U.S. benchmark indexes ended last week at all - time highs, with the Dow topping 17,000 for the first time, as the latest government payrolls report showed job growth blew past expectations last month and the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level
since before the financial crisis peaked six years ago.
Public companies are borrowing heavily to buy back their own shares at the fastest
pace since before the financial crisis, boosting share prices instead of investing in new factories or products, which may also explain why growth is slowing.
No matter what happens the rest of the year regarding monetary policy, we have already witnessed something this year that had not
happened since before the financial crisis: increases in the Fed Funds rate in consecutive quarters.
The Wells Fargo Investment Institute recently suggested that earnings growth may have peaked in the first quarter, while Morgan Stanley calculated that expectations for stock returns were at their lowest
level since before the financial crisis.
The annual bonus for the average Wall Street worker is back to heights not seen
since before the financial crisis, though the industry has shrunk in size since then.
Personal consumption rose 4.2 % in the second quarter of the year, the best reading since the fourth quarter of 2014 and near the best level we've seen
since before the financial crisis.
Industrial morale increased to 111 points - the highest figure seen
since before the financial crisis.
The Fed is then faced with a difficult task: How to balance persistently low inflation with potentially frothy financial conditions, which are the easiest they've been
since before the financial crisis.
In a new report, the body says that the current state of trade is the strongest it has been
since before the financial crisis, but it could falter if trade tensions escalate further.
American workers are more confident in their ability to retire comfortably than they have been
since before the financial crisis — not because they're better at planning, but because stock market returns and property values have climbed.
The annual bonus for the average Wall Street worker is back to heights not seen
since before the financial crisis, though the industry has shrunk in size since then.