Common Cents Blog
Here we are, over a week later. The world has not stopped revolving. The sun has continued to rise in the East. No one has paved the streets with gold. In fact, not much has changed…
My alarm goes off at 5:30 am every workday morning, and this past Wednesday was no exception. Having gone to bed around 9:30 pm on Tuesday night, I immediately checked the Associated Press (AP) app on…
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released “The Employment Situation – October 2024,” otherwise known as the jobs report. Unless you are a complete Pollyanna, it wasn’t good. The U.S. economy apparently created 12K…
This week, Sam Clement and I discussed the restaurant industry on our “Trading Perspectives” podcast. Most specifically, we talked about what appears to be a significant change in consumer behavior and how this will impact the…
This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for September 2024. It reported the aggregate CPI was up 0.2% last month, and has increased 2.4% over the previous 12…
There has been precious little good news in the headlines this week. From Hurricane Helene’s destruction, to the longshoremen’s strike, to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and the ongoing political (and societal) divisions…
Birmingham captured both national and global headlines this past week after a mass shooting occurred Saturday night in Five Points South, one of our popular entertainment districts. As I type here on September 27, 2024, there have…
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the policy making arm of the Federal Reserve, cut the overnight lending target rate this past week. There had been much speculation about whether it would do so by either…
The summer I graduated from high school, a Swedish rock band named Europe released a song called “The Final Countdown.” This was seriously silly stuff about a spaceship taking the group to Venus, hoping the locals…
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released “The Employment Situation – August 2024.” To say this was one of the most widely anticipated economic reports in recent memory would be an understatement. Conventional wisdom…