Archive for June 2020

Consumer prices fell by 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, the biggest drop in more than a dozen years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Conversely, prices for grocery items jumped 2.6%, the highest one-month increase in 46 years, with eggs rising by 16%.1   What’s going on here? Well, the devil is…

Will we learn to live with less? Some lessons were learned when the U.S. initially closed up shop and told everyone to stay home. For example, we can live without extra-soft, double-ply toilet paper and go a whole weekend without shopping at a store or eating at a restaurant — but we’d rather not.  …

In April alone, the U.S. lost more than 20 million jobs — increasing the unemployment rate to 14.7%. Researchers say one of the demographics hit hardest during the pandemic is women workers. Women tend to hold a disproportionate number of jobs in industries such as hospitality, health care and education. Consequently, the unemployment rate for…

It will be interesting to see how the job market fares over the next few months. While millions of workers have been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of those employers will be reopening and may or may not rehire those let go. Much depends on the direction of the outbreak: If it…

Are the Stock Market and the Economy Out of Sync?   In normal times, the stock market is often a reflection of the economy. But these are not normal times. Even though April was marked by a global shutdown of businesses, rampant unemployment and low economic growth, the S&P 500 Index ended the month up…