This past Wednesday, the “spot” price for gold closed above $4,000/troy ounce for the first time ever. By this measure alone, the shiny stuff is as expensive as it has ever been. At the end of…
Common Cents Blog
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did NOT release “The Employment Situation – September 2025” as it was supposed to do. So, the markets will have to wait a little while longer to ascertain…
Perhaps not surprisingly, people frequently ask me about the potential impact artificial intelligence (AI) might have on the labor markets and, therefore, the U.S. economy. After all, consumer spending makes up close to 70% of Gross Domestic…
As everyone who reads economic newsletters should know by now, the Federal Reserve cut the target overnight lending rate by 0.25% last week. This move should not have come as a surprise to anyone. It was…
This past week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued a revision to the previously announced, and previously revised, change in nonfarm payroll numbers from April 2024 through March 2025. It seems, there were actually 911K…
Great news, no one is getting a new job! This year marks my 30th year in this industry, and I am still sometimes caught off guard when bad news for the economy is good news for…
This past Saturday, a friend of mine asked if the recent events in the markets were as exciting as they seemed to be. She was more than a little surprised when I told her they were…
Around 9:00 am CDT this past Friday, I watched Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell deliver a speech about the economy and monetary policy. He was perfectly starched in a suit and tie, and you wouldn’t have…
This past week, I told people on several occasions the administration’s tariffs are not necessarily inflationary. They aren’t. As such, the Federal Reserve shouldn’t be horsing around waiting to see what tariffs will do to consumer…
I am currently almost finished with the third of four books I bought about the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Cultural Revolution) in China. Admittedly, this is not the topic of discussion at cocktail parties in my…