Today’s afternoon headlines include, “Popular 30-year mortgage rate races toward 8% after hitting a high not seen since late 2000“, “Something is breaking in financial markets” “Dow Falls 431 Points as Bond Yields Climb“. We had a pretty nasty end of September, and October is starting us to the downside. The Dow has now given […]
Archives
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Federal Reserve credibility cratering. And where, oh where, are they taking the economy and your bank?
10 May 2023
Gallup polling this week showed that the credibility of the Federal Reserve is down to 36% (those that have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence)–the lowest level since Gallup begin tracking. To be sure, as Gallop notes, this tends to track overall economic performance. And most people are particularly pessimistic about the economy, […]
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Book Review: Money and The Rule of Law
01 May 2023
Recently, I finished my coursework in my graduate program. This means I spent the last two years reading a lot of books and articles. In light of world events over the past few years, one stood out as worth recommending to a broader group of people due to its timely message and solid fundamentals. Money […]
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As we learn more and more about Silicon Valley Bank, the basic problems are not really in doubt, but political posturing makes understanding really difficult. Henry Hazlitt has a nice quote in the 1st paragraph of his Economics in One Lesson that is apropos. Obviously the interest group of the affected bankers and depositors quickly […]
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F.A. Hayek’s famous quote is: The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. While Hayek’s quote is most appropriately placed against government central economic planning of socialism, it applies against any government action that tries to manage the economy by going […]
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Brief Beef With The Fed
12 Dec 2022
For several months, we’ve witnessed the Fed discuss the need to orchestrate a, “soft landing,” for the economy. Attempting to orchestrate an easy descent from this inflationary high; however, I believe the entire goal displays a flawed understanding of economics. Despite that, Mr. Powell still possesses a rational reason to attempt the impossible. To start […]
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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us against our hypocrisy, given the seemingly universal nature of our ability to point out the flaws/sins of others while studiously ignoring our own: 7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will […]
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BATG Economic Update
03 Oct 2022
We haven’t had an update on the economy in a bit, so this post will share some of the data I’m finding interesting, which I believe is telling us where the market is going. Last week the price of the ten year US Treasury Bond fell, leading to a yield of over 4%, a level […]
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The Federal Reserve has to be pleased with the way their tightening cycle has gone, not that they ever wanted to be here. The Fed has engineered meaningful tightening, markets have had nasty reactions in the downward direction, and yet we haven’t had a true financial panic. Further, job opportunities are still relatively plentiful, and […]
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Recession!?
01 Aug 2022
Fellow Berean Matt Beal touched on the 2nd Qtr GDP Growth (negative) last week, and I thought I’d add to the discussion. But because I’m particularly lazy (and the ramp up to the new semester is consuming me), I encourage you to listen to a radio interview I had with Columbus Ohio’s WTVN radio late […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach