Common Cents Blog
Last night, my wife told me a frustrating story about something which had happened during her day. She had called a medical office which had been sending invoices demanding payment for services rendered. On at least…
I started recommending gold pretty soon after the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) exchange traded fund became available at the end of 2004. It was an easy way to get precious metal exposure in a “paper portfolio.”…
Before you read the contrary someplace else, know this—the sun is going to come up in the east tomorrow. The Earth is not going to stop revolving. The world is not going to collapse. Essentially, none…
I have a crystal ball in my office. Seriously, I do. It was a gift from a client, who happens to be my old T-ball coach. Every time someone says something along the lines of “I…
Depending on your point of view, the first several weeks of the second Trump administration have been either invigorating or infuriating. They certainly haven’t been boring. However, will all of the upset apple carts ultimately be…
This week, the markets had to digest two disappointing economic reports. Objectively, they did so splendidly. To that end, the S&P 500 was up over 1.5% during the week as of 2:00 pm CDT. The first…
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released “The Employment Situation – January 2025.” In it, the BLS reported the Unemployment Rate fell from 4.1% to 4.0%, and the economy created 143K net, new payroll…
To many, this past week has been little more than the lull between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl. However, to investment types, it was chock full of important information. There was a Federal…
Perhaps not surprisingly, I have gotten a lot of questions this week about what impact Donald Trump’s enormous wish list will have on the economy. More specifically, folks seem to be pretty worried about the impact…
This week, many investors have undoubtedly scratched their heads at the strength of some of the economic data. The most surprising of these were the Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook (Philly Fed) survey and Housing Starts for…