“Choice without alternative is only a sleight of hand, it is a magician’s force-play during which you believe you have free will, but your fate has already been decided.” – Garth Stein Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome (Jay) Powell certainly left no chance for misunderstanding on where he stood on incarcerating our country’s least wanted intruder, inflation. Speaking at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 25th...
Read MoreThe mystery of man has no beginning and no end. His intuition and feeling unfold and blend. The Mystery of Man – William Hermanns For investors, the experience of March may have felt a bit like a walk in the park, but readers of the financial press perhaps wondered if it was a book best placed back on the shelf. “Strong Finish Can’t Salvage Tough Quarter for Stocks” opined...
Read More“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” - Socrates The war in Europe feels like footsteps not quite reaching the pavement. The March 1st Financial Times headlined “Nike Suspends Online Purchases in Russia” and “Carmaker Ford Suspends Operations in Russia”. The same day’s Wall Street Journal joined in with “The West’s Sanctions Barrage Severs Russia’s...
Read MoreThe reflection on the surface of the water is often mistaken for the mysteries that lie beneath. Likewise, the reflection of the moon is mistaken for its own light.” – Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen The 14.4 % decline in the S&P 500 from the market close at year’s end to its low for the month on January 24th is what captured the headlines. Forbes Magazine mused “Will Inflation...
Read More“Time in its aging course teaches all things.”- Aeschylus, Prometheus Unbound There is a narrative that, while not held universally, is being offered with increasing frequency by the mavens of economic and financial market wisdom. The Federal Reserve, widely castigated only several months ago for having allowed the inflation genie to escape, is viewed by some as about to embark upon a serious policy error. In their view, the...
Read More"I see you standing in the alleys and the hallways. Wait a second, you’re gone now. I run to touch you but you vanish through the doorway." -lyrics from 'Mirage', Tommy James & the Shondells “The economy is very strong and inflationary pressures are high, and it is therefore appropriate in my view, to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases…” so quoth US Federal Reserve Chairman...
Read MoreMark H. Tekamp November 15, 2021
Read MoreYes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run…as we wind on down the road …And if you listen very hard the tune will come to you at last Lyrics, “Stairway to Heaven”; Led Zeppelin An observer of the financial markets, echoing what might be described as consensus thinking, opined “with economic growth weakening and inflation increasing, the risk of a reversal is increasing.”...
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