The Higher Standard

Haroon starts off the show extra sassy by giving Chris a taste of his own medicine.  Chris quickly jumps in to a CNBC article about how 1 in 4 U.S. homebuyers want to move to a different city.  The boys break down why Zillow tends to be bullish and their data should be looked at with caution.  U.S bank lending is declining for the second straight week and Chris goes off on “tipflati...

Finishing off their double header, the boys are back-to-back again and are ferociously diving in to the Austin office market, the luxury home market's new reality and some new changes in Dallas. Apparently Dallas' City Council has banned short-term rentals from "single-family areas." Oh, and Saied also thinks that this is a financial literary podcast where we discuss books about finance. Confused?...

Welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world! It’s The Higher Standard. Saied, Chris and Haroon come out swinging in Episode 163 and they are no pulling in punches in their thoughts on The Fed’s latest 25bps interest rate increase. Join us as the boys go deep, real deep, in to the US economy, GDP and give you a historical look at the Fed Funds Rate with a 62 Year Historic...

In Episode 162 of The Higher Standard Podcast, Chris, Saied and Haroon discuss why they believe a majority of US Economists are wrong about their predictions on whether or not the US will be entering a recession. They explain how analysts track and predict earnings for US publicly traded companies and how A.I. has impacted this space. They dive in to earnings from American Express and how it showc...

Chris and Saied welcome back Haroon after being gone for a few episodes. The Huffington Post blasts "influencer" Grant Cardone in a sensational new article which speaks to many of the criticisms shared by Chris, Haroon and Saied on previous shows. Naturally, they get in to it and tell you how they really feel while providing insight in to why most of his purported investors don't understand what t...

According to Federal Reserve data, the median sales price of homes sold peaked in the final quarter of 2022, reaching $479,000 before rising mortgage rates brought them back down. But April's S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller report, which tracks national home-price changes, came in above expectations at 0.53% from the previous month. On the surface, the data suggests prices are on the rise again. Bu...

Goldman Sachs has embraced a new plan to avoid a third straight quarter of disappointing investors on earnings day. Breaking with its own long-standing convention, Goldman executives have been actively downplaying expectations for results that will be disclosed next week. The outcome: Analysts have slashed their estimates for quarterly profit by almost half since mid-June — the biggest revision be...

There is good news on inflation in store for Americans. The Labor Department is expected to report that overall inflation fell to about 3% in June, the lowest in two years. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core consumer price inflation is expected to drop to around 5%, an 18-month low, from 5.3%. Economists think core inflation could ebb further in coming months, to between 3.5% and 4%,...

The Commerce Department is reporting that the US economy expanded at a much faster pace in the first three months of the year than previously estimated. Consumer spending accounts for about 70% of America’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy, so it’s nearly impossible to enter a recession when spending is growing. Over the pandemic, historic levels of stimulus cash boosted...

Millions of Americans will have to prepare to repay the entire balance of their student debt now that the Supreme Court has overturned President Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan. After a three-year pause in payments and months of uncertainty and legal challenges, the program won’t be allowed to move forward. The Biden administration’s forgiveness plan would have wiped out up to $20,000 in federal stu...

The U.S. economy showed much stronger-than-expected growth in the first quarter than previously thought, according to a big upward revision Thursday from the Commerce Department. GDP increased at a 2% annualized pace for the January-through-March period, up from the previous estimate of 1.3% and ahead of the 1.4% Dow Jones consensus forecast. This was the third and final estimate for Q1 GDP. The g...

In New York and London, owners of office towers are walking away from their debt rather than pouring good money after bad. The landlords of downtown San Francisco’s largest mall have abandoned it. A new Hong Kong skyscraper is only a quarter leased. The rot inside commercial real estate is like a dark seam running through the global economy. Even as stock markets rally and investors are hopeful th...

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has affirmed that more interest rate increases are likely ahead until additional progress is made on bringing down inflation. Speaking a week after FOMC officials decided for the first time in more than a year not to push rates higher, the central bank leader indicated that the move likely was just a brief respite rather than an indication that the Fed is done hiking. In...

US Federal Reserve officials struck a hawkish tone in their first comments since the central bank held the policy interest rate steady at its meeting this week but signaled that rate hikes will likely resume. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that changes in US credit conditions since the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in early March were 'in line' with financial tightening that was...

The stock market is growing more optimistic about US regional banks, but the lenders still face serious pressure. A credit "contraction is invariably coming," Soros Fund Management Chief Executive Officer Dawn Fitzpatrick has said, adding that additional banks will fail because "there are more problems under the surface." One further source of trouble for the industry will be commercial real estat...

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to maintain its benchmark lending rate at the 5%-5.25% range, marking the first skip after 10 consecutive increases going back to March of last year. While officials’ efforts have helped to reduce price pressures in the US economy, inflation remains well above their goal. Investors’ focus will be on the Fed’s quarterly dot plot in its Summary of...

According to Michael Gapen, Bank of America's chief economist, the US economy will likely face a mild recession later this year, but the risk of a severe economic downturn appears low as of now. A correction of labor-market imbalances is needed to bring inflation back down to the Federal Reserve's 2% target, and that typically looks like a mild recession. With risks receding, stress in the banking...

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 13 charges against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, alleging both commingled billions of dollars worth of user funds and sent them to a European company controlled by Zhao. The U.S. regulator alleged on Monday that Zhao and his exchange worked to subvert ‘their own controls’ to allow high-net-worth U.S. inve...

Goldman Sachs is preparing for its third round of layoffs since September as Wall Street firms adjust to a slump in deals activity. The company is expected to trim fewer than 250 jobs in the coming weeks. Goldman Sachs, led by CEO David Solomon, was among the first major Wall Street firms to trim jobs in September, cutting a few hundred positions. It then slashed more jobs in January, releasing ab...

U.S. consumer spending increased more than expected in April, boosting the economy's growth prospects for the second quarter, and inflation picked up, which could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again next month. The growth picture was further brightened by other data from the Commerce Department on Friday showing a surprise rebound last month in orders of manufactured non-defen...

Deposit runs have led to the collapse of three U.S. banks this year, but another concern is building on the horizon. According to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, commercial real estate is the area most likely to cause problems for lenders. U.S. banks have experienced historically low loan defaults over the last few years due to low interest rates and the flood of stimulus money unleashed during th...

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester has said that she does not think the U.S. central bank is at a point yet where it can hold interest rates steady for a period of time, given how stubborn inflation is. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has signaled the central bank may pause further rate hikes as it assesses the impact of its past tightening, as well as the effect of rec...

According to a report from the Commerce Department, retail sales increased but fell short of expectations. The advanced sales report showed an increase of 0.4%, below the Dow Jones estimate for 0.8%. Excluding auto-related figures, sales increased 0.4%, which was in line with expectations. As the numbers are not adjusted for inflation, the headline increase equaled the 0.4% monthly rise in the con...

Total consumer debt hit a fresh new high in the first quarter of 2023, pushing past $17 trillion even amid a sharp pullback in home borrowing. According to a report from the New York Federal Reserve, the total for borrowing across all categories hit $17.05 trillion, an increase of nearly $150 billion, or 0.9% during the January-to-March period. That took total indebtedness up about $2.9 trillion f...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits have jumped to a 1-1/2-year high, pointing to cracks in the labor market as demand slows, potentially giving the Federal Reserve room to halt further interest rate increases next month. With demand cooling, inflation pressures are subsiding. Data from the Labor Department indicates that producer prices rebounded modestly in April,...