HAPPY NEW
YEAR!
adumbrate
a-DUM-brayt,
AD-uhm-brayt
1. To
foreshadow.
2. To give a rough
outline or to disclose partially.
3. To overshadow
or obscure.
From Latin umbra
(shade, shadow), which also gave us the words umbrella, umbrage, and
somber.
_______________________________________________
TIP OF THE WEEK
The Small Business
Administration has adumbrated the changes for SBA loans for some time
now.
Those changes are
in the SOP 50-10-5(F) which became effective January 1,
2014.
It is now easier
to obtain a SBA loan and more borrowers can
qualify.
_____________________________________
Indices:
PRIME
RATE= 3.25%
SBA LIBOR
Base Rate January 2014 = 3.17%
SBA Fixed
Base Rate January 2014 = 5.59%
________________________________________
SBA
504 Loan Debenture Rate for December
The
debenture rate is only 3.36% but note rate is 3.44% and the effective yield is
5.458%
________________________________________________
AHEAD
OF THE YIELD CURVE
The
Federal Reserve does a good job of adumbrating.
At
its last meeting on monetary policy, the Federal Open Market Committee
strengthened its commitment to keep the fed funds rate low, stating that a rise
in the target rate would not come until the unemployment rate was “well past”
the current threshold of 6.5 percent.
Keep
your eyes and ears open for this week’s Department of Labor report on jobs. It
will be for the month of December and will give us a look at how 2013 ended
up.
Here
is a summary of net payroll employment and this week’s interesting little table
of data:
2004
2,019,000
2005
2,484,000
2006
2,071,000
2007
1,115,000
2008
-3,617,000
2009
-5,052,000
2010
1,022,000
2011
2,103,000
2012
2,193,000
2013
2,074,000
What
does this mean?
I
don’t know.
Through
November 2013, the economy has added an average of 173 thousand jobs per month.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, its jobs calculator estimates that it
will take another year before the unemployment rate hits 6.5 percent assuming
the average monthly change in payroll is 172,777.
The
FOMC’s median end-of-year fed funds rate projection—1.0 percent by 2015 and 2.0
percent by 2016 in September—has moved to 0.75 percent and 1.75 percent,
respectively.
It
would appear that we don’t have to worry about interest rates going up this
year.
__________________________________________
OFF
BASE
For
those of you still in the Christmas spirit, today is your last day.
The
Twelfth Day of Christmas is today, January 6th.
It’s
not the twelve days before Christmas, but the twelve days after Christmas. It
ends on January 6th on what is known as the Epiphany (with a big E)
which celebrates when the three wise men came with gifts for the baby Jesus.
This day was once as celebrated as Christmas.
Based
on the array of gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,”
PNC Bank released its 2013 PNC Christmas Price Index.
The
price tag for the PNC CPI is $27,393.17 in 2013, $1,192 more than last year and
the largest increase since 2010 when the index jumped 9.2 percent. Nine Ladies
Dancing vaulted with a 20 percent jump this year, while Lords-a-Leaping jumped
10 percent, combining for a $1,736 increase from 2012.
All
that dancing and leaping helped prompt a 7.7 percent boost in the 2013 PNC
Christmas Price Index®. This year, the PNC CPI’s increase outpaced the
government’s Consumer Price Index, which stands at 1.2 percent for the past 12
months.
Now
the Christmas lights really have to come down. Don’t despair however; our next
holiday is almost here.
According
to the Federal Reserve, here are our holidays for
2014:
Birthday
of Martin Luther King, Jr. January 20
Washington's
Birthday February 17
Memorial
Day May 26
Independence
Day July 4
Labor Day
September 1
Columbus
Day October 13
Veterans
Day November 11
Thanksgiving
Day November 27
Christmas
Day December 25
