Common Cents Blog
When Georgia won the national championship, we all should have known 2022 was going to be a rocky year. Sure, that might be spurious correlation, and it is; however, the country seems to have staggered from…
Doing what I do for a living, I tend to be popular when I don’t really want to be. After all, when the markets are going up and the economy is humming, who really cares what…
A couple of days ago, my wife asked me what I wanted for Father’s Day. Since I am not her father, I told her I wanted for nothing, and I meant it. If the kids want…
With the exception of Mondays, our investment committee holds a conference call for Oakworth associates every morning. Before each member of our committee shares their thoughts on the economy and markets, I ask them to “give…
This week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its second stab at calculating the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) equation for the 1st Quarter of 2022. It seems things were slightly worse than previously announced, as…
For years, I have maintained the biggest threat to the United States isn’t economic in nature. It is societal. That isn’t as insightful as it is obvious. Taking it one step further, I would argue the…
My daughter and I largely share the same sense of humor. We often find comedy in things which many people wouldn’t. For instance, there is a certain type of joke called an anti-joke which you either…
What should I write about today? That the data suggests we are NOT on the verge of economic Armageddon? That the Federal Reserve does NOT appear poised to crush the economy in order to throttle inflation?…
Some years ago, a wise person told me the true definition of an economic downturn is: “having to go without stuff your grandparents wouldn’t have dreamed of having in the first place.” I am not sure…
When compared to the relative ease of last year, 2022 has been akin to what an old boss of mine might have called “dragging a mule through the mud.” The crazy thing about that sentence isn’t…