The government shutdown has ended – for now. The agreement to end the shutdown appears to have largely kicked the can down the road to January 30th – when a much longer stoppage may occur, setting up the political arena for the mid-terms. Why longer? Well, the factors that brought this episode to an end were primarily about paying the military, the Veterans Administration and air traffic controllers, and fully funding SNAP payments. A lack of cemetery maintenance ahead of ser

We live in a divided America, both politically and economically, where discussions are of a K-shaped recovery and political affiliation is increasingly barbell-shaped with fewer in the center. Add in a 24/7/365 media environment, where fragmentation due to streaming means everyone is shouting for attention, and cacophony results. For analysts, more and more time is spent trying to discern the signal from the noise. This week presented challenges on several fronts: 1) without

Happy Halloween, or as our Irish ancestors say, the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in – we know the Irish can’t spell any better than the Scots, who write McVane as McVean). The festival marked the end of harvest, and the start of darker days when agricultural workers not only rose, but finished their day without light. Cattle were brought in from summer pasture – which typically meant families were reunited after a summer living apart, as younger men tended cattle in of