Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.

Soft Landing or Hard Crash.

A clip from the 1990 movie Home Alone

where the lead character purchases groceries, household goods, and

toys recently went viral because he paid a total of $19.83, whereas today the same purchase would cost over three times as much.

Ironically, while this evidence of the Federal Reserve's failure to maintain the dollar's value

was going viral, stocks rose because investors believe the Fed has successfully engineered a soft landing by bringing down price

inflation without causing a recession and would soon begin reducing interest rates.

Then stocks fell at the beginning of the year

when the release of the notes of the Federal Reserve

Board's last meeting suggested the Fed would not hurry rate cuts. The likelihood of a

delay in cutting rates was further increased by a positive December jobs

report. December jobs report.

The jobs report did show unemployment remaining low and wages slightly increasing,

but the news was not all positive.

One of the report's most troubling items

is that a top source of increased wages

is government.

An increase in the salaries of government employees,

employees also increases government debt,

which will have to be paid for by taxes.

Since tax increases are unpopular,

...