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@theMarket: Bad News from Jackson Hole
By Bill Schmick,
04:11PM / Saturday, August 27, 2022
Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Jerome Powell set investors straight at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole symposium. He said the job of lowering inflation is not done, and that the Fed will continue to raise interest rates in order to slow the economy.   "We must keep at it until the job is done," Powell said, during his speech.   That was enough to send stocks lower after a few days of gains. At the same time, the U.S. dollar fell, as did interest rate yields, which is somewhat counter intuitive given Powell's hawkish statement. The inflation data released on Friday morning showed a little progress on the fight against inflation. The Personal

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The Retired Investor: Consumers Get Price Relief on Beef
By Bill Schmick,
05:00PM / Thursday, August 25, 2022
Many consumers have changed their diets over the last two years consuming more chicken, pork, and fish and less beef. Driving this substitution have been the stratospheric increases in meat prices. The good news is that high-end beef cuts are now dropping in price.     As readers are aware, prices for food have been rising for months. On a personal basis, my custom of grilling outside at least once or twice a week is just not the same. The prices of steak — sirloin, rib eye, New York strip and steak tips — forced me to switch to chicken kabobs, hamburgers, hot dogs and maybe a cut of London broil.   Beginning in August, however, I noticed

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The Retired Investor: The Beloved Baseball Glove
By Bill Schmick,
05:00PM / Thursday, August 18, 2022
Baseball continues to be one of the most popular youth sports in North America. More than 3 million kids in the U.S. play the game and about 10 million children play worldwide. They are not alone. In 2022, approximately 20 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 also play baseball, according to Statista. Every one of them do so with a baseball glove.   Prices have risen substantially since I was a kid. Today, the price of these baseball gloves can range from $20 to $400, depending on the kind of materials involved. Back in the day, most kids in my neighborhood kept their glove next to the bed. A typical summertime day started with pick-up games in the morning,

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@theMarket: Markets Gain Back Half This Year's Losses
By Bill Schmick,
03:28PM / Friday, August 12, 2022
This week's decline in two key inflation indicators gave investors an excuse to buy stocks. At this point, we have retraced 50 percent of the losses from the beginning of the year. The thinking behind this recent move higher is that inflation is coming down, and the Fed no longer needs to maintain its super tight monetary policy stance. Is that a good bet?   That is not the case, according to several talking Fed heads that were trotted out by the U.S. central bank to address the markets on almost a daily basis this week. Even the most dovish of members continued to stress that nothing has changed in their thinking. To a person, each Federal Reserve member stressed that

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The Retired Investor: Can You Put a Value on Your Dog's Life?
By Bill Schmick,
04:47PM / Thursday, August 11, 2022
Your elderly dog has arthritis. His breathing is difficult. He needs assistance to get up, and his bladder is failing. The vet bills are far higher than your own, and it is getting more difficult to pay them. "How much is too much?"   Some say there is a limit, others would be willing to go into enormous debt to prolong the life of their pet. The veterinarian technological and medical innovations of today make preserving your pet's life achievable. Vets offer plenty of ways to prolong life, even in cases of terminal illness.   Specialists abound who can offer chemotherapy, radiation, kidney transplants, drug trials, and much more. Given all these

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