Market Watch

4th Quarter 2016 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. After making the recent decision to keep interest rates down, Chairwoman Yellen cited an improving labor market specifically noting that labor force participation was improving off multi-decade lows. Her interpretation is that improving wages are drawing more Americans into

3rd Quarter 2016 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. When one focuses all their time on developing products and delivering them to customers, it can be tempting to take government policy as an unchangeable impediment or enhancement to business.  But, governments are competing for talent, investments and risk

2nd Quarter 2016 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. Some of you may remember our 4th Quarter 2015 Hotline Market Watch article that discussed the new International Energy Conservation Code that is being mandated by EPA, and now the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is at work once again

1st Quarter 2016 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. Despite much ink being spilled about the Fed’s “liftoff” last month, the increase seems to be accompanied by little disruption in the financial markets. The market operation went smoothly in a single afternoon, and short-term rates have adjusted to their first increase in nearly

4th Quarter 2015 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. In the midst of an energy revolution and where the cost of BTUs are dropping like a rock, the international committee for tree huggers has endorsed a code known as the International Energy Conservation Code. A copy of the

3rd Quarter 2015 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. Financial literature has become rife with rampant speculation as to when Federal Reserve “lift-off” will occur. “Lift-off” is now popular colloquial reference to the first increase in the Fed Funds rate. Each morsel of economic data or newsworthy event

2nd Quarter 2015 Hotline Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. While the Federal Reserve’s current forecast suggests rates will rise later this year, let’s take a moment to reflect on what we have lived through recently on interest rates to put things in perspective. Interest rates in the developed

1st Quarter 2015 Market Watch by Joe A. Hollingsworth, Jr. So, the government just announced that unemployment is at 5.6%.  You have to ask yourself is that even relevant anymore?  How many people do each of us know that have given up looking for work or have figured out a

4th Quarter 2014 Hotline Market Watch Our last few articles have talked about the present and future “demand” side for industrial facilities in America such as the advantage that America is beginning to show in labor, productivity, and the onshoring of jobs as well as the resurgence of manufacturing in

3rd Quarter 2014 Hotline Market Watch Certainly much ink has been spilled writing about the end of the American labor market’s advantages over the rest of the world.  The pundits claimed, as they so frequently do, that this time it would be different for the American labor market.  Long-term joblessness