💰INTEREST RATES & MONETARY POLICY💰

All Eyes on the FOMC

• A hawkish Fed means that rates have continued to climb.  READ:

  • Fed's Mester sees benchmark rate above 4% and no cuts at least through 2023

• All signs point to another big interest-rate hike if the latest economic reports have anything to say about it. - Bloomberg Evening Briefing

  1. Forget about a soft landing. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is now aiming for something much more painful for the economy to put an end to elevated inflation. The trouble is, even that may not be enough. It’s known to economists by the paradoxical name of a “growth recession.” Unlike a soft landing, it’s a protracted period of meager growth and rising unemployment. But it stops short of an outright contraction of the economy. - Bloomberg Evening Briefing 

• Look at the absolutely BLISTERING short-term rates below…

• First graphic: 3 month to 10 year US Treasuries and brokered CDs

• Second graphic: 4-week T-Bill

💉   COVID-19   💊 

CDC Recommends Updated COVID-19 Booster Shots

• Reformulated booster shots that should better address the Omicron variant(s) should be coming to a local healthcare professional near you in short order.

  • READ: COVID-19 COVERAGE from WaPo

🚨   PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR STATE   🚨 

State Statutes Reign Supreme

• WaPo’s weekly ‘How to Read this Chart’ pays homage to this recent article from The Economist exploring how individual states’ political landscape has changed over time.

• While the article focuses on major policy themes that tend to make national news (abortion, guns, immigration, etc.), consider the incredible variation in statutes applicable to common interest communities.  This variation is part of the chaos homeowners and volunteer leaders are faced with every single day.

  • Increasingly, policies that matter in people’s lives are originating in the states…As states go in different directions on social and economic policy, the consequences will be deeply felt by all Americans, regardless of their place on the political spectrum, with implications around the world. - The Economist

❄   SOLAR PAIN + GEOTHERMAL GRIDS  ❄ 

Florida: Insurers are Dropping Customers with Solar Panels

• This development focuses on single-family homes, but could have implications for a multi-family residential and generally the CIC insurance market that’s already reeling. 

Texas: The Largest Geothermal Grid

• Everything is bigger in Texas, right?  A massive geothermal grid will eventually deliver energy savings to 7,500 homes in a gigantic master planned development

  • Don’t forget to budget for maintenance, repair and replacement!