Economics

As the economy continues its recovery from the pandemic-induced recession of 2020, one of the consequences is that inflation, which had been rather tame since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008—hovering in or near the Federal Reserve’s “Goldilocks zone” of 2%—has rekindled.

Arguably the wildest consequence of the recent pandemic is the remarkable price boom in the US housing market—which, some might remember, went spectacularly bust in the 2008-09 Great Recession collapse.

In our most recent newsletter, we discussed the recent uptick in inflation, as measured in the US economy by the Consumer Price

As we enter the fourth quarter of 2021, attention is being focused on the rate of growth in the US economy and analysts are submitting and revising their estimates about where we will end up in terms of the annual rate of growth in the US gross domestic product (GDP).

It seems likely that many of us sometimes wonder what we get in return for our tax dollars.

As everyone knows, the pandemic lockdown in spring 2020 shuttered economies around the world, sending markets into a tailspin and creating widespread anxiety as people began to fall ill from the disease and health agencies scrambled to find answers.

We are accustomed to regular reports on the rate of inflation from the US Department of Labor. Inflation, measured by the amount of increase in the cost of commonly purchased goods and services as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has been running at a relatively low level for a number of years now.

Anyone who follows financial news at all is likely to hear references to actions taken by the Federal Reserve Board (usually shortened to “the Fed”). Most often, we hear that the Fed has acted to raise or lower interest rates, but many may not be entirely clear how this actually applies to them.