Thought Leadership

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Trench Warfare

This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the “The Employment Situation – October 2021,” which showed the US economy created 531K net, new payroll jobs. This was significantly higher than last month’s initial reading…

Is the stock market expensive?

Growing up, my parents would listen to the radio every morning getting ready for the day. It was always on an AM news station, and when Paul Harvey came on, it was time for the kids…

“Build Back Better” Tax Plan Update

Yesterday afternoon, the newest version of the “Build Back Better” Tax Plan was released. While this is only a proposal it is worth noting that there are several major changes from the version of the bill…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Making Lemonade

Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BEA) reported the US economy grew at a 2.0% annualized rate during the 3rd Quarter of 2021. This was slower than analysts were expecting, and much slower than 2nd Quarter’s…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Risk

In the investment industry, we talk a lot about risk and reward. Over time, they should be perfectly, positively correlated. The more risk you take, the more reward you should receive. The opposite is also true,…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Bottlenecks

Prior to the pandemic, how often did you think about, let alone discuss, supply chain bottlenecks? After all, what was there to think about? Stuff just ended up on the shelves, somehow. It all just happened.…

Macro & Market Perspectives

3rd Quarter 2021 Outlook & Overview

Oakworth Capital Bank’s Investment Committee predicted the 3rd Quarter of 2021 would expand on the 2nd Quarter’s strong growth and market returns. Given the persistent tailwinds in the US economy, this was a relatively easy prediction.…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Waiting

“The waiting is the hardest part Every day you get one more yard You take it on faith, you take it to the heart The waiting is the hardest part”  Tom Petty   After a somewhat…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & Worry

It had all been going so nicely, hadn’t it? After seven consecutive months of positive returns in the stock market, was it too much to ask for just one more? Apparently it was, as after mostly…

Common Cents Blog

Common Cents & The Fed

This week, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the policy making arm of the Federal Reserve, met, and didn’t make any substantive changes to current monetary policy. No one was expecting it to do so. However,…