I’m taking some time off to recover and get my legs back under me. Until then, I’m working with my staff to select the topics and write the economic news you have come to enjoy in my Forecasts & Trends E-Letter. Every week they have been instrumental in helping me choose topics and think through the analysis I write.
As always, I like to keep my readers informed on important federal policy decisions that will directly affect them. In the first several months of his presidency, Joe Biden signed an executive order encouraging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reinstate net neutrality rules repealed during the Trump administration in 2017.
On October 19, the Democrat-controlled FCC voted to advance a proposal to again impose net neutrality rules and assume new regulatory oversight of broadband Internet. Since most of our lives increasingly revolve around the Internet, this move potentially affects our free and open use of broadband networks.
So this week I depart from our usual investment themes and tell you what I believe is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give your children, grandchildren or others who are dear to you (or maybe even yourself).
The Consumer Price Index which soared to near 10% in 2022 has since receded to 3.7% for the 12 months ended August. That’s a major drop, of course, but the CPI still remains well above the Fed’s stated target of 2%.
The question remains whether the Federal Reserve should continue to hike its short-term lending rate from 5.25-5.50% where it currently stands, or if the Fed should remain on “pause” at its next two policy meetings on November 1 and December 13?
Crime rates in the US have risen sharply in recent years. After falling consistently during the 1980s, 90s, 00s and 10s, the crime rate shot up in 2020 along with the onset of the Covid pandemic outbreak.
Researchers are not sure of the full cause of the increase in the crime rate, but most believe much of the reason goes back to the pandemic arrival in 2020 which unnecessarily lead to widespread school closures and business lockdowns. This put millions of teenagers and young people out of school and work with nothing productive to do.
In 2020, violent crimes surged in American cities, according to a 37-city study by the Council On Criminal Justice. This troubling trend continued in the pandemic's second year: murder, rape, and assault reports rose again in 2021.
The good news is, levels of nearly all offenses are lower, or have changed little, in the first six months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022. The most notable exception is the large increase in motor vehicle theft.