short, they didn’t want consumers to miss the

Housing markets are ever-changing.  Each month Atlas notes developments when writing about both the new and existing home sales.  Many obvious changes happen (e.g., prices, transaction volume, or inventories), but other underlying currents are less obvious.  The National Association of Realtors (NAR) created their 2024 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, and it sheds some light o

Big Brother Doctor

Humans have been competing against machines for a long time.  Take John Henry for instance; he was an African American freedman known for his ability to quickly drive steel into rock, making holes for explosives, blasting the rock to construct railroad tunnels.  As the legend goes, Mr.

For most readers, the following is news: my wife and I rescued a dog in October.  We’re told that Journey is a 70-pound labradoodle, about three years old.   Before we could take him home, the rescue required him to be neutered.  For the first couple of weeks, we didn’t know him without his cone of shame.  But the plastic one was so disruptive to the tranqui

Henry Ford is remembered for revolutionizing the automobile industry, doing so by introducing the assembly line.

Bridges are an important part of infrastructure.  They keep commerce humming when barriers need to be crossed.  Such obstacles can be either man-made like trains or natural like rivers.  Metaphoric bridges can also be built to close the gap between two nations, often also resulting in added commerce. 

Atlas thinks a lot about maps and modeling.  These tools allow us all to better understand complex systems without having to have every piece of information; think Alfred Korzybski’s idea that, “the map is not the territory.”  Nevertheless, these maps and models of cities, for instance, help us navigate large and everchanging transportation arteries across the nation

Each month the Treasury Department releases a Treasury Statement.  This helps us understand the state of America’s fiscal situation.  These reports tend to be produced around the middle of each month, tallying the government’s prior month’s income and spending.  America’s fiscal year runs from October first through September 30^th.  With tha