Recently, several readers have written in with questions about House Bill 2847—specifically, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) section, which takes effect in July.
May 15, 2014
Recently, several readers have written in with questions about House Bill 2847—specifically, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) section, which takes effect in July.
May 14, 2014
There are no blockbuster news stories today, but several items play into the theme of how “old normal” things have become.
May 12, 2014
As I write this Monday morning, stocks are up quite a bit on the day, with the S&P 500 pushing even closer to a new all-time high. The headline on Google Finance reads “U.S. Stocks Advance Amid Deals on Optimism Over Economy,” and all seems right with the world.
The markets seem to be rallying as the Russians dial down the Ukraine confrontation. After a couple of dips, it looks like we’re edging back into a risk-on mode, with Putin apparently deciding that he has what he needs and it’s time to back off.
We’ve seen a lot of the usual hand-wringing about U.S. markets over the past several months—Flash Boys and high-frequency trading, breakdowns in the Nasdaq, various insider trading scandals. It hasn’t been a great time to be in the financial market press-relations departments.
Last week, Ken Carl wrote in with a question: “Am I the only one who is pretty amazed at the effect that the weather had on our economy? I admit that we had a hard winter, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the same thing to happen again. Would our economy be hit once again if it did?”
May 5, 2014
This will be a short post, as I arrived home at 7:30 this morning after flying and laying over for the past 18 hours or so, so I am a little tired. That said, it was all worthwhile when Jackson came running out of the house to hug me as I pulled up in a cab, then tried to drag my bag—which weighed more than he does—into the house. We did it together—teamwork!
More evidence for the “snowdown” thesis is in. The unexpectedly strong April employment report, with a gain of 288,000 jobs, surprised pretty much everyone, and shows that hiring has come back in a big way after the weak first quarter. Even more encouraging are the upward revisions to first-quarter job growth, with 36,000 more jobs created than were initially reported.
