At his first press conference of the new year, Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell made it clear monetary policy is on cruise control for now, despite increasing pressure from the new administration to approve more interest rate cuts. “The public should be confident that we will continue to do our work as we always […]Read More
If a rising tide lifts all boats, then the country’s biggest banks are riding high in their luxury yachts. While inflation was an economic thorn, 2024 was a pretty good year for the U.S. economy. When final gross domestic product numbers are in, they will likely show the United States posted the fastest growth of […]Read More
After a huge year in 2024, the landscape for cryptocurrencies could change dramatically over the next several months. Crypto’s standard bearer Bitcoin increased 150% in 2024 while the aggregate value of all digital currencies nearly doubled to $3.3 trillion, fueled by the launch of exchange-traded funds for Bitcoin. And while there has been a lot […]Read More
Whether travelling back to the future, taking a walk along the time tunnel or just relaxing in a hot tub time machine, Americans have long been fascinated with time. Even during the holiday season, when the workday routine is replaced with festive celebrations with family and friends, we still can’t stop thinking about the year […]Read More
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – if you are a consumer looking for deals on holiday gifts. But the season of giving has become the season of discounts and that could mean less than merry results for retailers. According to the conventional wisdom, the day after Thanksgiving is the shining gate to […]Read More
Consumer confidence has traditionally been one of the key measures of the health of the U.S. economy. But no longer. Consumer confidence is now a bogus statistic, suitable only for cherry picking a data point that sounds persuasive but really isn’t. In the first post-election snapshot of consumer attitudes, the results unsurprisingly showed that those […]Read More
There are big things coming in the world of artificial intelligence. Not better self-driving cars or android personal assistants or even our robot overlords. The next big thing in AI will be government oversight and it is happening now. The U.S. Commerce Department sent out a media release in late October marking the one-year anniversary […]Read More
If you believe the political pundits and prognosticators, Americans are tightly focused on the upcoming election and that means the economy is top of mind. The conventional wisdom, repeated every election cycle, is that people vote with their wallets and while other issues can animate the campaign, when it comes to politics, economics is king. […]Read More
There have been a lot of famous people named Milton offering society important lessons on a range of topics. Economist and 1976 Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was a prominent advocate of free market economics and wrote about the social responsibility of business to increase profits. Those lessons, including his book “Capitalism and Freedom,” spelled […]Read More
After months of speculation and more than a little economic angst, the Federal Reserve Board finally grabbed hold of the monetary policy lever and gave it a pull. So what comes next? Wall Street responded with a 103-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 followed suit on the […]Read More
