My fellow Americans, welcome. It's Eric Erickson here. The phone number is 8779773-7-425.

If you want to be on the program, happy to have you be on the show.

But before I get to any calls, I want to talk about the economic news that's out there right now.

Let me read you a couple of

blurbs. This from Axios. The stock market jumped as the Federal Reserve hinted that significant

rate cuts were coming next year. Hopes that rate hikes are finished have fueled this year's

22% rise in the S&P 500. The official statement from the U.S.

Central Bank at 2 p.m. Wednesday and the subsequent remarks by Chair Jerome Powell largely

confirmed the view. The Fed left rates untouched and tweaked its policy statement to suggest

additional rate heights are no longer necessary. In one passage of the statement, the Fed notes the factors the committee will use to

determine the extent of any additional policy firming.

That is a significant change from past language about determining the extent of

additional policy firming.

In other words, the appearance of any suggests further rate hikes, which before were a foregone conclusion, are now a mere possibility.

We added the word any as an acknowledgement that we believe that we are likely at or near the peak rate for this cycle.

Most top Fed officials now foresee cutting rates three or four times in 2024. The median projection is that in December of next year, the Fed's target rate will be 4.6%.

75 basis points lower than now. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note, one of the most widely followed measures of interest rates, plunged below 4% Thursday morning.

Meaning treasuries don't need as high an interest rate to induce people to buy them because stability is coming.

Now, there's another headline. This is from the Wall Street Journal

that the, well, where did it go? Here it is. Sorry, they refreshed and then the screen went blank.

The headline, y'all, what's going on with the Wall Street Journal? Headline, Americans are

spending on the holidays after all.

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