Weekly Commentary

I’m from the Government and I’m here to help. Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company   We heard that message loud and clear last week. Bernanke gave a speech to reiterate the FED still has plenty of tools at their disposal and Obama gave a speech to a joint session of Congress discussing his […]

Risk vs. Return in Low Growth Economy Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company There is plenty of economic data to look at every week, but between Ben Bernanke’s speech in Jackson Hole and the September FOMC meeting there are three major economic data points: August employment (9-2-11) Retail sales (9-14-11) CPI (9-15-11) Last week […]

Uncle Ben is Not Afraid Why Should We Be? Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company Last week everyone was focused on Ben Bernanke’s speech in Jackson Hole, where last year he outlined QE2. As we expected earlier this summer, he didn’t announce or outline “QE3.” He did however make some very key statements: Ben […]

Cold Hard Facts Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company Last month I mentioned we might “face some pretty gut wrenching days ahead with tremendous market volatility.” That might have been an understatement with everything that has happened. Dysfunction in DC Weak economic data European bank problems Downward revision on economic forecasts The real question […]

“After a wild week on Wall Street the world is different” Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company This was the cover of Time Magazine just after the crash of 1987. I remember being very new in the business and thinking, “Had the world fallen apart?” At the time, I also thought a “crash” was […]

More Questions Than Answers Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company As I discussed in our blog post last week about Deficits, Defaults, and Downgrades, we believed a downgrade was inevitable, but thought it would come to fruition much further down the road. At this point, there are plenty more questions than answers, but here […]

There is Only One Way Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company   As we expected, it looks like the political class will get something done. As anticipated, The Debt Limit Deal also looks like it’s heavily back loaded (much ado about nothing). In fact, all the real cuts to spending will likely come under […]

Deficits, Defaults, and Downgrades Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company There are so many interesting things going on right now in the world, but if I wrote on anything other than the debt debate it would be like talking about baseball during football season. I still stand by my forecast that we will have […]

Much Ado About Nothing – A Shakespearian Comedy That Exists today Weekly Market Commentary 7-18-11 Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company We’re into the weeds on the debt ceiling debate there’s no doubt about it. Like the Shakespearian couples in his classic comedy, there is a lot of talk yet no real outcome. I […]

Setting Up for Something Big Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips and Company Last Friday, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the June Employment Report. The numbers were dismal, and well below consensus. Only 18,000 total nonfarm payroll jobs added (consensus was 80,000) Revised down April and May payrolls numbers The unemployment rate increased from […]