Today, I am headed off the reservation for a look at something unexpected, interesting, and quite mind boggling, but before I do that, I have just a bit of reservation news to throw out for thought.
- Treasuries Fall With U.S. Stocks as Dollar Gains on Fed
The market is down this morning and the reported reason is the above headline. Apparently, the San Francisco arm of the Fed subtly warned the market not to underestimate when the Fed will raise rates. Add to that, a shadowy voice from the investment firm BlackRock whispered the same thing only differently.
- BlackRock Inc. said an improving labor market and signs of inflation argue for the Federal Reserve to boost borrowing costs.
And what, pray tell, are those signs of inflation? We have oil prices dropping, gasoline prices dropping, a record harvest in soy beans and corn, and muted wage growth. Food, energy, and wages ARE inflation and they are not acting inflationary.
The Fed might well be the reason the market is feeling low this morning, but not because they will raise rates too soon; rather, the market does not seem to like the Fed doing its job, or so it is reported.
- Bank stocks led declines among groups in the S&P 500 as the Fed plans tougher capital standards for U.S. lenders.
Not bad … The Fed is still on the job protecting us from another bank induced, greed-driven meltdown. Apparently, the EU is on the job as well. It is protecting its economic interests as it looks to wind down the economic war with Russia.
- European Union governments abruptly put on hold for at least a “few days” new sanctions against Russia, allowing more time to assess the viability of a cease-fire in Ukraine without risking further trade retaliation by the Kremlin.
The above is a good sign that the issues in Ukraine could be coming to a close. And with that, I head off the reservation, sort of …
- From 1970 (seven years after the Equal Pay Act was passed) to 2007, women’s earnings grew by 44 percent, compared with 6 percent for men.
How is that for a fact to consider? It’s easy to understand when women were historically paid much less than men, even for the same work. What about that fact, you know, women are paid less than men for the same work?
- In 2008, women still earned just 77 cents to the male dollar—but that figure doesn’t account for the difference in hours worked, or the fact that women tend to choose lower-paying fields like nursing or education.
The above is an interesting but ambiguous way to view that reality and it seems to make sense, but when one wants to move from ambiguity to clarity, one gets clearer facts.
- A 2010 study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30 found that the women actually earned 8 percent more than the men. Women are also more likely than men to go to college: in 2010, 55 percent of all college graduates ages 25 to 29 were female.
That was just four short years ago, and given what has happened in the US and, to a degree, the global workplace, my guess is the above is much sharper even now.
Another reality is that many of the traditional male jobs in manufacturing and construction disappeared in 2008 and 2009, never to return. We gotz a whole lotta middle-aged men outa work with no hope of getting a job because the new economy wants college grads to fill white-collar jobs and women more than men are getting college degrees, so …
- As of last year, women held 51.4 percent of all managerial and professional positions, up from 26 percent in 1980. Today women outnumber men not only in college but in graduate school; they earned 60 percent of all bachelor’s and master’s degrees awarded in 2010, and men are now more likely than women to hold only a high-school diploma.
All of the statistics above come from Hanna Rosin, author of the book The End of Men. Here is a link to the related article if any of this intrigues you sociologically.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/308135/
Although I did find the above sociologically interesting, I also found it intriguing from a market perspective. If women are now the major breadwinners, how does that change the business landscape? Which ways do businesses go to cater to women, i.e., women spending their hard-earned dollars? Which companies have, in the last four years, caught on to this and what have they done to capture those dollars? What embryonic company is out there designing a new line of office wear that bypasses the pant suit, creating something that is business formal without neglecting the feminine? Will it be become trendy?
I told you I was going out for a bit today, but, really, I am not that far out. It has been a male-dominated world thus far, and Madison Ave has understood this. Now they have a new reality to understand – women are equal to or greater than men in the workplace. What does this mean relative to making money in the market?
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
