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@theMarket: Economy Grows Less Than Expected
By Bill Schmick,
05:42PM / Friday, July 30, 2021
The good news first. The economy grew by 6.5 percent in the second quarter, which was one of the best quarters in recent memory. The bad news: it was a big miss.   Economists were expecting an 8.4 percent rise, but the markets took it in stride. One explanation is that investors are well aware that the macroeconomic data is, at best, somewhat unreliable and prone to large revisions. It is not the government's fault. The pandemic and subsequent reopening of the economy has made gathering economic data difficult.   Another reason investors gave the miss a pass is that consumer spending, the biggest component of U.S. economic activity, exceeded expectations. A

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The Retired Investor: Olympic Price Tag Breaks Records
By Bill Schmick,
04:39PM / Thursday, July 29, 2021
After the Olympic Games conclude on Aug. 8, Japan will still be tallying the final cost of hosting the games. Indications are that the final price tag could be more than $20 billion.   Was it worth it?   The most recent polling data suggest the answer is a resounding "no," at least as far as the Japanese are concerned. Over 83 percent of the people polled, who live in Japan, believe the Olympics should not have taken place this week. To the Japanese, it is not just the expense of the games, but the holding of this event while the country is in the midst of a resurgence in the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Many fear the games will cause a

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@theMarket: Wild Week for Stocks
By Bill Schmick,
03:14PM / Friday, July 23, 2021
In just one week, the major averages have had a 3 percent swing from lows to highs. These gyrations go hand in hand with the high level of indecision investors are feeling right now. Can you blame them?   Last week, and into the end of the day on Monday, the S&P 500 Index registered a 3 percent decline. In the next few days, all of those losses were recouped and then some. While investors breathed a sigh of relief, I don't think we are out of the woods just yet.   Most strategists blame the decline in stocks on the free fall in yields. The U.S Treasury Ten-Year Bond (the "Tens") fell to 1.13 percent at its lowest point on Monday. At the same

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The Retired Investor: What's That Smell?
By Bill Schmick,
04:30PM / Thursday, July 22, 2021
Imagine opening your laptop or cell phone and catching a whiff of your favorite perfume. Scroll back to last summer's Maine vacation photos and smell the pine forest at your campsite. Digital scent technology can make that happen sooner than you think.   Digital scent technology, also called olfactory technology, is an engineering discipline that enables media, such as video games, movies, music and Web pages, to sense, transmit, and receive scent-enabled content. Simply put, the day when you can smell through the internet is almost upon us.   The market is tiny right now, with less than $20 million in sales, but it is expected to grow substantially by the

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@theMarket: Week of Surprises Keeps Investors Hopping
By Bill Schmick,
04:49PM / Friday, July 09, 2021
There were plenty of reasons why the stock market was a bit jumpy this week. Let's go through them.   Two weeks ago, I wrote that I was worried "that we could suddenly see a spike in new Delta variant cases that impacts economic growth. Remember that less than half of all Americans are fully vaccinated. President Biden, his chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci, and the Fed are all sounding warnings over this risk, yet the markets are ignoring it."   Investors finally caught on this week and began to realize the risk presented by the Delta variant and its impact on the re-opening of the U.S. economy. It is impossible, in my opinion, to maintain the

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