It Was the Week Before Christmas…

With all due respect to Clement C. Moore, and in place of my weekly economic update…

 ‘Twas The Week Before Christmas

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land,

Many business owners were looking for a hand.

With unemployment at 3.7 and boomers retiring,

Help wanted signs were posted but Gen Z’ers weren’t applying.

At the beginning of ’22, owners were smiling;

Year-end numbers were good and covid was declining.

Balance sheets had cash and interest rates were low,

Prime was at 3.25 but inflation had started to grow.

When out in Wall Street, there arose such a clatter,

My phone would not stop pinging; oh, what was the matter?

Away to the desktop I flew like a flash,

But clicked on a pop-up (giving Google some cash).

While the Fed seemed calm, the headlines were mixed,

Jerome Powell blithely said “this all can be fixed”.

“It’s supply chain issues, just grab yourself a beer,

I’ve said it before, ‘Nothing to see here’.”

Alas for the Fed, Putin disrupted the game,

Offering no sane reason, he invaded Ukraine.

Then things went to hell!! The prices, who to blame?

Consumers whistled and shouted and called them by name:

Now gasoline, now bread; now eggs and airfare,

And autos and rents, didn’t anyone care?!

Up high went inflation, and the stock market down,

And whoever owned crypto had a big frown.

Like dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So too the prices that rise very quick,

When government cash gets handed out thick.

But then in a twinkling, other issues arose,

But this time in China and it compounded woes.

The lockdowns by Xi were caused by covid tests,

Led to many white papers and widespread protests.

Factories were closed, the Chinese feeling the pain,

And Apple was told to stay in its lane.

Back in the States, rates were starting to rise,

But by this time, it was not a surprise.

Elon bought Twitter, what was he thinking?

Many folks thought surely he must have been drinking.

In June, inflation was reported at 9.8,

And then started down, creating debate.

Should Powell boost rates, making them much higher?

The economy was hot, but was it that dire?

They want a soft landing without any question,

In order to avoid a full-blown recession.

All of a sudden there was an explosion,

The sound that was heard was a crypto implosion.

Sam Bankman Fried, a name quite ironic,

Since the bankers he fried now looked quite moronic.

Eight billion was lost, (LOST!), creating some drama,

All while he resided in sunny Bahama.

At the end of the year, things tend to get slow,

And everyone shops, happily spending their dough.

The PPI, the CPI, the jobs and reports,

Take back seat to cheer, and wonder, and sports.

And I say to you now, as I wrap up this write,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. 

****** 

Like many people, Christmas is my favorite time of year.  We stop to wish people happy holidays and offer gifts to signal our love and appreciation for them.  A good  portion of the business workforce has a week or two off to spend with family and friends, and office workers often participate in secret Santa exchanges.  I am always introspective at Christmas time; I think it’s an opportunity to look back and see what went right and continue that, and also look for the opportunities to improve with a vow to redouble my efforts, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.  The wonderful thing about a new year is that it provides a clean slate upon which you can build and measure your degree of success 12 months later.   

To all my readers, I thank you for following my emails and offering comments to keep me on track, as well as to provide a different perspective.  The Russell Report will take a Christmas break and resume January 9, 2023. 

I truly wish you a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful holiday season and a new year that exceeds all of your expectations.