The most important news came from the Middle East again this week, as it is becoming more and more evident that chemical weapons were used in the civil war in Syria. This was a “red line” President Obama warned the Assad regime not to cross. That statement now forces the hand of the president –...Read More

This week the Dow Average lost 2.2% and bond values continued to fall – but stock market strength and gold both added 4.5% in the trading week. While mixed messages and smoke and mirror economics are continuing themes in “the market,” recent activity actually makes a lot of sense. The chart below shows the most recent twelve months of...Read More

These are the dog days of summer and as usual nothing much has changed this week. And while little has changed today, something big is about to happen that could do what many pundits think the Federal Reserve’s QE program hasn’t. In a Wall Street Journal on-line article entitled: Small Business in IRS Sights, August 9,...Read More

The U.S. economy added just 88,000 jobs in March, proving once again that any talk about recovery is misplaced. Food stamp recipients, on the other hand, rose 1.8% year-over-year amid early released news of President Obama’s new budget that curbs Social Security benefits. Social Security is an entitlement to people who have paid into it for more...Read More

The big news this week was in regards to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), defined as the value of all goods and services traded in markets for a territory. In its most recent report on economic activity, the U.S. made a couple of changes to GDP calculations. First, the U.S. modified the chained period to calculate...Read More