Federal Reserve

Baseball season is about half way over with the All-Star Game taking place this coming Tuesday.  Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers have, thus far, been treated to a winning season.  Of course, October is many months away, so it’s premature to call this year’s team champions.  Contrarily, the calendar year is just beyond the half-way mark, and the Federal Reserve isn&rsq

When I learned to drive, I was taught two techniques help stop a car in a hurry: down shifting and pumping the brakes.  It required an understanding of when to use the two together and also the finesse to pull it off efficiently.  If I’m being honest, I don’t know if I could do it anymore.  It’s been decades since I’ve owned a car with a manual transmissio

Shhhhhh…Did you hear that?  Policy changes are afoot globally.  Central banks around the world are quickly pivoting their positions on the global economy.  It started Wednesday with America’s Federal Reserve.  But then the Bank of England (BOE) got in on it yesterday.  After years of supporting economic output by creating money, they are starting to reverse

Our economy is hardly flying on one engine, but the international radio distress signal seems appropriate.  Why?  May is right around the corner, and the Federal Reserve will likely begin tightening its monetary policy during the period.  On Wednesday, the central bank unveiled its plan to shrink their balance sheet.

Inflation is a challenge for any family’s plan to retire.  Ask Tom Brady.  After leaving the NFL last month, he announced a comeback earlier this week.  Could soaring prices have been the driver?  Ok, probably not, especially since he will reportedly earn $25 million for playing the season.

Classic relationships can be so romantic.  They can even inform our own ideas about the successfulness of our pairings.  Take Ethel and Fred Mertz.  I know Lucy and Ricky are the main characters, but their neighbors really crack me up.  Like Fred, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked for the price tag on some item my wife wants to get rid of because I thin

Income and outlays data provide an important and frequent look into the state of our economy.    Of course, income is, for the most part, a necessary condition for spending.  Outlays, in the report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE) represents over two-thirds of our nation’s output.  Both were mixed in October 2020 according to the Bureau of Economic Analy

Zombies are occasionally the subjects of fictional works.  These undead, horror-related characters are found in books, music videos, movies, and video games.  Often pathogens infect them, turning a once lively person into no more than an animated corporeal without other human essences.  Once an individual transitions, they may become a vector of the disease for which there is no

A portmanteau is one for my favorite tools of the English language.  It sounds awfully French to be English, but I digress.  They result from blending two or more words.  Spork is probably the most utilitarian one I can think of.  You can eat a salad or bowl of cereal with that portmanteau.   Those of us in Southern California are familiar with smog (smoke + fog).&