Articles & Commentary
Please choose any of the following articles below that interest you. Each article is listed under the month it was written. Articles written in prior months may still have educational interest.
Where Has The Flu Gone This Season
With the focus on COVID-19 and the daily updates surrounding the case count for the coronavirus, many have forgotten about [...]
Labor Market Overveiw
Data from the U.S. Department of Labor covering 38 years show that the average annual percentage of workers earning minimum [...]
Fed Continues To Stabilize Interest Rates By Buying Bonds – Fixed Income Overview
The Federal Reserve signaled that it would continue its ambitious program of buying $120 billion of treasury and mortgage bonds [...]
How Stimulus Payments Are Treated For Tax Purposes
With over 160 million stimulus payments sent with the first round of pandemic relief efforts, many in receipt of the [...]
Macro Economic Overview
Stimulus payments from the second pandemic relief package were received in January and February, stirring economic activity and increasing personal [...]
Market Indexes March 2021
MARCH 2021 (all values as of 02.26.2021) Stock Indices: Dow Jones 30,932 S&P 500 3,811 Nasdaq 13,192 Bond Sector Yields: [...]
COLA Not Keeping Up With Medicare Premium Increases
Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, seniors were foregoing retirement until later as well as taking part-time jobs [...]
Which Workers Are Calling In Sick
A growing number of U.S. workers are calling in sick to work as the fear of COVID infections has escalated [...]
How The Fed Makes Money For The Government – Government Structure
The Federal Reserve acts as a separate and individual entity from the U.S. government. It has the ability to create [...]
How Lending Standards Affect Consumers – Finance & Lending Overview
Even before the pandemic materialized, banks and finance companies were already starting to tighten lending standards. The low rate environment [...]
IRS Sets Later Date To Accept Returns – Tax Planning
The IRS announced that it will not start accepting individual tax returns for tax year 2020 until February 12. A [...]
What People Are Doing With Their Stimulus Payments – Consumer Behavior
Surveys done each week by the U.S. Census Bureau are detailing what Americans are doing with their stimulus payments. Data [...]