Data for Sale: Tips to Help Protect Your Private Information

Data for Sale: Tips to Help Protect Your Private Information On December 3, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed settlement in legal action against a data broker named Mobilewalla, which was accused of using location data obtained through online advertising auctions to identify consumers by factors such as private home address and […]
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Taking Stock

Taking Stock As we embark on the last year of the first quarter of the 21st century, it seems appropriate to take stock of the situation. Looking backward, if you were long mega cap tech stocks, gold or Bitcoin, there was plenty to smile about in 2024, but otherwise, it was a less than stellar […]
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Jaws

Jaws Just When You Thought it was Safe to go in the Water… Last week we wrote about how inflation was starting to perk up again. This week, the Fed cut the Fed Funds rate another 0.25%, but at the press conference on Wednesday, Chair Powell noted that progress on inflation had stalled and “From […]
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Has the Inflation Demon Been Slayed?

Has the Inflation Demon Been Slayed? The Federal Reserve would sure like us to think so, but evidence is beginning to build that it might be harder to achieve and maintain 2% inflation than the Fed would like. The late, great economist, Milton Freidman, said many times that only government creates inflation (link) and the […]
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The Verdict

The Verdict Last week we mentioned the Wall Street adage ‘buy the rumor, sell the news’ and wondered how markets would react to the first rate cut. The answer still isn’t clear. On Wednesday, the market swung wildly right after the 50 bps rate cut was announced. That is typical right after a Fed announcement, […]
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Going Down

Going Down Next week is the big Fed rate cut decision, so this was the last week of data to influence that decision. In our view, the data this week was not bad enough to call for a 50 basis point cut (bps are basis points and a basis point is 1/100 of a percent) […]
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Not So Fast!

Not So Fast! The rate cut train was building momentum when a strong 2Q GDP report hit and stopped that train in its tracks. The stock market was already on edge as the early earnings reports, including the tech sector, have either not been up to par, or simply failed to impress. The earnings bar […]
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