Market Commentary | October 13th, 2025
The ongoing government shutdown has created a data vacuum, delaying key economic reports and clouding visibility for the Federal Reserve ahead of its next meeting. Markets now face the unenviable task of interpreting policy direction with limited official data, relying instead on supplemental and tangential indicators to gauge the economy’s trajectory.
Market Commentary | October 6th, 2025
Last week’s economic data painted a mixed picture of the U.S. economy.
Market Commentary | September 29th, 2025
The week began with key sentiment data from the S&P Global Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers’ Indices (PMIs). Both readings came in slightly below market expectations and last month’s figures, suggesting some softening in forward-looking sentiment. However, with Manufacturing at 52.0 and Services at 53.9, both remain above the 50 threshold, signaling continued expansion in economic activity rather than contraction.
Market Commentary | September 22nd, 2025
FOMC Decision and Inflation Outlook, Retail Sales and Industrial Production, Housing Market Weakness, and more.
Market Commentary | September 15th, 2025
Economic data released this past week suggests a mixed but slightly cooling inflationary environment.
Personal Finance Today Newsletter – Q2 2024
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Year-End 2021 Tax Tips
Approximately 157 million Americans are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance. From 2010 to 2020, premiums increased much faster than the rate of general inflation, although the increase has slowed somewhat in recent years. Employers absorbed the largest share of the premium increases, and the percentage paid by workers dropped over the period. However, workers are paying additional costs in the form of higher deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.
The Budget and the Debt Ceiling: Round 2
On September 30, 2021, Congress averted a potential federal government shutdown by passing a last-minute bill to fund government operations through December 3, 2021.1 Two weeks later, another measure raised the debt ceiling by just enough to sustain federal borrowing...
Too Hot to Handle: What’s Ahead for the U.S. Housing Market?
The U.S. housing market, already strong before the pandemic, has heated up to record levels in 2021. The Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which measures home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas, reported a 12-month increase of 18.6% in June 2021, the...
Personal Finance Newsletter Oct 2021
Different Inflation Measures, Different Purposes
Key Retirement and Tax Numbers for 2021 See disclaimer on final page
The inflation measure most often mentioned in the media is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers
(CPI-U), which tracks the average change in prices paid by consumers over time for a fixed basket of goods and
services. In setting economic policy, however, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee focuses on a
different measure of inflation —
Rising Inflation: Where Will It Go from Here?
In March 2021, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.6%, the largest one-month increase since August 2012. Over the previous 12 months, the increase was 2.6%, the highest year-over-year inflation rate since August 2018. (By contrast,...
GameStop, Reddit, and Market Mania: What You Need to Know
Over the course of 11 trading days from January 13 to January 28, 2021, the stock of GameStop, a struggling brick-and-mortar video game retailer, skyrocketed by more than 2,200% — creating a mix of excitement and concern throughout the financial world, as well as...