Common Cents Blog

After the deluge of red ink in September and October, we have told our clients to expect the stock market to rally to close the year. Of course, when you say such things, you have to…

Currently, there seems to be no shortage of bricks for our wall of worry. Higher interest rates, coupled with a negatively sloped yield curve, are troublesome. Our nation’s growing public debt is a problem. The lack…

This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced the U.S. economy created 150K net, new payroll jobs during October 2023. Of these, only 99K were in the private sector. Both of these observations were less…

Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Statistics (BEA) announced U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a feverish 4.9% during the 3rd Quarter of 2023. If you had told me earlier in the year the economy would…

Recently, my wife has become almost obsessed with the evening news. While she has always been mostly on top of the passing scene, the current news cycle has both fascinated and scared her significantly. I doubt…

I am not an overly superstitious person. Black cats don’t faze me. Broken mirrors aren’t an issue. Horoscopes are a complete waste of time, as are fortune cookies. Walking under a ladder doesn’t give me pause,…

Last night, my wife asked me what I thought about the impending government shutdown. Would it ruin the economy? Is the government really out of money? You know Molly (a friend) has already been furloughed up…

This week, the monetary policy making arm of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), left the target overnight lending rate between member banks unchanged. The upper bound remains at 5.50%, and the lower…

On Friday, June 30th 2023, something big happened. Not only did it mark the end of the first half of 2023, but it was also a very good day in the stock market. The S&P 500…