Executive Summary In this market update, I take a look at the macro real estate market – recognizing that real estate is local.  The Atlanta Fed GDPNow forecast estimates second quarter annualized GDP will fall 45.5%.  And as shown in the second graph below, existing home sales [...]

Executive Summary Subsequent to the 2008 Financial Crisis, the Federal Reserve Bank dropped interest rates to near zero percent and created money in attempts to stimulate the economy.  Instead of being used for business investment and expansion, the printed money created asset bubbles everywhere.  Recessions are a [...]

Executive Summary Last Friday the stock market soared upon the release of a “stunning” May jobs report.  The “gain” of roughly 2.5 million jobs versus the estimated 7.5 million job losses resulted in an unemployment rate of “only” 13.3%.  However, the report included a mistake!  The Bureau [...]

Executive Summary Presently, investors are rightfully confused by the diametrically opposed forces influencing markets.  Many have asked: Why are the markets not dropping?  There are two competing forces: economic reality versus Federal Reserve Bank efforts to save the day through more debt and money creation.  With the [...]

Executive Summary Prior to becoming the Director of the U.S. National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow hosted a financial program on CNBC where he frequently touted, “Profits are the mother’s milk of stocks.” The recent rally in stock prices pushed stock valuations to extremes last seen in February [...]

Executive Summary Many people are asking why the market is not dropping.  After all, the economy has been shut down for almost two months!  According to CNBC on Monday, the reason of the day for the market surge was news from Moderna of positive results of a [...]

Executive Summary The Federal Reserve Bank controls the very short-term Federal Funds Rate; however, longer-term interest rates tend to track economic growth.  In the second graph in The Details, one can visually see the correlation between economic growth and the yield on the 10-year Treasury Note.  And [...]

Executive Summary Recent speculation on the shape of the economic recovery has been described as a “V”, a “U” or even an “L”.  Since the drop in the stock market in March was drastic and fast, and followed by a strong bear market rally, economic speculation is [...]

Executive Summary Many investors are probably thinking the recent stock market correction brought stock valuations more in-line with their long-term average. Stock valuations are typically measured using some derivation of the price-to-earnings ratio. The trailing twelve-month price-to-earnings ratio was 24 in February. However, due to the COVID-19 [...]

Executive Summary In November 2008 the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) initiated QE1 (The first Quantitative Easing program), the purchase of Treasury Securities with “created” money. They also began moving short-term interest rates zero-bound in an attempt to rescue the struggling economy. After successive QE programs, the result [...]