Economic Commentary – June 30, 2025
Fireworks generally start well before Fourth of July in neighborhoods around the country. This curtailed week for market-moving data is no exception. The economic cherry bombs will be in the form of employment data, which could as easily be a bust as a large and startling “Boom”. And there will be plenty of sparklers highlighting […]
Economic Commentary – June 23, 2025
Any business looking for calm seemingly can’t catch a break. The Federal Reserve feels that pain, too. Just as inflation was on the verge of becoming a lesser concern, albeit at the expense of increased worries about economic growth, a war in the Middle East raises the specter of gas and oil price spikes working their way […]
Five Charts for the Week That Was: June 20, 2025
Chief Economist Jeanette Garretty provides 5 economic charts covering topics including the Fed Rate, GDP estimates, home sales, oil prices, and Chinese exports and imports.
FOMC Commentary – June 18, 2025
The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) today confirmed the current monetary policy, keeping the target Fed Funds rate in the 4.25%-4.5% range and continuing to reduce the Fed’s holdings of US Treasuries and agency debt (“the balance sheet.”)
Economic Commentary – June 16, 2025
One of the practical implications of an economy that is growing at 1% versus an economy growing at 2-2.5% is that a more slowly growing economy tips into negative territory far more readily, with attendant implications for employment, earnings, and tax revenues. Thus far in the second quarter of 2025, the data persistently indicates that the US economy is growing at a pace greater […]
Economic Commentary – June 9, 2025
The growing contrast between business sentiment, largely expressed via interviews and industry reports, and “hard” macroeconomic data like employment prompts the immediate thought that “Something’s Gotta Give.” Further amplifying the uneasy tenor of the current moment is the apparent difficulty the Bureau of Labor Statistics is having in getting its monthly survey of nonfarm payrolls […]
Five Charts for the Week That Was: June 6, 2025
Chief Economist Jeanette Garretty provides 5 economic charts covering topics including oil prices, the US Dollar, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Supply Management Purchasing Managers Index, and employment.
Economic Commentary – June 2, 2025
Amidst all the confusion as to which US tariffs are in place, which are in deferment and which have never come into being — not to mention which retaliatory actions by US trading partners are in effect, or threatened—- it is not entirely surprising that inflation has not been the big story that was anticipated. […]
Economic Commentary – May 27, 2025
Congress is on Memorial Day holiday until June 3 (yes, they do get better benefits than most people!), although returning to their districts and (maybe) meeting with constituents may be anything but a holiday for Representatives and Senators this year. Emotions continue to run high over the economic provisions of the House-passed tax and spending bill, […]
Five Charts (and a Bonus) for the Week That Was: May 23, 2025
Chief Economist Jeanette Garretty provides 5 (and a bonus) economic charts covering topics including federal debt, the bond market, long-term treasury yields, household debt, and US labor markets.
Economic Commentary – May 19, 2025
Moody’s lowering of the US sovereign credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa was not entirely surprising; S&P cut its rating of the US as a borrower from its highest rating of AAA to AA+ many years ago, as did Fitch’s in 2023. (Note: there are ratings of instruments and ratings of borrowers, and both can […]
Economic Commentary – May 12, 2025
The economic news starts to get interesting on Tuesday, and will continue from there, kicked off by the Consumer Price Numbers for April. It will be a long wait for perhaps the most substantive information on the impact of tariffs — the second quarter earnings reports, which will start in July— but hard data for the […]