What is 1,116 pages long and will impact our lives for a very long time? One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1 in the 119th Congress is that long – that’s 1,023 feet. Taller than the Eifel Tower at 984 feet, just a bit shorter than the USS Enterprise at 1,092 feet and even longer than the Titanic […]
Tag: FINANCING
America’s FICO Score…
…just went down – again. Yup, it’s unanimous that S&P, Fitch and now Moody’s have downgraded US debt. The effect is no different than your FICO score – your cost of borrowing goes up and you have fewer lenders willing to finance your house or car and give you a credit card and the same will happen […]
As full of spirit as the month of May
Yup, May is definitely shaping up to be full of spirit – whether it’s spirit as in a spirited set of circumstances for us all to do business or spirits as in the ghosts of economies past that may come to haunt us. Heck, maybe it’s the spirits we might need to quaff to get […]
April Showers Bring…
…something new every day. Golly, it’s only mid-month with the 10 Year T moving from 4.01% to a 4.48% in two weeks – yup, a movement of nearly 12%. Then $3,263 for an ounce of gold that cost $43.05 in 1971 when President Nixon uncoupled from the gold standard…and if you invested $10,000 in gold in 1971 […]
How About Some Reading… A Roadmap for the Future
I am an economist by education and that means I can point lots of directions simultaneously. Candidly, they call it “the dismal science” for a simple reason: The term “the dismal science” is based on the pessimistic predictions of Thomas Malthus, (granted 1834 is a long time ago), who believed that population growth would always outpace food […]
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
Welcome to 2025 and we hope you and your community are off to a great start. Change is good – it keeps us sharp and on our toes and new ideas can often lead to new successes at home and the office and we hope that’s true for you! My regular readers, for whom I am […]
It’s A New Day
It’s -6°F as I write this on January 20th in Denver with about 2” of new snow on my driveway. Those of us who have lived in Denver all our lives call this “Stock Show Weather” – that frigid time during our National Western Stock Show and yes, it’s cold! And yes, it’s a new year and a […]
It’s always interest rates…the cost of money!
The cost of money drives everything. It ultimately determines the price of your home mortgage and that complex inverted lease funding your next solar project. It can accelerate growth and employment on to the Rocketship Inflation or crush them into dust. These are unassailable facts. What is not so clear is where those rates are going under President Trump’s […]
What to do when you really need your project approved!
Getting your next project approved is a bit like dating: You need to present yourself positively and professionally at the first night out ‘cuz you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. Candidly, this rule of thumb applies to the full range of project applications we see from the $30 Million transaction we’re […]
Forecasting the Economy v. Ski Season
I live in Colorado and ski season accounts for $4.8 billion of our state’s annual economy. It supports more than 46,000 year-round jobs and generates $1.9 billion in labor income so it’s darned important to us – including my aging knees that have been skiing since I was a kid. So, when I get it in […]