Blog

We shouldn’t make rash, quick decisions in the midst of a chaotic and unpredictable situation, mainly because we tend to over react in these times.

The Federal Reserve’s reduction of “monetary easing”, or economic stimulus, is going to be a hot button topic for the financial media throughout much of the first quarter of 2022. As they have come to realize that the inflation genie has gotten out of the bottle, they’re trying to figure out how to put it back in.

I wanted to encourage you to slow down and take a pause this week and truly reflect on what you have to be thankful for. I think that we have a tendency to rush through Thanksgiving on our way into Christmas. And after all we’ve been through with this pandemic, who can blame us?

What’s the difference between 1955, when people voluntarily showed up to get their polio vaccine shot (and importantly their kids shots, as kids were more affected than adults), and 2021 when 40 some odd percent of the population is refusing to get the vaccine, even risking losing their job over it? Lack of trust in the institutions around us! Lack of trust of the government, pharmaceutical companies, and the media.

A month ago, I wrote about the challenges that I saw facing the financial markets this fall and winter. I’ve written more about the political turmoil in Washington and the supply chain issues and the ensuing inflationary pressures. Some more clarity on those has come about it the last week or two that I’ll update you on at the end of this. I mostly want to focus today on the third issue - The Federal Reserve and their efforts to ease the accommodations they have been making since the COVID pandemic first hit.

It’s a very complicated process, with many moving parts, to get raw materials to factories, manufactured, packaged, shipped to warehouses, then to stores, to finally arrive in your shopping cart. Companies have worked very hard to make this process as efficient as possible for many years. I remember learning about just-in-time inventory control in high school and college 30 years ago.