Ken Allen's (kenallen) Blog

Last Week in Review IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR...The shopping season is now in full swing. And whether you bought electronics or clothes or toys this weekend...or just stayed home and enjoyed football and leftovers...retailers everywhere enjoyed a long day of consumer spending on Bl...

Last Week in Review "THANKSGIVING DINNERS TAKE EIGHTEEN HOURS TO PREPARE, AND ARE CONSUMED IN TWELVE MINUTES. FOOTBALL HALF-TIMES TAKE TWELVE MINUTES. I DON'T THINK THIS IS A COINCIDENCE." Erma Bombeck And that feeling you'll likely have when you push back from the table after loading up on Thank...

Last Week in Review "FOR MOST FOLKS, NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS...BUT FOR THE MEDIA, GOOD NEWS IS NOT NEWS AT ALL." Gloria Borger Isn't that the truth - and aside from election news, much of this week contained little to no economic news or reports for Traders to chew on. This indeed turned out to be g...

Last Week in Review MAKING MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS...seems to be the specialty of the Department of Labor, as another monthly Jobs Report arrived with massive revisions to prior month's numbers. The headline number of new jobs created in October came in at 92,000 — but the Report also added 97...

IN THIS ISSUE...      This issue of Views You Can Use will probably surprise you, maybe shock you, or even make you angry! Read on to learn how the Credit Bureaus are selling your personal information and profiting from it - all without your consent! Worst yet - its legal - but you can take one s...

Last Week in Review "HOW MANY A MAN HAS THROWN UP HIS HANDS AT A TIME WHEN A LITTLE MORE PATIENCE WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED SUCCESS." Elbert Hubbard So is patience a virtue? The Fed seems to think so, as they decided last week to hold the Fed Funds Rate steady at 5.25%. Now hiking rates helps control i...

Last Week in Review IT'S GOING...IT'S GOING...IT'S GONE! You got it, the Dow cracked another historic high, closing above 12,000 last week...and believe it or not, did so on the anniversary of "Black Monday" in 1987, when the Dow plunged by 508 points and suffered it's second largest loss in hist...

Last Week in Review DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER...And on Friday, the markets learned not to judge all economic reports by their headlines. The Retail Sales Report arrived with a bang - and at first glance appeared to be much weaker than expected, with the headline numbers appearing as if cons...

For the Month of October 2006  IN THIS ISSUE...      It's that time of year again...are you prepared? Right around the corner, here comes the Holiday Shopping Season, hand-in-hand with its less enjoyable counterpart, the Cold and Flu Season. But you can get a nice jump on your shopping and save a...

Last Week in Review  "I MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH!" Don Adams on the TV show "Get Smart"...And just like good old Maxwell Smart always explained his big goofs with this classic phrase - you have to wonder if the Department of Labor was thinking the same last Friday when the Jobs Report hit the wires...