Common Cents Blog
The best thing I can say about this week is the weather is absolutely beautiful here in Birmingham as I type this on Friday morning. Other than that, if it could go wrong this week, it…
What a difference a week and one economic report make! Things HAD been going somewhat swimmingly in September. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) drained the pool with a disappointing Consumer Price Index…
Last Wednesday, August 31st, I officially joined the pandemic club by testing positive for COVID-19 for the first time. I had hoped to never become a member of this particular group. However, the virus had other…
In March 2020, my wife, Margaret, and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and we had planned to celebrate with a vacation to Italy. Needless to say, that trip was postponed – several times. The trip finally…
This past Saturday, I made a presentation at a convention in Las Vegas. There were probably 300 people in the room, which was a little surprising. I said to the group, “Take a look to your…
This week, I made a presentation with my friend Anoop Mishra, the regional executive of the Birmingham branch of the Federal Reserve. Miller Girvin at the EDPA had asked us to speak for 20-25 minutes about…
This past week, the government reported just about every measure of inflation was lower in July than it had been in June. Even so, the trailing 12-month numbers are still near levels the U.S. economy hasn’t…
There you have it. Another week of weird economic data and head-scratching headlines is in the books. For the past couple of years, people have talked about the “New Normal.” If what we are living through…
This week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced the US economy (GDP) contracted 0.6% during the second quarter of 2022 (2Q). 2Q GDP. This was the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction, as least as…
The rally in the stock markets thus far in July has been a long time coming. While we haven’t mopped up all of the red ink from the first half of the year, this respite from…